Where were you?

A Retrospective of New Year Eves Past

1980 As throughout my early childhood, I would have been spending New Year's eve with Normal Olathe Grandma - snuggled up on the couch with her and my sister down in her family room, watching the ball drop on TV. I LOVED going to grandma’s house when I was a kid. Every Christmas day, we would go to my grandma’s and the whole clan would fill the house to the brim. At the end of the day, my parents would go on home for a Kid Free week and return New Year’s day to retrieve us. 1980 would have been the last New Year’s Eve my parents ever spent together - that year during their Kid Free week, my parents were packing our things so that my mom could move my sister and I out of the house and to a new town.

1985 My mother and step-father banish all kids from the living room, leaving us to fend for ourselves that evening. It was a long and lonely one.

1990 Asshole #1 and his roommates always threw kickass parties - with New Year’s being the king of all parties for the year. I don’t miss Asshole #1, but man oh man, those parties were the ultimate college parties. The special thing about those parties with the international crowd was that the music was great, the booze exotic and the patronage a mish mash of culture where homeland clashes were left at the door. I've never drank from a beer bong, but dammit, I knew how to do the lambada .

1995 I went to Westport with Really Nice Guy But Still Didn't Want to Marry Him. Really Nice Guy and I had an awesome, traditional New Year's Eve partying at the Hurricane.

2000 My first New Year’s eve with X. It was a low-key night spent at a friend’s house playing pool, drinking beer. A nice evening to mark how undramatic, calm and comfortable my life was to become.

2005 New Year’s eve will be spent snuggled on a couch in Olathe watching TV. This time, I'll be with my 2 favorite guys and have a bottle of freshly espressed breast milk in one hand and a glass of my very favorite champagne, Veuve-Clicquot in the other. I’ve done the wild nights, closed many a bar and drank more than my fair share of beer on past New Year’s eves.

I suspect this night will still top them all.