A New Year to Remember

Every year, I get excited with the anticipation of how fun New Year's Eve is going to be...and most every year, it's never what I thought it was going to be.

NY Eve 1993: A bunch of friends and I rented several hotel rooms close to the bars in Daytona Beach. I drank so much that by 12:30am I had my arms wrapped around the toilet bowl. The good news was that because I was the first in the room, I didn't have to sleep on the floor.

NY Eve 1996: Stephen and I went to a club. I saw an old friend right before the countdown to midnight and almost missed kissing Stephen. He was pissed off at me so we left early.

NY Eve 1999: We were in Key West with another couple. We were having a blast drinking at Rick's and had a great view of the conch shell that was to drop at midnight. Too many people started crowding around us to get a view and I got a panic attack. My friend, Roberta (who is 4'11") was threatening to kick people's asses if they didn't give me room to breathe. We ended up walking miles and miles to get back to our room (on the Navy base).

NY Eve 2000: We headed to Gainesville to hang out with Roberta and her husband. It would have been great except that they also invited this really weird couple that annoyed the hell out of us. The good news was that Y2K was a farce.

NY Eve 2001: We were too scared to do anything so we stayed home.

You get the picture...but this year was different! For one thing, gay men KNOW how to throw a damn party! We drove two and a half hours to attend Bill & Guy's NY Eve bash and it was so worth it. First off, they had decorated the lanai like a damn prom! There were giant mylar balloons tied across the length of the pool that said "2005" -- there were lights strung all over the place -- formal table linens and centerpieces with flowers and candles -- and a screen that had images projected onto it. There was a sit-down meal that was absolutely phenomenal and then, the best part happened at midnight...

First, they showed a pictorial of images from 2004 that was timed to music. THEN, after the countdown was a fireworks display. And I'm not talking about a few bottle rockets...this was something out of Disney!!!

It was by far the best way I've ever rung in the new year -- I hope this means that 2005 will be among the best years of my life. I am optimistic that it will be.