I’ll own it. I don’t like New Years Eve. I haven’t liked it since I was a kid and many years I just pointedly ignore it as a sort of protest against the hype, craziness and rather mindless optimism that “this year is going to be better”. Do I set New Years Resolutions for myself? Nope. If I want to do or change something, I just get started rather than wait for an arbitrary date on the calendar! 🙂
This New Years Eve turned out pretty well, though, even if none of us managed to make it to midnight: My regular D&D group came over and we decided we’d game, then eat and watch a movie. We’re about seven months into a great campaign that my pal Steve is running, initially a fantasy it’s morphed into more of a sci-fi adventure based loosely on a classic 1980’s sci-fi RPG called Star Frontiers. Yes, I could sneakily buy the campaign information book and get all sorts of information and, well, cheat, but that would be cheating, why would I do that?
We continued our splendid adventure in space while mostly chatting and laughing, and as a bonus, our group included our sporadic fellow adventurer Ben, who is a full-time student at Denver University but was home for the break. Food involved a rather ridiculous amount of options, including chili, dirty rice, corn bread and all the toppings. We had so many comestibles that we didn’t even get to some of ’em!
Once we’d hit our mental limit for gaming (yes, there’s a limit of how many hours we can stay focused) we switched to eating and a movie. We’d planned to watch the original Ewoks adventures (Caravan of Courage and The Battle for Endor), two made-for-TV movies from the early 1980’s that my friend Sorin insists are both quite excellent, but when it came time to push the PLAY button there was sufficient reluctance that we instead opted to watch the brilliant (and somewhat weird) film The Shape of Water. [read my review]
By 10pm people were ready to head home muchly anxious about drunk drivers and sobriety checks, so by 10.15 I had the house to myself again. And that was fine. A nice way to ring in the new year with a chance to reflect on the highs and lows of 2017 and get ready for 2018. Or maybe I just fell asleep. I can’t remember…
I ran a New Year’s Eve Festival for 10 years, and I’m not a big fan of New Year’s Eve either. (Although I loved employing artists, producing fireworks, and bringing excitement and happiness to tons of people)
Since the festival ended, I’ve laid very low. This year we were in rural Florida with some friends. After a big night out at the Olive Garden, the kids watched Supergirl and ate ice cream, the adults played a massive Rummikub tournament. (I was a big loser!) We did make it to midnight, but then wen to bed soon after.
I do set goals for myself that I will probably break, but in that respect, this night is no different than any other night.
Wishing you a good but non-specific APOFT (arbitrary period of future time)!