Like it happens every December, the year is coming to a close. As a kid I found this time of year exciting; my sisters and I would try to stay up late to watch the ball drop on TV, as a teenager/young adult I'd go to parties with friends. Now, working full time, married to a woman who works full time, with two small children at home, Dec. 31 is just another day on the calendar. Sure, it's a new year. But it's just a ball slowly being lowered in NYC. It's been the same since long before I was born. And a lot of people use the night as an excuse to dance, party and get plastered, when in reality most of those people do that on the weekends anyway. I'm all for finding a reason to party, but you can get drunk and watch balls drop every Sunday during Cowboys games. No need to stay up late on Dec. 31 for it!
One part of the New Years season that I've never put much into is making new years resolutions. As much as I like hearing women who are not overweight complaining about their goal to lose weight, I've always found it silly to wait til the new year to make a change. I've heard a few people in my life claim they want to stop smoking and they're going to start at the new year. Same thing with losing weight. And I've always thought: Why wait? I understand that Jan. 1 is a good time to start anew, because the calendar is new, the year is new, and most people will spend another 30 days writing 2014 after the date, but what makes Jan. 1 any better to start a goal than Aug. 23 or March 4, or April 31? (Who caught that...? If you plan on starting a new goal on April 31, your goal should be to buy a calendar.) If you want to begin living a healthier life, give up bad habits or whatever you want, do it whenever you're ready, and make that date special to you. If you don't wear your seat belt in a car and you decide sometime in March that you want to begin, do it, and suddenly you have an anniversary to look forward to every March. Make yourself a cake, with a little car on it smashed into a tree made out of whipped icing, and a little person made out of sugar standing next to it and have it say "you're still alive" in your favorite color. Then eat it all. (Then in April you can begin a new goal of not eating so much cake, fatty.)
New Years Eve can be fun. But be considerate of others. When you finally cross that line and start puking before the clock strikes midnight, leave the bar. Nobody in the bar wants to see that. And if you've been begging your girlfriends all night to let you do karaoke and they finally give in and let you, don't. You probably suck and your friends finally gave up on saving everyone's ears in the place. Seriously though, party and have fun but don't drink and drive. Too many innocent people get hurt because of the stupidity of drunk drivers. Know your limits, be smart, let your local police, fire and EMS personnel have an easy night since they'll be on duty, and welcome 2015 with a bang!
Happy New Year!
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