It’s New Year’s Eve and I’m scrolling through my phone trying to find somewhere to bring in the New Year. Truthfully, I don’t love going out on New Year’s Eve. But I sort of feel like I should. It’s New Year’s Eve, man. It’s a special night! Saying Goodbye to the old year and all its good times and all its crap, and welcoming the New Year with all its promise and all its crap, not to mention most of last years crap. But crap or no, there is something comforting about getting to start over. It’s the New Year. It’s in CAPITAL LETTERS. It must be celebrated! So let’s partay!!!! Or…let’s have a quiet, romantic dinner someplace. Just the two of us! Or…I could cook us a special dinner with a bottle of wine! Or…we could order a pizza in our pajamas and pass around a bottle of tequila until you fall asleep 10 minutes before midnight while I watch Ryan Seacrest pretend to be Dick Clark. Let’s face it. Going out on New Year’s Eve is not all its cracked up to be. (See that? Capital letters. You can’t even write New Year’s Eve without autocorrect capitalizing it. Try it. Can’t be done.) Reasons not to go out on NYE:

• It’s expensive. I read that the Olive Garden in Times Square is charging $400 a person because of its proximity to the festivities. Nope. I don’t care if I can see Ryan Seacrest’s nose hair.  It’s still Olive Garden, people. 
• You have to get dressed up. Nope. Can’t do it. 
• Everybody out there is crazy and drunk and liable to puke in my vicinity. Nope. That’s why I don’t have kids. Or pets. No. Just no. 

The fact is, New Year’s Eve is about endings and beginnings. Friends and Family. Finishing what you start and starting something new. Giving up what doesn’t work but not giving up on your dreams. Endings. Beginnings. Celebrating the year. Celebrating you. In your pajamas, a slice of pizza in one hand, a glass of champagne in the other and a lampshade on your head. 

  HAPPY NEW YEAR!
 Carmen

carynjune