Gimme white Christmas, but please no questions about New Year's Eve... Ela in the Midnight Rider Coat.
I have this thing for Christmas. I simply love it. And when I say «love», I include any possible emotion this word generally comes along with. It’s painful, joyful and breathtaking at once. I long for it bitterly all year, thinking of it delights my heart and experiencing it brings peace to my mind and the most content smile to my face. Now that it’s over I wish Santa had granted my request for a time machine so I could fast-forward the days to experience the tree staring and gift opening traditions of Christmas Eve again right away. Instead, Santa’s unreliability in gift delivery forces me yet another year to face an «Eve» that I dislike as much as I adore the Christmas one.
I am speaking of New Year’s «Eve», a commonly celebrated and highly esteemed holiday whose right to exist I strongly question. Don’t get me wrong I generally support social get-togethers that come with good food, bottles of champagne and a day off to recover from the firewater’s consequences. But as far as New Year’s Eve is concerned, I simply don’t get the point. I mean how absurd is the idea of choosing one day in an interval of 365 and force each and everyone to turn nuts and party as if there was no tomorrow? Who exactly did choose the date anyways? And why in this world did they think that by pure chance, 6.9 milliards would feel like turning nuts and partying as if there was no tomorrow? You are right. If I dislike New Year’s that much I should just stay home, read a few pages of a dull and cheesy Nicholas Sparks novel and dive into Neverland before the machinery of clocks in the central European time zone make the last two digits of 2009 switch. Well, easier said than done as the requests of social responsibility and communal obligation that come with New Year’s are damn hard to meet stuck all alone in ones room.
It all begins with this one question. And what are your plans for New Year’s Eve? Honestly, how many times have you been asked this recently? Well, to me, people started dropping these words about three weeks ago and they haven’t stopped yet. It might have been acceptable to answer with «I don’t know» three weeks ago, but the closer time proceeded towards the 31st the reactions on my answer became more and more indigenous at the corner of rolling eyes street and fake compassion road. People made it clear: It is intolerable and pitiable to not have plans for New Years’ and I should better find a way to turn nuts and party as if there was no tomorrow quickly in order to not be considered a socially isolated failure.
To be honest, I still haven’t figured out the details for the big night. As much as I would like to claim that I don’t care the idea of ending up in bed with dull and cheesy Nicholas Sparks scares me. And this awfully frequent asked question shows me that I might not be the only one with mixed feelings towards this oh so happy Holiday. There is something that makes us terribly worrying about it, and I for my case have to admit that it is the fear of having to spend it all alone… Bang! There you go with my confession, world!
So in case you do feel the same, I suggest we exclude this devil of a question from our end of year small talk repertoire and start approaching these New Year’s Eves as we approach any given weekday. And now tell me, why in this world should we have plans for a given weekday’s Eve three goddamn weeks in advance?
Happy New Year to all of you!
Ela
