I of course wanted to pause a little and think about what I done on previous New Year's Eves and Days. Last year I was at a comedy show, no suprise there when I go to those often now. The club owner saw me and shook my hand then passed me in. A nice perk, something I had learned before. It helps to be willing to work events if one wants to get in free to events. Year before that I was in Tampa, Florida for my school's bowl game, the Outback Bowl. Had to work that NYE and caught a flight after work, arriving in Tampa around midnight, in time to see some of the fireworks off in the distance. There was also getting a costume for a nightclub celebration, a gangster outfit with a fedora and it was teal with black pinstripes. Made sure to get a picture in it, along with the mask. Since it was a masquerade. Had the picture done by a grocery store employee. At first the bouncer wouldn't let me in with that outfit on, but another said it was fine. Some loved the outfit! Another was spent at a dance club, though it wasn't much fun when I had no dance partner, ended up leaving early for this reason. Read about it in the paper, I think it got press since the reporter was related to the dance club owner. Some other memorable ones were when I lived in suburban Chicago. Moved there in 1998, and recall for NYE 1999 as we were counting down how I had the feeling of how right I was to have left Iowa and tried my luck in the big city. It was good to get that feeling, though odd how it was a feeling that arrived at that particular time! Or maybe not, since New Year's Day is about reflecting on things like I am doing now. 2000 wasn't too much fun, was ill with strep throat and mono after seeing 'the Grinch' starring Jim Carrey earlier in the day. I'm sure the movie had nothing to do with it, but I recall going to ER and referring to the movie when at triage. I was hyperventilating as I didn't know what was wrong. Ended up missing a day of work, upset about it since I lost holiday pay. Though it could have been worse. Those can be serious illnesses. I was needed at work, since we were lit up like a Christmas tree with calls after the Wards closure was announced and I was servicing ex-Wards life insurance policies at the time. 2001 was memorable as I went to a concert in nearby Rosemont, Barenaked Ladies. It purposely started later than normal, to ensure the band would be onstage at midnight. And the frontman spoke of a movie, 'Beautiful Mind', that I hadn't seen yet. I did see it eventually, he spoke of the main character deciding he was 'going to cure himself'. 2003 was also memorable, for various reasons. I think the main one was that it was the tail end of my time living there. The suburb I lived in, near O'Hare Airport, decided to get a ball like the one at Times Square and set it up near the public library in the middle of town. Though it malfunctioned and had to be started again. Also memorable for somebody I met there, who said he didn't live there but another suburb. He was proud of how the town had elected an Italian mayor, said most of the previous ones were German. Seemed like the wrong reason to me. He held up a sign that said 'play something Italian', I asked him if 'Ave Maria' was, he didn't think that was funny. He later asked me to pick up some big tins of pasta for him for a banquet, I did but it was odd that he wanted to speak in Italian there when asking a question, and the woman responded in English. She was born in Romania but had moved to Italy. I liked the woman who responded in English more, who wouldn't? After I was laid off, he called me and I said 'it would be hard to bother me at work now'. I just let the friendship fade, it was all just too weird to me when this was an eccentric old man. When I said I was moving out of state for work he wanted my new address, didn't give it. Also memorable was getting addresses of members of the military who weren't getting letters from anyone, I sent one but got no response at all. Wendy Lasseigne was her name if I'm not mistaken, hard to recall what branch of service she was.
I do like New Year's Day more now than when I was a kid. I was always 'too young' to go to any of the celebrations and hated hearing that. When in college I hated it as I was just 2 months short of 21 one year, so I had to wait one more year. I think I stayed home and watched TV, a year later I taped the yearend countdown from MTV and may still have that tape to this day. That celebration was at a Moose Lodge in my hometown, went to the event since some of my family are members there.
Didn't do all that much today, had another date, went over to her place and we ordered food that we picked up so we could stay in and talk some more. Before that I watched some of the Rose Bowl parade, saw a float break down and a tow truck stepped in to move it along. When I got home I eventually fell asleep for a few hours, then watched a rerun of Satruday Night Live, Rihanna was musical guest. She did 2 songs, 'What's My Name' and 'Only Girl'. Noticed how she changed her outfit between songs, good idea. The dress was less likely to cause a Janet Jackson-type 'wardrobe malfunction'. She had tugged at her top a little in the first song.
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