Happy Merry New Year!
My friend asked me what did I do on New Year's Eve. I told her that it was like any other night really. I didn't get all dressed up, pay an arm and leg to go to the St. Francis Hotel party in San Francisco, didn't go to any parties just stayed home.
I am not a really big party person for New Year's Eve or any other day. I haven't went to any New Year's parties for as long as I have been on this earth. I am more of stay at home type of person and if I was going to party I would do it at home. So, this year like every other year I was home. For the past ten new year's eve's I have spent them with my son. He fell asleep before midnight but that was okay because half of the neighborhood weren't asleep judging by the sounds of all the fireworks piercing the night and the blowing of the car horns and people just shouting Happy New Year in general in the streets. It was not dull around here that is for sure. My mom slept through all of that too. I wasn't asleep but laying in bed just reading.
The one New Year that kind of sticks out in my mind was on that was strange to me. This one happened about 24 years ago and I was with an ex boyfriend. We had been together for about 3 or 4 years by then and living together in a house in Oakland, CA. We lived in a corner house that was a salmon pink color and white. The driveway was around the corner and directly under the kitchen window. Since the house was located on a hill you had to walk up the hill after you parked in the driveway or go through the gate, if you left it open which wasn't a good idea in that neighborhood so we always parked and walked up the hill to the house. It was a small house. The biggest room was the kitchen. In the kitchen was a small wooden table that was big enough for two people although it came with 4 chairs. So, that kitchen table was by the big kitchen window where you could see the driveway if you were sitting or standing in that space. Across from the table was a deep freezer and then the fridge and the stove, counters and back door which didn't have any curtains on it and had glass windows from top to bottom almost.
So, this particular night around 10pm my then boyfriend went in the kitchen and just sat at the table. He sat there stone-faced. The window was covered with blinds and he didn't open the blinds all the way just a little and was just peaking out of the window like he was expecting company that was running late. I asked what he was doing. So, he told me a story about how a couple of years before his foster brother's truck got shot on New Year's Eve. Someone was shooting a gun and a stray bullet hit the roof of his truck. Thankfully, nobody was in the truck but it had a bullet hole in the roof. So, as I was standing there with my cup of soda I was wondering what all that had to do with him sitting in the window now. So, I asked and he said that normally people in that neighborhood shoot off guns around midnight and he wanted to make sure they his car wouldn't be hit. I was thinking so he is sitting in his pj's in the window watching for stay bullets at 10pm and will sit until midnight waiting and waiting. Then I thought what can he do if a bullet did hit his car. I came to the conclusion that he couldn't do a thing but just watch like he was doing right now. Just watch out of a bent blind staring stoned faced like he was and doing exactly nothing.
As the countdown began on television, I heard stirring in the kitchen, a chair being pushed back from the table. I thought for a minute that maybe he had come to his senses and moved out of the window. When the countdown came to an end and everyone on television was kissing and hugging and shouting happy new year I didn't hear a thing outside except the occasional firework. He was now standing in the window with the blinds completely open and the window cracked. Still looking and waiting for something to happen. After about a half hour or so he was on the front porch listening to the sounds of the night and looking into the darkness except for the dimly lit street lights.
Nothing did happen that night. Nothing at all. It was completely uneventful expect for the sounds of the fireworks and a few people saying happy new year to him as they passed by.
So, 2014 started for me the way that all my new years have started with me just relaxing and watching my sleeping son dream of toys probably, and counting my many blessings from last year and hoping that I would have many more this year.
Happy New Year!
I am not a really big party person for New Year's Eve or any other day. I haven't went to any New Year's parties for as long as I have been on this earth. I am more of stay at home type of person and if I was going to party I would do it at home. So, this year like every other year I was home. For the past ten new year's eve's I have spent them with my son. He fell asleep before midnight but that was okay because half of the neighborhood weren't asleep judging by the sounds of all the fireworks piercing the night and the blowing of the car horns and people just shouting Happy New Year in general in the streets. It was not dull around here that is for sure. My mom slept through all of that too. I wasn't asleep but laying in bed just reading.
The one New Year that kind of sticks out in my mind was on that was strange to me. This one happened about 24 years ago and I was with an ex boyfriend. We had been together for about 3 or 4 years by then and living together in a house in Oakland, CA. We lived in a corner house that was a salmon pink color and white. The driveway was around the corner and directly under the kitchen window. Since the house was located on a hill you had to walk up the hill after you parked in the driveway or go through the gate, if you left it open which wasn't a good idea in that neighborhood so we always parked and walked up the hill to the house. It was a small house. The biggest room was the kitchen. In the kitchen was a small wooden table that was big enough for two people although it came with 4 chairs. So, that kitchen table was by the big kitchen window where you could see the driveway if you were sitting or standing in that space. Across from the table was a deep freezer and then the fridge and the stove, counters and back door which didn't have any curtains on it and had glass windows from top to bottom almost.
So, this particular night around 10pm my then boyfriend went in the kitchen and just sat at the table. He sat there stone-faced. The window was covered with blinds and he didn't open the blinds all the way just a little and was just peaking out of the window like he was expecting company that was running late. I asked what he was doing. So, he told me a story about how a couple of years before his foster brother's truck got shot on New Year's Eve. Someone was shooting a gun and a stray bullet hit the roof of his truck. Thankfully, nobody was in the truck but it had a bullet hole in the roof. So, as I was standing there with my cup of soda I was wondering what all that had to do with him sitting in the window now. So, I asked and he said that normally people in that neighborhood shoot off guns around midnight and he wanted to make sure they his car wouldn't be hit. I was thinking so he is sitting in his pj's in the window watching for stay bullets at 10pm and will sit until midnight waiting and waiting. Then I thought what can he do if a bullet did hit his car. I came to the conclusion that he couldn't do a thing but just watch like he was doing right now. Just watch out of a bent blind staring stoned faced like he was and doing exactly nothing.
As the countdown began on television, I heard stirring in the kitchen, a chair being pushed back from the table. I thought for a minute that maybe he had come to his senses and moved out of the window. When the countdown came to an end and everyone on television was kissing and hugging and shouting happy new year I didn't hear a thing outside except the occasional firework. He was now standing in the window with the blinds completely open and the window cracked. Still looking and waiting for something to happen. After about a half hour or so he was on the front porch listening to the sounds of the night and looking into the darkness except for the dimly lit street lights.
Nothing did happen that night. Nothing at all. It was completely uneventful expect for the sounds of the fireworks and a few people saying happy new year to him as they passed by.
So, 2014 started for me the way that all my new years have started with me just relaxing and watching my sleeping son dream of toys probably, and counting my many blessings from last year and hoping that I would have many more this year.
Happy New Year!
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