Monday, December 31, 2012

A Tale of 2 New Years

 The only, über grainy picture I have of myself from last night

Happy 2013 everyone! I hope you all had (or are currently having) an amazing NYE. I basically ended up having 2 NYEs, and although pretty chilled, it turned out to be a really fun night.

Much like a lot of people, I have such high expectations of New Year's Eve that I mostly find myself pretty disappointed. I don't know what it is about this one night of the year, it is so packed with emotion as you farewell the past and move into the future, that somehow you believe it is going to be this big, momentous, life changing night of your life. And it mostly never is.

I can remember 1 New Year's that I really, truly enjoyed. We were saying farewell to 2006 in Berchtesgaden, in the Bavarian Alps in Germany. I had been back packing for 6 weeks with my best friend and we were staying in a house with 15 German people. During the day they had all gone hiking and I had wandered around eating cake and going to the movies (I'm not a hiker, certainly not in the snow). At about 7pm Kelly and I were shocked to find the Germans were drinking tea and not keen to get into the alcohol. We started anyway, so by the time we made it through a fondu dinner, home made fireworks and some far too complicated drinking games with numbers and dice and Kirsch Schnapps, we were pretty hammered.

Just after midnight I thought I was having a drunken vision, when 2 Germans- one skinny, one fat- dressed in Lederhosen came into the house with shot guns and shot pieces of wood off the balcony. Apparently it's for good luck. I passed out soon after that. It was a great night.

Me and K-Dawg in Germany 2006/07 NYE...aawww so young

Every other New Year's has been nice or fine or terrible, in fact I rarely even bother to get drunk on New Years because it just seems like SO much effort and a waste of a hangover for an average night out. So this year I decided to stay home for the first time since I was 14. I got home in the afternoon, had a wine, made a pizza, ate a particularly obnoxious sundae (whipped cream, icecream, fudge sauce, choc chips, rasberries) and settled down on the couch under a blanket in my PJs to watch Twilight. I was OK with it. I'm an adult, I can choose to do these things.

Then the following text conversation happened with my friend Glenn-
Glenn- Still keen to come down? (to the Taste festival)
Ebony- Probs not babe, I'm on the couch eating a sundae!
G- Fair enough...let me know if you decide to come in, free beers atm
E- Ugghhh...I'm watching Twilight. I should probably come in so I'm not a teen statistic

I got dressed, did my hair and makeup in 20 minutes (this is a record for me) and in fact it was so quick, I had to take a picture of myself while I was driving because I thought my makeup might be wonky. In the end we had a good night. We saw fireworks (twice), ate some great food, hung out with some lovely Carnies (circus folk, you know), called our friends who were up the coast and wanted to know what I was wearing (black crop top, black skater skirt, black socks, black brogues, black blazer...blackedy black black black), and just generally had ridiculous conversations involving how kittens trapped in ATMs would send notes to the outside.

As we were on our way home Glenn offered this parting thought about my behaviour "I think I liked you better when you were just someone I hung out with occasionally."

Did NYE 2012 change my life? No, but it certainly wasn't a disappointment. 

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