Thoughts by Mike

I never understood the big deal with NYE (yes, I’m calling it NYE because I’m hip and all that shit). If you look at most movies and television shows they make it seem like people are basically putting on their own version of Prom 2.0 every year, getting dressed up, drinking champagne and overall being amazingly fantastic just existing within the 24 hour period of December 31st. 

In my experience most of this is bullshit. You see for the most part when you bring up the idea of dressing up and partying and getting everyone together for an “oh so posh” party it all depends on your age range.

When you’re all just out of high school it’s a fantastic plan, except most of people you know still live with their parents, generally have no money and alcohol is difficult to acquire without missions that’d make Tom Cruise blush so it comes off looking more ABC Family than E! True Hollywood Story.

When you’re in college you’re pretty much drinking every day anyway, so that isn’t as glamorous as people would make you think. Most people I knew in college were bitching enough to get into clothes in general to attend class so the idea of a suit or tuxedo was almost blasphemous and if you were going anywhere you were going home because on your own you were still fairly broke.

Then came what I like to call “pre-adulthood” where you’ve got the independence yet you still do the weird shit like buy groceries like a seven year old and have more candy, chips and sodas in your cart then actual livable products that will sustain you so this is where the idea is amazing. You see movies with Ashton Kutcher and Zac Efron, Jessica Biel and Lea Michele (which for the most part are sorry Hollywood attempts to try and capture the magic of British ensemble casts and fail to the point of being laughable despite who is helming) and think “That’s what I want to do!”, the thing is that nobody wants to plan it, or host it, or deal with it except attend. You would love to go to that party and drink spirits with a monocle on one eye saying “indeed” and chortling with the best of them but nobody wants to plan them. So you consider a bigger party, already planned that you pay a cover for but when you get there it reminds of the junior high school dances that you used to loathe with people generally standing on the wall, a few trying to grind themselves into oblivion and others so wasted that you could stand them in front of a merry-go-round at the park and they’d proclaim “Best Party Ever!”

Who knows what they are like in actual adulthood which I consider to begin at 35 and will admit that the line will move in five years when I reach that point. 

Which brings me back to the same point I was making which is what is the big deal? It’s not an excuse to drink, let’s be honest once you hit 21 and can drink legally the mystique of doing so is pretty much gone. Now granted I still get carded when I try to order a beer at Chili’s or Applebees but that’s a rant for another day. If I want liquor it’s not that difficult to get, granted I’m not too lazy to leave the house.

It’s not an excuse to dress up because most of us have to dress up every damn day of our lives for this little thing called work. You see when you have to wear something for the majority of the year, the thought of having to wear it for fun begins to leave. Hell I don’t even wear pants if I don’t have to and shoes? Psssh…if I’m home it’s bare feet. If I had a better physique I’d probably not even wear a shirt. On the other end of the spectrum, thanks to shows pop culture characters like Barney Stinson the idea of “Suiting Up!” isn’t really an awe inspiring occasion. 

It’s not an excuse to see friends. Most of us realize once you leave high school that you’re real friends you keep in touch with and those that are even more real are ones you lose touch with and then find again and it’s like there was no time left between you. Most of the people I want as my friends are strangers I’ve come across through like interests on Twitter or Message Boards that I’ve never actually met but know more about and how know more about me because we care enough to find out, they aren’t coming to my NYE (still hip!) party. I have probably about 10 real friends. Everyone else is just background casting for my life who I either don’t piss off because I have to see them everyday or people I generally can take in small doses but don’t want to make that leap into bosom buddy. If I want to see my friends, I do. Hell I talk to most of them via Social Media everyday. I guess if we wanted we could snap a pic of ourselves in suits and dresses and have some sort of sitcom styled Skype party but that sounds stupid to even type.

So what is the big deal? If 2011 was awesome then you are sad to see it leave. For me it brought the birth of a child, the freedom of financial stability and a fairly awesome trip to Disneyland but I still have my daughter, my stability and DL (another hip moment!) is only 6 hours away. So I’m not clinging to anything really in twenty eleven because it’s coming with me to twenty twelve. If 2011 sucked like I know it did for some of my friends, they are happy to see it go, in fact they’d give it a flaming viking funeral if they could manage it.

So what to do? For me the answer was simple. My wife is my best friend so I want her around. My other friends I know have plans but I know without fail that I’ll get calls or text messages (some mass I’m sure and generic) at midnight and the same goes for my family so no worries there. My kids are awesome and in reality the people I want around more then some of the assholes I deal with daily but they are 2 and 1 month old so they’ll be sleeping. I’m tired so I’m not going anywhere because my couch brings the awesomeness that I need. I’ll be ordering Chinese, watching a Big Bang Theory marathon on TV and chatting with my buddies online and my wife right next to me. Ashton can make a money about that! I probably wouldn’t see it but then again I won’t see New Year’s Eve either and maybe I consider Netflixing it and leaving it in that red envelope for three months before even opening it like I do everything else. 

To me that sounds awesome and if I see the ball drop fantastic and if I don’t because I’m watching an beautifully nerdy argument between Leonard and Sheldon with Penny confused in the background even better. 9/10 I’ll be asleep. So tomorrow when I log onto Facebook and see the glorious pics of people’s parties it’ll bring a smile, and then I’ll move on which is really what the passing of a year is all about right? Looking onto the future with new hope, new perspective and all that shit?

If I’m going all out for something it’s going to be for Halloween but that also is another rant for a different day.