NYE

Today is New Year's Eve. A time for renewal, resolutions and goals for the future. For many, it is also the biggest night of the year to party! For years, I felt the same. My friends and I would spend weeks figuring out where to celebrate, what to wear and how to where to stay. After the planning was complete, outfits were purchased and the big day had arrived...I found that New Year's Eve never quite lived up to its hype. It often ended with drama, boredom or simply a feeling of being let down of the promises of the night it was supposed to be.

After talking with a good friend (and former roommate) today, I decided to list memories of New Year's past. The good, the bad and the ugly:

1) Last year, after viewing some wonderful fireworks on Queen Anne hill, Adam and I opted to play it safe and cab it back to our hotel. However, there were NO cabs to be found. We walked and walked...past a shady night club, shady people and about two miles back to our hotel. This might be a slight exaggeration but being that I was in heel, it might as well of been ten miles.

2) Speaking of cabs, we should have learned this lesson several years ago when there were not cabs available in Belltown either. Lesson learned- it is impossible to hail a cab in Seattle on NYE.

3) Going back a bit farther in time...way back to when I was a 23-year-old student teacher and still living at home. Because there was not enough excitement in Mill Creek at this time (although The Jet may have been a lively option) a huge group of us girls decided to stay in Seattle and hit up a party at this club called "China Harbor." Thinking back on this night still makes me cringe.

I won't go into all of the details, but let's just say it involved me getting a bit intoxicated (pretty sure I missed the toasting at midnight), having my purse and coat stolen from coat check, a fire alarm pulled at the hotel and a HUGE headache the following morning.

4) You think I would have learned from the night at China Harbor, but that was not the case. In 2004 (2005 at midnight) we were invited to yet another party at a club. This one had the promise of being more adult, since there was a great band performing (G Love and Special Sauce). The night started out okay, but we soon realized the drinks were both expensive and scarce...pretty sure I waited for 30 minutes to get a beer. When we finally secured a bottle of bubbly, somebody took it and downed the whole thing right in front of us!

The night ended with me getting hit in the face (long story), my friend patting me on the head and driving about 6 people home in my grandfather's car. It is okay, the lack of alcohol (two beers the whole night) and slap really sobered me up.

On a positive note, the following morning (on New Year's Day) was the first time I talked to my (now) husband, Adam when my roommate and I decided to prank call him (really mature, I know). I guess things really do happen for a reason.

Happy New Year everybody!