Old Lambs Eyes

I'm not a big fan of New Year's Eve, there is something about the inability to stop the big descending ball that strikes me as dreadful (in the original literal sense of dreadful) and I tend to get a bit melancholy.

That's not to say that I haven't enjoyed celebrating the new year, I've had some great times, especially the many trips I took to foreign cities with my friend Jon. We've been in some really interesting places when the date change has come, and I've got some great stories.

Once Jon and I entertained an entire Polish student exchange program in Paris having met up with them on Champs Elysee. We were tear gassed by the cops, walked all across the city and squeezed all two dozen of them into our double-bunk room at the hostile in Republic.

Another year we celebrated in Trafalgar Square in London, this time with Abby and some other friends, although that almost resulted in a fist fight caused by a sudden need to urinate. Well that might not have been the cause, per se.

We rang in the new year with the bells of a long-silent church spire in Vienna that decided to revive the aural celebration to commemorate the launch of the Euro in 1999. And the best trip was when Abby and I rung in the New Year in Mexico (although the actual night itself was a tad boring, and involved a lot of time passing at a bad restaurant while eating ground up worms.)

But the actual passing of the years is always a bit sad. The sole exception to this has been the 2001 to 2002 year change, I was really glad after September 11th to see that year slip away. Maybe a bit of it has to do with my birthday being at the beginning of February—essentially the new year rings in my aging.

This year was a hard one for me, and for a lot of people I know. Personal crisis after crisis, coupled with the relationship trials of those around me made things surprisingly more difficult than in many years past. So it's with a bit of glee that I look forward the new year. I don't think things are going to be perfect in 2009, after all we're facing a horrible economy, the continued horrible economy and a lingering conflict in countries where we don't belong.

And it wasn't a total write off for a year. I had a lot of fun traveling—I got to go to the Olympics, Amsterdam twice, Germany, Hawaii, San Francisco, LA, Austin, Miami, Toronto, Boston, D.C. and more. I got to run a company with my good friend Wil, and we had a lot of fun traveling all over.

Still, it was a tough year.

But we've got a new president coming in, possibly a new era and I'm looking forward to that. I'm hoping life will calm down a bit (and that business will pick up—when do we small business owners get the Federal bailout money after all?) and that I'll continue to be healthy, the strep throat I've got now not withstanding.

So, should you be standing around tonight at midnight waiting to sing in the new year, here is the original lyrics of Auld Lang Syne, as written by Robert Burns in 1788. (And if it isn't Scottish, it's crap!)

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind ?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And days o' lang syne ?

CHORUS:

For auld lang syne, my jo,

For auld lang syne,

We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,

For auld lang syne.

And surely ye’ll be your pint-stowp !
And surely I’ll be mine !
And we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We twa hae run about the braes,
And pu’d the gowans fine ;
But we’ve wander’d mony a weary foot,
Sin auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We twa hae paidl’d i' the burn,
Frae morning sun till dine ;
But seas between us braid hae roar’d
Sin auld lang syne.

CHORUS

And there’s a hand, my trusty fiere !
And gie's a hand o’ thine !
And we’ll tak a right gude-willy waught,
For auld lang syne.

CHORUS

Comments

[DW]

Happy New Year, David. You are a gem among gems.