Yesterday, January 1, 2010, Bob and I woke up at about 9:00 a.m. and we were the only people in the entire house. Grace was at a sleep over, Jenny and Christine were at a cabin in the snow with a group of friends - chaperoned they adamantly claimed (and did I mention that I was born yesterday?), and Amanda was at a friend's who had hosted a New Year's Eve party. So yeah, just Bob and me. And I love my kids but I learned that when they are gone, Bob and I are going to be just fine.
I got Christmas taken down a little early this year (December 30th) so when I looked out the window and saw my neighbors' garage doors open with Christmas bins out and waiting to be refilled, I had a nice sense of satisfaction for being able to just sit and have coffee. I started to think about New-Year's-days-gone-by.
New Year's used to be a big deal. I remember an annual party at Michael Michetti's house. It started with the invitation. Each year, something different - like a mini bottle of champagne that came in the mail with the invitation printed on the label. One year he produced a 45rpm record and sang "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve" and spoke the details of the party in the recording as well. Very "New York piano bar" sounding. (Obviously this was pre-CD days.) It was so exciting!
You'd get a new outfit every year to wear - something glittery and festive. I remember one year I wore a satin champagne camisole, a black leather mini skirt and a gold lame jacket with black stiletto heels and black silk stockings (I was a mere twig at the time), with BIG hair, and bigger earrings (this was the 80's folks).
Walking up the stairs to his town home in the fabulous Miracle Mile district of Los Angeles, we were met at the first landing by a huge, 4' tall champagne glass that had a bubble machine in it - bubbles spilling out. Oh, it was a promise of a glamorous night! Then up to the gorgeously decorated living room and there was Glenn Mehrbach playing the ebony grand piano - and you knew he'd be there all night. Great food, plenty to drink , cigarettes galore, fun, fun, FUN people - all theatrically inclined. The evening would start with interesting, smart and witty conversations - loud voices and lots of laughs - and move on to sentimental chats and and everyone being very enamoured with each other. I mean we all LOVED each other that night. We were all completely over-the-top with our praise of one another. "Oh God! You were so fabulous in your last show!" "I would love to work with you again!" And on and on ad nauseum - only it was really lovely because we really meant it; it was a very talented and creative group of people. Ultimately, we would perform show songs and novelty numbers for each other (Sondheim being the overall favorite) and it would finally end with sing-alongs as the sun started to come up. New Year's day itself was spent sleeping. It was the stuff New Year's dreams are made of - very high-end, sophisticated, romantic. And we were young and beautiful. (In my mid-age denial, I feel compelled to say "younger" and "beautifuller".\I know its not a word!)
In contrast, this New Year's Eve was spent working on a stop motion animation video for the next phase of the Chase Community Giving contest where our charity (Ehlers Danlos Syndrome Network Cares) will compete for $1,000,000 (because we did, in fact - miraculously - win a $25,000 prize). The video is important and it took 12 hours. We were home at 10:30 p.m., in bed by 11:45, watching an episode of Seinfeld (which we couldn't believe we hadn't seen), and realized 1 minute too late that we hadn't watched the ball drop. "Ah. We missed it", was all that was said. Then, to sleep.
I need to say, I was more than content to spend New Year's Eve in this way. I don't much care about New Year's anymore. Its really a "non-holiday" holiday. But thinking about Michael Michetti's amazing parties yesterday morning I thought of adding one more to my previously mentioned resolutions: Host a grand New Year's party in on December 31st, 2010.
Of course, I'll need to lose weight.
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