On my first New Year’s Eve with C-Man, I went way overboard in the romance department. I’d only been dating him for two months. If it hadn’t worked out, I would have been so embarrassed to have once again thrown myself at someone who I barely knew. Lucky me. We established several things which were to become tradition for our New Year’s Eves: Italian for dinner, visit two Amy’s Ice Cream locations in order to find the right flavors, take a picture in the photo booth, watch The Fifth Element, have mochi on New Year’s Day.
Our second NYE together, we chased a dog down Burnet Road in our evening wear on the way to dinner. It was holding a big piece of pizza in its mouth and didn’t want anything to do with us, but we didn’t want it to get hit. When it took off into the neighborhood, we figured at least we’d driven it into safer territory. We did the dinner and the Amy’s and the photo. All night, I was expecting a ring. So much so, that the only thing I could think during dinner was “where’s my ring?” Ha, joke’s on me, it was in the pocket of his jacket, which I had borrowed when I got cold in the restaurant. When he got down on one knee and proposed right after midnight, I’m damn lucky I said “yes please” and not “fine, whatever, now gimme that!” The next day, we did movie and mochi, so everything was good.
Our third NYE, last year, I was feeling mysteriously ill… gee, wonder what that was. We got some dinner at Central Market instead of going out, but we did make it to the two Amy’s. We didn’t dress up, and I was feeling bummed that the evening was going to be rather dull. Then the Amy’s employees who shall remain nameless set a scoop of ice cream on fire and threw it across the street like a baseball during a lull in traffic. Problem solved. We finished up at a friend’s house for a party. Movie and mochi on New Year’s Day, check. Well done.
This year, we thought we would skip dinner out but take the baby with us to Amy’s early on NYE. We sent C-Man’s mom home. Not 45 minutes later, the baby fell asleep for the night. Dammit. I sure wasn’t going to wake him up by hauling him around in the car and then be up past midnight trying to get him back to sleep. We had ice cream in the freezer, but it wasn’t the same, and I went to bed at 8. At 11:45 I woke up and heard fireworks, but since I didn’t know what time C-Man went to bed I didn’t wake him up for a kiss. (Please see yesterday’s post for the rest of my sleep experience that night. Then send pity.)
On New Year’s Day, we did take the baby with us to one Amy’s and did a photo booth picture, which turned out well. We went to BookPeople and bought him some books. We stopped at Whole Foods and picked up some mochi. Then it became obvious that neither C-Man nor his progeny were feeling all that well, so we came home and did virtually nothing for the rest of the day. I ended up trying to entertain the baby for quite a while for myself upstairs, alone, as C-Man tried to manage his pain. Then I picked up after the dogs in the yard. Whee! I’d like to say “In the end it was being together that mattered,” but honestly I’m still disappointed.
I also think the disruption of a pattern is why I feel like 2008 hasn’t really gotten going yet. I’m tempted to reschedule New Year’s Day for this weekend and try again. The mochi is now thawed. The Fifth Element DVD is on the shelf. And I can always eat more ice cream.