New Year’s Eve means different things to different people.
To many, it’s the perfect excuse to go out and get absolutely, properly, fall-down shit-faced on way too much hooch. Judging from my own past, I would guess that this option works mainly for youngsters between the ages of eighteen years and their late twenties, mainly because there are not too many folks over the age of thirty that can manage more than two or three Tequilas in one evening. The last time I celebrated New Year’s with the famous Cactus Juice, I was twenty-two years old and ended up stark naked at sunrise, teeing golf balls off into nowhere.
To others, the changing of the year is a much more sober affair, possibly depressing, even. Many have lost loved ones or suffered some form of setback during the course of the past year and, while the best option for these sorry souls would probably be to follow the young folks’ example above and get wasted, they normally spend a quiet evening at home before retiring early, hoping that things will improve in the light of a brand new year – our thoughts go out to them over what has to be a difficult time.
For myself, New Year’s Eve celebrations of late have also been somewhat of a letdown. Too old to drink Tequila and get naked but too young to go to bed before midnight, I suffer the curse of the middle-aged when it comes to year-end celebrations. The responsibility of having young children, the abject fear of a massive hangover and the problem with finding people your own age to get bent out of shape with, invariably results in a dead-boring evening of suburban small-talk, pretzels and light beer. It’s not that I mind acting like an adult or using the change of a year to reflect on goals and aspirations for the future, I just wish I could have a little more fun doing it.
That said, my late father was always good for a bit of fun and I think I need to spice things up a bit this year, maybe dedicate the move into 2012 to his memory. You are, after all, only as old as you feel, so I’m off to find a bottle of Tequila and some golf clubs.
Happy New Year!
