You know you're getting older when...

[Sir_Galahad]

... the highlights of your New Year's Eve is going to a gathering at your neighbors' house and leaving by 11:00 so you can go take your dog for a walk and then plunk yourself down in your easy chair to watch the New York festivities and the ball drop.

I hope you all have a healthy, happy and prosperous New Year.

I sometimes have a hard time with the realization that I have been part of our little realm since May 2001.

[gsabc]

... you spend New Year's Eve on the couch watching two episodes from season 5 of The West Wing, your spouse falls asleep in your arms during the second one, and you're both in bed and heading to sleep by 11:00 PM. Well, the new year had started somewhere by then!

Ditto on the good wishes for all in 2008.

I think I joined just after the first series of shows, back on the original ABC message board. It has been a while, hasn't it?

[littlebeast13]

I sometimes have a hard time with the realization that I have been part of our little realm since May 2001.

You mean May of 2000....

What a great class of BB's that month gave us....

lb13

[Sir_Galahad]

... you can't even remember when you joined this little group.

[mrkelley23]

I don't have beast's recall of details (let alone his notebooks), but I was pretty sure it wasn't 2001, since it was your lists that first directed me here, when I was trying to study for the Phone Game (Blast of nostalgia here). And I arrived (formally anyway, I had been lurking for several months before, I think) in either late 2000 or early 2001.

[silvercamaro]

I don't have beast's recall of details (let alone his notebooks), but I was pretty sure it wasn't 2001, since it was your lists that first directed me here, when I was trying to study for the Phone Game (Blast of nostalgia here). And I arrived (formally anyway, I had been lurking for several months before, I think) in either late 2000 or early 2001.

Me, too, because Sir Galahad was one of the many people I met in San Diego in January, 2001, and I already "knew" him and others.

[PlacentiaSoccerMom]

... the highlights of your New Year's Eve is going to a gathering at your neighbors' house and leaving by 11:00 so you can go take your dog for a walk and then plunk yourself down in your easy chair to watch the New York festivities and the ball drop.

We left California Adventure by 8:00. They gave out hats and noisemakers and the noisemakers were giving me a headache.

When we came home, we opened a bottle of champagne and watched Rear Window. I am pretty sure that I was asleep before midnight, but I woke up from 3:00 a.m to 5:00 a.m. because of the wind.

[T_Bone0806]

....you watch the ball drop with your wife and soon-to-be 14 year-old GRANDdaughter, along with your son and his friend, who then left to go to friend's house so as not to "keep the old folks awake".

..you complain about the acts on "Dick Clark's Rockin' New Year's Eve", which had very little "rockin'" to my way of thinking..although soon-to-be 14 year-old GRANDdaughter was delighted by the musical acts...

And, as an aside, son had only consumed one glass of plum wine, while friend, who was only drinking Hawaiian Punch to that point, was driving. Once they got to his friend's house, I assume the potables got more potent. I am guessing son is still sleeping on friend's couch as I type this.

For all of the things my kid has done to drive me insane in his 22 years-plus, I give him credit on this issue. If he plans on drinking, he either stays put where he is, or has someone sober drive him home. He has a couple of close pals who have an "understanding" of being "on call" in those circumstances.


A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL BB'S! May 2008 be the happiest for us all!

[silverscreenselect]

We're actually leery of going outside around midnight because many of our neighbors are Hispanic and they have a tradition of firing guns off to celebrate the New Year. They aren't firing at someone but they have apparently forgotten the law of physics that says what goes up has to come down.

It is fun in a way listening to all the noise outside and trying to guess how much of it is fireworks and how much actual gunfire (I'm getting better at this with experience).

So we watch old DVD's and turn on Dick Clark about 11:45. It's still good to know he's out there, looking good, if not sounding quite the best. However, it was somewhat depressing to have the nitwit announcer gravely ask Miley Cyrus to draw upon her wealth of worldly experience to tell everyone what she was looking forward to in the new year.

Happy New Year to all the BB's, and for those for whom the last few days haven't been the best, may your 2008's be much happier!

[elwoodblues]

My personal rule of thumb is that you are not old until you go to bed before midnight on New Year's Eve. I am still managing to stay up.

As for Dick Clark it is admirable that he is still appearing on the program after his stroke but still sad to see him in that condition.

Happy New Year, all.

[silverscreenselect]

As for Dick Clark it is admirable that he is still appearing on the program after his stroke but still sad to see him in that condition.

It's better to see him in that condition than the alternative. I appreciate that stroke victims like him and Kirk Douglas are willing to appear in their condition to show others that having a stroke is not a death sentence.

[peacock2121]

I am not old then.

I danced and danced and danced in my pretty long dress. It has spaghetti straps and a low back so I wore those press on sticky bra thingies. I am allergic to the tape, so I have an annoying rask now.

