Con Mis Amigos

The past few years, NY eve has been a bit lackluster-not that they haven't been fun, but it just seems to take so much more energy to get everyone to commit to anything. When I was little, new years always seemed so much fun, and I could never understand why my (or Maggie's) parents were asleep before the stroke of midnight. Of course, over the past few years, it's been a struggle to stay up to watch Dick Clark count down.

Leading up to New Years, we went out on Saturday to walk through Brookside Garden of Lights (filled with more than 600,000 lights, with tons of special effects) with our friends Paul and Erika, and Paul's sister, niece and nephew. I bought us all these fun 3D glasses that make shapes out of the lights-such as snowflakes and santas, and for the Jewish contingency-we had dreidels and stars of David. After our walk through the gardens, Al and I drove back home and hit a local Ethopian restaurant for some grub.

You know when you are in a restaurant and sitting next to someone and you start listening in to their conversation? For some reason, I coldn't seem to tune out the conversation next to me no matter how hard I tried. It was two girls out, and one was just being such a show off that she's had Ethopian food before and going on and on about what to eat and how many times she's been to the restaurant, and which beer is good, etc. And the thing is, when I go to a restaurant I haven't been to, and I want to know what is good, I tend to ask the person I'm with (assuming they've been there before), and I get a brief run down of what to try. But, this woman just went on and on. And, when they were getting full, she kept saying "two minute break! two minute break!" I guess maybe I just get annoyed easily, I just get irked by show-offy braggy types. Yes, yes, we all get that you've been here before and know how to moderate your eating by two-minute breaks. Sheeeeesh. More eating, less pontificating on the herbs of Ethopian cuisine.

Anyways, New Years Eve-we had a pot-luck get together at our place. I literally sent out an email on Wednesday offering a place to hang out for those last minute planners like Al and myself, and we ended up with 13 people at our place. See, noone is really getting psyched for New Years anymore. Why is it that a holiday centered around champagne is so lackluster? Well, we had quite a spread, and ended up retiring around 1:30ish. Not bad...but not exactly a rager. Anyhoooo...a happy new year to you all!