The Start of the New Year

New Year’s: the holiday for insomniacs.  The one true night of the year where people are scorned for being in bed before 2 am.  Staying up is expected. It's encouraged.  As a person with acute insomnia, I rejoice at the night where I don't have to fret about not being able to fall asleep. There was nowhere I had to be, nothing I had to do the next morning.  It’s not fun through, when you have no plans.  An insomniac with no incentive to stay awake on the one night of the year that it’s expected. 

This year I actually had plans.  Many years ago, my parents would drag us along to a party of adults at a close family friend's house.  We used to sit in a back room and play mindless video games into the wee hours, being collected to go and watch the ball, then driven home as we slept soundly as the tuckered-out, up-way-past-bed-time, little children that we were. Then, my brother, being 3 years older, began going to parties at his friend's houses, and I started staying home since I was too old to be that kid in the backroom, but not old enough to be an adult of the party.  The first year of New Year’s at home, I spent it at a neighbors house, she having 2 kids my age and older at home as well.

Then it became an alone thing.  I always thought I'd have all these friends with parties to go to when I was little, but it didn't turn out that way.  Well, that year after I went to my neighbor's, my freshman year of high school, I had a friend over.  We had fun, ate food, made cookies, had some sparkling cider, all before midnight.  She ended up going home before midnight, for reasons I had only found out about a month or two later.  After that, I was really alone for New Year’s.  I kept asking my parents if I could go to that party but every year, I was not yet of the adult classification that I needed to be to go. So I sat at home. I basically sat on my computer till 11:50 and then I would trot downstairs, watch the ball drop, then trot back upstairs to continue what I was doing, then fall asleep.  It was nice and quiet and part of me enjoyed the quiet aloneness for the holiday.

This year, I was invited to join family friends for a New Year’s celebration.  We went to First Night in Morristown, a night filled with activities and events in the surrounding area with fireworks on the Green at 9 and midnight.  I tagged along with 2 of the woman's sons.  We saw a cheesy illusionist, where I was really only impressed by the boxes where he split his assistant in half and in other such ways. The only way that could work is if she was a contortionist.  Then we saw a reptile man who was slightly crazy, but in all honesty, you'd have to be to work with animals in general. At one point, he pulled a chinchilla out of nowhere (I still can't figure out why) and I squealed. I literally squealed.  Like, jumping in my seat, flailing my arms, and squealing like a little child.  The excitement died down and we met up with their parents to go watch the fireworks.  While we walked back to the Green, we got to about a block away when they started.  We were in a lucky spot where we could see them.  It was then, as we were bracing the cold winds, looking up at the exploding lights in the sky, that the sons decided that they just wanted to go home.  We started to track back to the car as the fireworks were finishing, finding our view completely blocked when the finale went off.

We got back and instead of really helping with the hors d'oeuvres like I said I would, I found myself cuddling and playing with their 2 little white Himalayan kittens, JJ and Louie, while the 2 sons that came with us joined the 3rd son and his friend playing games in the basement.  This went on until 11:30 when the 4 boys emerged from the depths to watch the ball drop.  We had a toast and some cheers and it was 2013. After that, I helped the 3 youngest in getting the oldest to play Dark with us.  Dark is hide and go seek, in the dark, inside. Basically, it was indoor Manhunt. When my brother and I were kids, we used to play with them all the time and it was always fun. On the first round I was found right away because my watch beeped and gave me away. After that, I was never found.  After 10 minutes, the friend had said, "this is ridiculous, the four of us are black and you are the only one we can't find!" He had a point, I am pretty white and I should have a glow to me in the darkness, but I was a ninja.  After that, the game became "find Brianna".  They never succeeded.

So, in short, I spent my New Year’s running around Morristown, playing with kittens, and playing a hilarious game of indoor Manhunt. It was quite a happy New Year in my opinion.  And thus, I made a little…“resolution” and decided to start a blog, this blog.  For me, this New Year is starting off with a blog instead of a bang.  Happy New Year!

Sincerely,

Lunch Box.