The Beginning of a New Year -or- A Recipe for Disappointment

It's the end of 2010. The beginning of 2011. New Years. Reflection of what has occurred, and anticipation of what is to come. It is when we are able to turn over a new leaf, wipe the slate, and begin to further better ourselves and our surroundings........blah. blah. blah.

Yeah, I'm a New Year's humbug. I've never really enjoyed it. Making resolutions I've never had any real intention of keeping (and it's always the same ones.....pick up after myself. exercise more. etc.) It's a nice thought, but after the first two weeks, it's just not going to happen.

The actual eve of New Year's isn't much better either. I think it's all the hype that ruins it. The pressure to have epic plans at some raging, completely private A-list party.....Whether you go out or stay in, it's all just a setup for disappointment.

If you stay in, you start to think "Gosh! What am I missing! I should be out celebrating and having a grand ol' time with everyone else!" And then you can't enjoy the rest of the night because you are thinking that if you had gone out you'd be having so much more fun.

If you go out, you are just surrounded by people you don't know and could care less about ringing in the new year with, and either you are too drunk to know you are having fun (in which case you wake up with a terrible headache and can't, for the life of you, remember why you wanted to go out in the first place), or you are not drunk enough and can only focus on the fact that you don't know a single drunken idiot that is around you. Your favorite watering-hole is packed full with every hermit in a 50 mile radius who has decided that New Year's Eve is the one night a year they will venture from their cave, so not only do you not recognize a single face, you also can't even shoulder your way up to order a drink.

Either way, you aren't enjoying the moment of celebrating the things that are to come, but are instead far more concerned that you aren't having the fun you think you ought to be having, which, in turn, makes your night even less fun, so then you start to concentrate on the fact that it's New Year's Eve and you aren't having any fun. Then something happens which causes you to miss the count down, and then not only are you not having fun, but you've also  completely missed the beginning of the New Year! Now, your night is ruined, the end of your year is ruined, and the beginning of the new year is already off to a bad start. It's a terribly vicious cycle, and it happens every year.

So if you are wondering if there is something wrong with you because you can't even enjoy a simple night, like New Year's Eve, the answer is no. Everybody is disappointed on New Years. It's the way it works.