So Everybody Put Your Best Suit or Dress On

(Another line from “The New Year.”) All I can say is I wish I went to a nice party to which I would’ve worn my cute black cocktail dress. Alas, my New Year’s Eve was not destined to be so.

Let’s start the day before New Year’s Eve (as Brando would say, New Year’s Adam – Adam came before Eve, get it?). I go ice skating with the six- my girlfriends from HS. Ice skating was fun and we began to discuss plans for New Year’s. So my friend Beth is doing her family tradition of going to the Kaysville city’s New Year’s party. She’s really into Bingo apparently lol and Sarah doesn’t stay out past midnight. Plus it’s hard for her to make plans. Kaylynn wants to do First Night. My heart’s desire was to go to Studio 600 because I miss country dancing like crazy. I have been wearing my cowboy boots to work for a few days. Kelsey was also into this idea, but she has this new fling from her ward who invited her to a party at his friend’s cabin. We encourage her to go although we will miss her – it’s a good opportunity for a first kiss! Beth adds it’s a good way for them to get to know each other. Anyways, hopefully Kelsey doesn’t mind my sharing. Ha ha, so the plans are I, Kaylynn & Fiance, Tashi & Brando are going to First Night. I should have seen it would be a disaster from the participants. Fifth wheel outings are never too much fun.

I don’t think it would have been as bad if I wasn’t sick. I started feeling down in the afternoon. I went home from my internship meeting and slept the rest of the day. I got up around 7 PM and took a shower, got dressed, etc. The couples were eating out with their in-law type families. We agreed to meet at the Gallivan Center around 8:30, which naturally means 9. My family hadn’t made dinner before I left. (My family is weird like that.) But I knew it was going to be steak and shrimp and nothing sounded more delicious than that. I told them to save me some so I could eat when I got back.

So here I am, sick and hungry. We arrive at the Gallivan Center and I realize I should have worn an extra layer or two plus a scarf and a bigger hat – one that would more sufficiently cover my ears but it was too late. There were a couple of warm tents with events or activities. The first one we went into provided cardboard honeycomb shapes that you could write your resolutions on. That took like 5 seconds. So we headed back into the cold and looked at some bad art installations. One was cool. It was like the ball they drop in New York but made out of empty water bottles. The others were dumb. We went into the next tent and watched some B-boys which was cool but you can only do that for so long.

We wandered for a while then got on trax and checked out the Leonardo ‘cause there was stuff going on there. But it was like all little kid activities. We did some of them anyways lol. I was miserable. Starving, freezing, sick, and becoming lonelier by the second as I was deserted by the pair of couples and the only one with out someone keeping me warm with their arms.

We went back to the Gallivan. I went up to a booth selling soup but only had my card and they only accepted cash. Ugh. More starvation set in just because I knew getting food was now impossible. My feet were getting numb. Like you’d think they would shovel the area but there was like a couple inches of snow everywhere. I was wearing two pairs of socks and still couldn’t feel my toes. And then more loneliness set in as the countdown approached. We watched this artist named “Wisdom” perform while a local latino/rock band played. It was cool for a while but the novelty wore off pretty quickly and all I could make myself hope for was the steak and shrimp waiting for me at home.

Finally, the countdown came and passed as I was surrounded by kissing couples for a solid minute in the first moments of 2009. Then fireworks lit up the sky while snippets of some good classic songs played. That cheered me for a bit but the cheer was fleeting. Tashi, Brando and I ran to Brando’s car and headed home.

But when we finally got there, I found the shrimp bowl empty. And I’m embarrassed to admit, it pushed me over the edge. Ha ha, I was told there was a steak in the fridge but I couldn’t find it. There was also shrimp in the freezer I could boil. I didn’t see the shrimp bag either. My ailments blinded me and I broke down on the kitchen floor. Oh, it was bad. I started crying, not hysterically, but I was crying over steak and shrimp! Brando laughed at me and I was laughing too, in between my sobby breathing and tears. Tashi got out her camera and snapped a few photos despite my protestation.
Then my dear, sweet mother came to my rescue as I began eating a baked potato like an apple. She cooked me shrimp and reheated my steak and even prepared another baked potato, complete with sour cream and pepper on top. It was so sweet of her lol. I love my mom. My little sisters started teasing me for my emotional breakdown and my mom defended me. She knew what it was all about. She said, “Oh, leave her alone. She’s a noob at missing Blake for the Holidays.” Ha ha. Seriously, I love my mom.