I had a blast - sweated up a storm - what is it that men don't mind when I get sweaty and all of the women are kinda grossed out by it?

I didn't drink too much.

[earendel]

As for Dick Clark it is admirable that he is still appearing on the program after his stroke but still sad to see him in that condition.

It's better to see him in that condition than the alternative. I appreciate that stroke victims like him and Kirk Douglas are willing to appear in their condition to show others that having a stroke is not a death sentence.

elwing and I watched the ball drop on Dick Clark's show. Like you, I admire his courage for continuing to appear despite the stroke, although it is sad to see him and remember all of the other years.

[Sir_Galahad]

I am not old then.

I danced and danced and danced in my pretty long dress.

By yourself or were you with somebody?

I had a blast - sweated up a storm - what is it that men don't mind when I get sweaty and all of the women are kinda grossed out by it?

I love it when a woman gets sweaty (in certain circumstances).

[andrewjackson]

I wound up with a crappy New Year's Eve. I was invited to a party so I planned to be back from Indiana on New Year's Eve in plenty of time to get there but I didn't make it.

I was originally supposed to get back to Houston at 9 pm but my flights were delayed so I didn't get back to Houston until 10:00. That would have still worked but when I went to get my checked bag the baggage carousel wasn't working so we had to wait a long time for the luggage to appear. But mine didn't. After waiting almost an hour I finally realized that my bag wasn't there so I got into the line at the baggage claim office. After waiting there for a while I was told that my bag never made it onto the plane in Indianapolis let alone onto the connecting flight in Memphis.

So I made it home just about midnight and decided not to go out at that point.

They had said that my bag would be in Houston on Tuesday and that it would be delivered to my apartment. "In the afternoon" sometime was the predicted arrival. I was thinking about going out to eat Tuesday evening with some of my friends that I didn't get to see on Monday night but I figured that would still be fine.

The front office at my complex was closed for New Year's Day and at my apartment complex I live on the 3rd floor and you need this little fob thing to get in the gate so I had to hang around waiting for the bag to be delivered. At 7:00 pm the delivery company finally called to confirm my address. I was then told that the bag would be delivered sometime before midnight. So I had to cancel on the dinner plans as well. The bag showed up at 9 pm so I didn't have to stay up until midnight to get it but it was still frustrating.

Several regrets/complaints:

1. I wish there was some way to alert passengers that their bags didn't make the flight. It would have been nice to just get off the plane and leave the airport if I had known that I didn't have any luggage to pick up. Instead I wasted a couple of hours.

2. When they did tell me that my bag didn't make it, it would have been nice to have been given a more accurate delivery time. 7 pm is not "sometime in the afternoon" and 9 pm is definitely not. If they had said I wouldn't get it until in the evening I would have made other arrangements.

3. Or been given the option of going to the airport to pick it up myself. I didn't ask about that since they told me "afternoon". I could have driven to the airport, picked up the bag, and been home in about an hour. That would have been much more convenient than waiting around all day.

I've never been in this situation before. I'll know better next time.

[MarleysGh0st]

Several regrets/complaints:

1. I wish there was some way to alert passengers that their bags didn't make the flight. It would have been nice to just get off the plane and leave the airport if I had known that I didn't have any luggage to pick up. Instead I wasted a couple of hours.

Indeed there should be, particularly in this era of heightened security regulations when they're supposed to match up luggage with passengers. So, if they scan the luggage tags and note that someone's bag didn't make it onto a plane, what's so hard about transmitting that info to the aircraft so that they can notify you before you land?

[lilclyde54]

We're actually leery of going outside around midnight because many of our neighbors are Hispanic and they have a tradition of firing guns off to celebrate the New Year. They aren't firing at someone but they have apparently forgotten the law of physics that says what goes up has to come down.

We used to do New Years Eve in the French Quarter down in the Big Easy. You could always tell the NYE veterans because we would all get under balconies at midnight due to the bullets falling out of the sky a few minutes later.

[nitrah55]

We had dinner with friends. It has been the custom for us 4 couples to do that every year for some time now.

But, this year, different couple hosted. They invited other folks I didn't know, and told people to arrive at 7:30.

New Year's Eve is not the best time to meet people you don't already know, and how is one supposed to keep occupied for 4 and a half hours, if not over eating or over drinking?

Watched a bit of football between dinner and dessert. My friend was asleep on the couch beside me, but he falls asleep whenever he watches TV.

We made it to 2008. How about that?

[tlynn78]

We hosted 23 or so family and friends with food and such at 7-ish, then games and football till the ball dropped.

If I coulda, I'd have been in bed by 9.

I'm getting old.


t.

[ToLiveIsToFly]

You spend NYE in the hospital, wake up to change the baby, see fireworks and realize this is the first time in several years you've been awake for the new year.