After I turned 21, I noticed a marked difference in
everyone’s expectations for New Year’s Eve. When you were underage, you really
had no choice but to hang out at someone’s house, so there were no real plans
that had to be made. However, after you turn 21, the bar is raised. You’re more
or less expected to go out and get super drunk to ring in the new year.
This raises a number of problems in my book. First of all,
this is right after Christmas when everyone is incredibly broke from buying
presents. You don’t need a huge bar tab to plunge you further into the hole.
Secondly, my New Year’s Eves have always been spent in the Midwest, where the
new year is most likely to arrive in subzero temperatures with a foot of snow
and ice on the ground. The inclement weather can always put a damper on your
plans, especially if you were planning to drive someplace. Thirdly, depending
on where you live, there might not even BE anybody to celebrate with you.
Before we could drive, my friend Sarah and I alternated New
Year’s Eves at each other’s houses. The years spent at my house usually
involved watching some kind of goofy movie with my parents: I’m certain we
celebrated a few years in the late 90s watching Tommy Boy and Down Periscope.
Of course, we’d all sit around the TV and wait for the ball to drop. Sarah and
I even would go so far as to make our own confetti.
Whenever it was Sarah’s year to host New Year’s Eve, her
parents would take us out to a movie. To celebrate the upcoming year 2000, we
went to Watertown and ate at the Drake, which was just unbelievable to my
twelve-year-old eyes. The Drake was probably the fanciest restaurant in
Watertown at the time, and I felt incredibly important. We spent our time at
the Drake watching the year 2000 arrive across the world, and we went to see Anna and the King. The movie was pretty
forgettable; I think the excitement of a new millennium was too much for us. We
got back to Sarah’s house in time to watch Dick Clark tell us that the 90s were
officially over.
The following year, we really went big: Sarah’s parents took
us ALL THE WAY TO SIOUX FALLS. That was a huge deal: it was a three-hour
round-trip for just the one night, and we were thrilled. We ate at TGI
Friday’s, and Sarah and I were enamored with the fancy vodka drinks that we (as
thirteen-year-olds) could not have. Sarah and I decided that as soon as we were
both 21, we would go to a TGI Friday’s and order one of those fancy blue vodka
drinks. (Note: we have yet to do so.)
We planned to go to a movie in Sioux Falls, which was also a
big event. The Sioux Falls theatre was way nicer than the Brookings or
Watertown theatres to which we were accustomed. And there were so many choices!
We had to plan carefully: we wanted to get home before midnight for our annual
date with Dick Clark, so our movie should be done by 10, just to be safe. We
had gotten there early, and we were sitting in the lobby waiting for our movie
of choice (Castaway) to begin
seating. There was an announcement that several of the movies would begin
seating, including Jim Carrey’s version of How
the Grinch Stole Christmas. After the message was over, the usher must’ve
realized that he made a mistake and announced that The Grinch was seating when it actually wasn’t. He got right back
on the intercom and said, “Whoops, hold The
Grinch,” which Sarah and I
proceeded to repeat all night long (“burger and fries, hold the Grinch!”). We finally made it into Castaway, which Sarah and I thought was
hilarious (for all the wrong reasons).
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| We loved Wilson. |
If I didn’t spend New Year’s Eve with my friends, I spent
with my parents and neighbors. They also switched between houses, and we spent
all of our time either eating or playing board games. Catchphrase, Pit,
Pictionary… we played ‘em all. Sometimes, we got so involved in our board games
that we missed the ball dropping all together! Someone would look and the clock
and say, “Uh… it’s 12.30.” We’d give a quick “happy new year” and get right
back to our games.
I’ve had a few less-than-wonderful New Year’s Eves in South
Dakota. There was the year that Dad ran over our cat on the way over to our
neighbors’ house. Then there was the time my friend Meagan and I came back to
my house from a house party (where we, as 19 year-olds, were on our best
behavior, believe it or not). I somehow slammed my finger in the trunk of my
car, and it immediately got all weird and swollen. My parents were waiting up
for us, and they saw my crazy finger. Dad wanted to heat up a needle and poke
it to relieve the pressure, but as soon as he got near my finger, I thought I
was going to pass out. Why? I have no idea. I’m normally fine with that kind of
thing, but I about fell off my chair. Mom and Dad were convinced that I was
drunk, but a quick talk with Meagan and some sniffing of my breath (yes, that
happened) convinced them otherwise.
As I got older, I started spending more New Year’s Eves in
Minnesota. After all, it’s one of those holidays that you’re supposed to spend
with your significant other, right? Unfortunately, my significant other (James)
was in a band (yes, really) throughout most of college. And they ALWAYS played
somewhere on New Year’s Eve.
The band is called Funky Gumbo, and it consists of one
middle-aged drummer who lives near Morris and continually recruits young
college students to fill in the rest of the instruments. James was their
trumpet player for a handful of years, and I faithfully went to quite a few of
their gigs right after James and I started dating. It was fun with the other
Gumbo girlfriends were along, but it totally sucked when they weren’t. I soon
grew tired of hearing “Mustang Sally” over and over and OVER, and I started
bringing homework to gigs. The Funky Gumbo honeymoon was definitely over.
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| My first New Year's Eve with Funky Gumbo. I look happy because I didn't know I'd be stuck with Funky Gumbo for YEARS to come. |
“Funky Gumbo ruins everything” became a common phrase during
college. They played on most weekends, and they played on Valentine’s Day. Any
time there was something fun to do, Funky Gumbo was playing. Case in point: New
Year’s Eve. I spent two New Year’s Eves at Funky Gumbo gigs. The first year
(when it was almost 2008) was fine because there were other people from Morris
to keep me company. The second year (almost 2009), James’s brother Jesse and
our friend Nate agreed to come with me. It was in a different location than it
was the year before, and James promised it would be a blast. When Nate, Jesse,
and I walked in the ballroom at 9 o’clock, we were the youngest people there by
at least four decades. We confronted James, who just shrugged and said, “I
THOUGHT it would be fun!” We ended up driving to the next town over, eating at
Perkins, and coming back in time for midnight fireworks over the frozen lake
(which actually was pretty cool).
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| Three of the four people in this picture just had Perkins. Hint: they're the ones with big smiles. |
My first (and to date, ONLY) New Year’s Eve spent in a bar
was to ring in 2010. I had just returned from my unpaid internship in New
Orleans and was about to dive headfirst into another unpaid internship in
Minneapolis, so I couldn’t afford to do much that year. I drove to Morris to
see a few of my friends who hadn’t yet graduated. James, of course, was playing
with Funky Gumbo in the same ballroom as last year. Nate and Jesse were present
for this New Year’s, as well, and James tried his very best to convince us to
come and hear Funky Gumbo. We politely declined, making our lack of confidence
in Funky Gumbo well known. Instead, we spent the evening in “downtown” Morris,
and it was fantastic. Poor James came back from Funky Gumbo and heard about all
the fun we had, and that was his last New Year’s Eve with Funky Gumbo.
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| It was my first New Year's with hats, too! |
So now that 2012 is quickly approaching, it’s time to scrape
together a New Year’s Eve plan. Now that I live in Sioux Falls, I’ve got a
whole new set of opportunities. At the same time, it’s Sioux Falls, so I’m not
sure how much it has to offer. Whatever I end up doing, I’m ready for 2012. I
don’t feel like I accomplished too much in 2011: the only major event was
getting a new job and moving back to South Dakota. I have a feeling that 2012
is going to be much more exciting. After all, I’ll be turning 25 in 2012, so
it’s time to get down to business. Bring on the new year!
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