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The Best New Years Eve Celebrations

One advantage to passing that all encompassing 50 year mark is you have a lot of experience and memories from which to draw. I’ve got a story or memory for just about any topic and can give you my varied opinions on those topics. From my “wild and crazy” twenties to my “born-again thirties” and “single mom forties” right on up to my “geek granny fifties” I can share my point of view from many angles.

So what does all of that have to do with New Year’s Eve Celebrations? Probably Nothing. But maybe, something. Maybe I should have titled this “My most memorable New Year’s Eve Celebrations”.

Still in my teens, I managed to get a New Year’s Eve pass to one of the trendiest clubs in the oh-so chic Georgetown area of Washington, DC. What started as a fun time of Disco Dancing the year away went astray when the husband of one of the couples joining us, made a pass at me. My slightly drunk boyfriend took offense and took a swing at the creep leading to our being thrown out on the street. So much for Disco fever.

In my twenties, I spent an icy New Year’s Eve in an almost deserted club in Dallas, TX. The band packed up and left before midnight…. oh well, we continued the party until the owners finally asked us to leave so they could go home. The ride back to our friend’s house in their SUV on ice was a memory in and of itself.

Of course, I had to spend at least one New Year’s Eve at Time’s Square in New York. I was looking forward to the excitement of seeing the big apple fall, the fireworks, the music and being in the presence of the great man himself, Dick Clark. The reality was more like this…

• We arrived at 10AM to find a spot crammed in the corner blocks away from Time Square
• Some guy spewed forth a vomit pool that seemed to cover a two block area.
• A Creepy old dude grabbed my ass.
• Somebody pick-pocketed my friends wallet
• There were no bathrooms… you try holding your pee for 16 hours in the freezing cold
• Did I say freezing cold…. how about freezing cold with 40 mile an hour arctic winds
• It took four hours in traffic to get out of the city… I told everyone we should have taken the train

So my advice on the whole New Years in Time Square or New Years in New York City thing is…. Go once just for the experience, that way from then on, you’ll appreciate watching it on TV from the comfort of your reclining chair with clean bathrooms, no vomit and no creepy old dude except maybe your husband.

New Year’s Eve in Las Vegas was a last minute thing. I was living with my then boyfriend in Los Angeles when our plans to go skiing at Big Bear Lake fell through. Left with nothing to do on New Year’s Eve, we opted to head for Vegas. All the major casino’s were booked so we settled for a roach infested dive outside of town. I wasn’t to concerned because I knew we would be out all night anyway.

The cool thing about New Year’s in Vegas is they really do know how to keep things under control. The crowds were much better behaved than Times Square and the weather much more hospitable. Tickets to the New Year’s Eve shows are sold out well in advance, so make your reservations early. The party in the streets was enough for us and unlike New York the bathrooms were not only open but lavishly clean. My kind of place… you can tell a lot about a place by it’s bathrooms.

Do a New Year’s in Vegas a least a couple of times in your life.

So what was the best New Year’s Eve Celebration for me? Hands down, without hesitation, I’d have to say New Year’s Eve 1999. It had been a very rough year, with the divorce, several moves, the death of both my Father and my former Mother-in-Law, but somehow both my son and I had survived it all. We had learned about forgiveness, we had learned to adapt to change and most importantly we had learned that we get to make our own choices in life. Not about our circumstances, but we get to choose how we let those circumstances affect us.

I spent that moment waiting for the turn of a new century amid the fears and trepidation of the potential Y2K virus fiasco, sitting in a lawn chair on an apartment balcony with my 8 year old son wrapped in a down comforter on my lap. We watched the fireworks in the distance, I drank Hot Chocolate, he drank Mello Yellow in a vain attempt to stay awake. We laughed and we talked and I think it was one of the best moments of my life.

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