New Years or So Far, So Good.

So, 12 hours, 30 minutes and 15-16-17 seconds in... so far, so good.

I've always hated New Years Eve, the enforced FUN FUN FUN! of it all.. the sense of desperation, that utter bunk of it all. People claim Christmas is too commercial, but then swallow the bullshit that is, for all intents and purposes, a celebration created out of whole cloth without blinking.

Something I noticed on TV this week was interesting, pre-the 25th of December all the diamond industry adverts (People's, Zales etc) were for relatively modest diamond necklaces and earrings, all sub-$500 (remember, modest is a relative term for diamond merchants). Turn on the TV on the 26th and BAM! suddenly it's adverts for engagement rings and stud earrings, all $1000 +.

Anyway, New Years and the false, enforced FUN FUN FUN! always makes me think of New Years past... mostly the number of them that were really amazing. I think there were 5 for me. One or two involved great parties, but most of them were about the people I was with, the family of my choosing: friends. Don't get me wrong, I love my bio-family, but the family you make is often more important than the family you are given. Equally disfunctional, often just as, by turns, infuriating, funny, lovable, idiotic, and dear, as the bio-family, but perhaps because you chose them there is a deeper connection. This connection is all the more important to me because my chosen family is so scattered all over the place. (A thought on this, I'm lucky, 90% of the time I would actually choose to hang with my family)

This year Christine and hung out with my Dad in the afternoon, ate dinner at her Mom's, and then came home. Our big celebration? We finished installing some IKEA shelves, watched Enemy At The Gates and were in bed by 12:15.

In any case, a Happy New Year to all and sundry.