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New Year's Eve
Then sing, young hearts that are full of cheer,
With never a thought of sorrow;
The old goes out, but the glad young year
Comes merrily in tomorrow.
-- Emily Miller
Friday, December 31, 1999
One year ago: Swing Out V
Two years ago: New Year's Eve
What luxury to sleep as late as I want to! That makes up for being awake between three am and four. I had a lazy day, succeeding in getting the trash out and doing a general picking up in my bedroom. I used the swiffer to clean under my computer desk, which I hadn't done in too long! A lot of sooty dirt had come in the window when our building had some roof work done.
I also made a run to the grocery store, not for emergency provisions but so Jack and his daughter would have something suitable for breakfast. I don't normally keep juice, milk, or cereal in the house.
It seems like whenever I stay off line so Jack can call me, he sends me email and I don't read it! (Getting DSL next month will obviate this syndrome.) So when I called Jack in the late afternoon to see when he'd be arriving, hoping he was already on the road, he greeted me with "Did you get my email?" A busted dryer had made doing his laundry take longer than he'd planned. This wasn't a huge problem; I just watched the round-the-world coverage of New Year's festivities on PBS while I waited for him.
I was really impressed by the show! An ice-wedding in Lappland, cool stuff from around the world. The fireworks at the Eiffel Tower were the most effective. I liked the music in the Millennium dome in London, too.
* * * * * * * *
I did start to get worried though, when even adding time on to Jack's planned trip for a later start should have gotten him to my door. He finally arrived around seven, rather harried. His car had acted up on the drive, and he'd had to poke along at a very slow speed until he got to a town where he could pull off under some lights, and poke and prod at the spark plugs. I still wanted to ride with him down to Olympia to get his daughter H---, though! Jack did suggest that I could go to the party at Jane and Vonda's on my own, and he'd meet up with me there later. I'd rather spend the time with him when I can, and I'd have worried about him all the time anyway.
We made good time to Olympia, successfully using a new shortcut that Jack had discovered (or re-discovered) the last time we'd driven north from there. Neither Jack nor I had eaten dinner, and H--- allowed as how she could eat something, so we pulled off south of Tacoma. Many fast-food places were closed! But Subway was still open, and getting extra business from the lack of competition. We ate our subs quickly! You can't really drive while eating a sandwich like that -- it takes two hands -- so we opted not to get our food to go.
I suggested that we should drive straight to the party, and not go back to my place just so I could get dressed up. I did have a new outfit planned, but I can wear those things for dancing, or some other time. Turned out Jack had already been thinking that's what we were going to do. A stop at Safeway for beverages, and we arrived, late but not the last to show.
* * * * * * * *
Lots of good people at the party, including some Vanguard folks that don't show up that often these days. Some had made efforts to get dressed up: early on, Jane was wearing a green-sequined sheath dress that was quite spectacular, and and Vonda had a gold metallic overshirt that was very becoming. I had the fun of describing what I would have worn to Kate and Janna, which was almost as fun as wearing it!
I was glad to see Andy Hooper and Carrie Root in attendance; I wanted to tell Andy that I'd linked to his piece on minature skateboards (to be "ridden" with two fingers) in my weblog. He was surprised and amused that I was still reading the toy collecting channel site, but it's a good source of non-overlinked material for me, and the fact that I know the authors is a point in its favor.
Around eleven thirty, we went outside and gathered at a nearby intersection. Jane was going to set off some fireworks (Jack had brought some also), then we'd have a good view of the Space Needle fireworks show. We had the poppers that you throw on the ground, and the little mock-bottles that pop off when you pull the string. Jack had a mortar tube that shot small mortars (the size of a tangerine) high into the air, where they exploded into stars or whizzy things. A police car pulled up during our fire stuff, but the driver evidently took one look at us and decided he didn't need to do anything about us; he just kept on rolling. Did we look so harmless? I was glad that various wiseacres didn't start yelling about the WTO and pigs until the cop was gone.
A neighbor (previously unknown to Jane) was quite drunk, and barefoot. He wanted to get involved in the proceedings, but Jane was quite firm about getting him to stay on the sidewalk -- impressive! The breeziness of the evening made getting the sparklers lit difficult, but we managed, using A.P. McQuiddy's cigar as a starter. Speaking of cigars, my midnight kiss from Jack was redolent of cigar smoke, but very pleasant withal. I hope the belief that what you are doing at midnight, you'll be doing a lot of in the new year, is a true one!
The fireworks shot off from the Space Needle were worth seeing. I don't think it would be as effective if you were right underneath, which is where the canceled official hoopla would have been. When they were over, we were ready to go inside again.
I think H--- enjoyed the party, though there weren't other kids in her pre-teen age range. Kate and Glenn's granddaughters were there, but were playing computer games in the basement (and they aren't really in the same age range). H--- and I dug through a big bowl of Archie Mcphee stuff, and she picked out a plastic squishy hand on a long strand, like those wacky wall-walker octopi that were a fad a while back. We all got official 1999/2000 champagne flutes; at first I thought Jane and Vonda had gotten a good deal on year-old flutes, since I didn't notice that the 1999 emblem was one of those changing images with a plastic coating (like Jesus's eyes following you around the room).
After Jack drank strong coffee (to counteract the minor amount of alcohol he'd consumed), we drove home without any problems. I used the heat-equipped massager he gave me on his back -- his secret plan was revealed. (Jack's back was bothering him a bit more than normal because of his clambering around fixing his engine earlier in the evening.)
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