Saturday, December 31, 2011

1983

Ah...it's New Year's Eve...

Is there a night more fraught with stress and pressure?

It's like if you don't do something AMAZING on New Year's Eve...well, then, your whole year is gonna suck.

Not true...

But many of us feel that.

It's 11:00 in the morning and I still don't know what I am gonna do tonight. I have offers of fun things to do but I'm not sure what I feel like doing.

So I'm not gonna worry about it.

I might just end up spending the evening with my brother and his kids...which, by the way, are some of the darn cutest kids in the world.

My 6 year old niece...I'm gonna call her "Bella" (not her real name...and no, this has nothing to do with Twilight) cause she is so beautiful. And she is adorable. She is my bella. Last night she was pretending to give us a cooking class...she told us she was going to make us something "light and frothy"...

How freakin' cute is it that she said "frothy"...you gotta love a 6 year old that says "frothy".

My sister in law has done an amazing job with the kids. My brother, God bless him (and I love him so), has not always been around to be the greatest dad. But he loves his kids and he is really trying to do his best. And they love him. And I am happy that they have the love and stability that my sister in law gives them. She, my sister in law, is no longer married to my brother but that doesn't change the fact she is my sister. And I love her so dearly...

So I'll decide what I am doing about 4...might go with GOTT and GOTTESS, might hang later with D-nice, might take my niece and nephew to the club for Bingo...I'm not worried about it.

One thing I do know is that I WILL NOT be allowing Ke$ha Barbie to host a party here.

That is a "hell to the no" in my book.

She's mad at me about it...

Too bad...

So sad...

Not gonna happen!

I started the day off with a great spin class at the club...75 minutes of working my patootie off and it felt good. While we were spinning away the instructor (who sadly was not JayVee or J'taime Jamie but a good gal nonetheless) played "1983" and asked if we remember what we were doing then...

I had a flashback...

It was really New Year's Eve 1982/New Year's 1983...

Nuevo Laredo

I'm with a group of friends...

I think I blogged about this before...

So it is New Year's Day...the night before had been ridiculous...I have a vague recollection of going to Boy's Town.

yes, we went to Boy's Town...

What happens in Boy's Town stays in Boy's Town but I can assure you that me, and the other gal with me and our dates, were only casual bystanders. All we did is drink cheap liquor. The rest is a blur...thank goodness...

So the next day, New Year's Day, we went to the Cadillac Bar to recover.

We run into some other friends. We all sit down and start ordering the recovery tequila.

One of the gals at the table is a friend...I'll call her "Pistol Packing Mama" (PPM) because she was.

She had a pistol in her purse.

In the Cadillac Bar

In Nuevo Laredo

So PPM is on her 18th shot of tequila and she looks around the room and says:

"those Christmas ball ornaments hanging from the deer heads are bothering me"

(actually she dropped the f-bomb in between several of the words but I will spare you)

She says:

"I'm gonna take care of that right now"

Now she is seriously slurring her words and I feel a BIG problem coming up.

She reaches into her purse and shows me her little pearl-handled pistol.

I almost threw up

I said "NO, PPM! You can't do that"

And she says:

"but they are bothering me and I think I will just shoot them off!"

(again the f-bomb was inserted about every other word)

Thank God her date heard her.

I took the purse

The date carried her out...

Damn...

That left me with a purse with a pistol in it...

in Mexico...

in a border town...

I handed the purse to my date and told him that he better go and get rid of the bag.

He did.

He was a gentleman.

Yikes....I can only imagine the consequences if she had just pulled out the little pistol and started shooting...

In the Cadillac Bar

In Mexico...

I have had much calmer New Year's Eves since...

My most memorable one...one with GOOD memories was New Year's Eve 20 years later...in 2003.

My brother and SIL (Sister in Law)...wait, she needs a name...I'm gonna call her Special Sister (SS for short)...

Ok, so brother and SS are living in South Africa and we went over to spend a month with them.

They lived in the northern part of South Africa a few hours from Johanessburg but we decided to take down to Plettenberg Bay and enjoy the ocean and see some of their friends who moved there.

There is a long story attached to the friends that I will share another time but the short version is that the friend, Cathy, was the daughter of one of my dad's very dearest friends. Back in 1982 I was supposed to go to South Africa to spend the summer with her but the social unrest (apartheid) was too much and our dads decided we should not be there. So 20 years later I finally connected with the girl I was going to live with. My brother always said we were twins separated at birth and he was right. She is the closest thing to a clone that I have...looks, actions, words, etc.

So we are in Plettenberg Bay and because it is summer I had the joy of taking my kids to swim in the Indian Ocean that evening. Then we cleaned up and went to Cathy's house...and we had a "brai" (South African bar-b-que) and drank a lot of great South African wine and had the best time. My children were in heaven and so was I. My mother and my sister and her boyfriend (who is now her husband) were with us...and so was my ex...and we all agreed it was the best holiday ever.

The next day we went to a polo match and had a grand time...and used the champagne there to ease our hangovers.

It was a magical trip...and one I will never forget.

Because when you are surrounded by love, and you find a friend who is just like you and you connect, and you have everyone you love with you, and you are under the stars, drinking wine, eating great food and being together...

well, I don't need a lot of glitter and streamers and fancy parties...

well, yes I do need glitter but you know what I mean...

The best times are sometimes the simplest.

And there, under the South African sky, I had everything I needed to bring in the New Year.

Inspiration Song: "1983" by Neon Trees

Bye Darlings...Happy New Year! Make sure you remember to thank God for all your blessings...one of mine is a little girl who says "frothy"

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