"For some of us are out of breath,
And all of us are fat!"
And all of us are fat!"
Well, ain't this a great segway to my long over due blog landing at the end of the year!
Happy New Year, My Friends!
It's just minutes now till the New York Ball drops. And, call me crazy, but I've unlatched my bra already. Oh, yes, I have! I feel the need to unleash, to breeeeeathe. My pant button is next. Too much chocolate. Too much of a good thang over winter break.
Time for my flannel pajamas. This is how I'll end 2011. Happy in flannels.
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My New Year's Eve Day is best described in documented texts with my BFFs ... which I won't bore you with. Just check your own phone. It's the same deal. Like any other day. Negotiating time and kids. Mama 1 grocery shops with kids on NYE = nightmare. Due to the trauma, Mama 1 takes Mama 2's kids, so that Mama 2 can grocery shop sans kids on NYE = also nightmare but sans kids. Props for Mama 1. Über props.
Today my hubbie is working. And the hubbie of my BFF is also working. The hubbies are firefighters. So they are either scheduled to work, or in my hubbie's scene, he will volunteer to work... on New Year's Eve.
It's okay.
I like it.
I like it simple these days.
I like that we plan for nothing on New Year's Eve. The kids know nothing different. I relish the Nothing Plan, but can't help but remember how it was for me back when...
I'm from Altadena, Ca. Just north of Pasadena. It's been more than twenty years since I've been on the Rose Bowl route...middle of the night. I can say that I've camped out on the ROSE PARADE ROUTE. I was a teenager, a teenager yearning, planning, stumbling into the next party on New Years' Eve on Colorado Blvd. One year, we were in sleeping bags along the route, and the sidewalk sprinklers turned on. Some of my girlfriends were so pissed. So Pissed! I remember laughing. I knew instantly and instinctively, the moment was about to be a precious memory. It was so fun because we were, like, so teenagers. It was so OMG, way before OMG lead the Text Nation. So many absurd memories, but that one sticks out: Sprinklers. Priceless.
I can say that, as a teenager, I have partied in the best of homes adjacent to the parade route on New Year's Eve. Of course, I took it all for granted then. Now I know it was all so unique, and precious. And I was just plain fortunate to be there, and then. Some of it a blur, but...whatever.
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And I'm fortunate to be here now.
My fellow mama BFF and I have been, like OMG, texting each other all day... like two young teenagers yearning, planning, stumbling into the next party. Only the party at sunset ain't so exciting. This party is called "How to get kids happy and asleep by, oh say, 9pm." That party.
We have young kids now.
And together we are seeking a way to exhaust these energetic kids so that we can enjoy some Mama time after sunset.
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I respond to her text, which offered to host me, my 3 kids, and 1 extra kid I am overseeing tonight, at her home with 5 other kids. I am responsible for 4 kids. She is responsible for 5 kids. We almost combined the masses.... almost... but better judgement intervened. I wanted a chick flick on the boob tube, she wanted to hug her e-reader. We Mamas felt each other's vibe, even through texting, and our New Year's Eve dusk began.
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My mom called me this morning. I told her my plans. She listened. She told me her plans. She and my Dad would be visiting my brother's party, aka Party No.1. At 9pm, they planned to venture to their friends home, aka Party No. 2. My parents are both in their mid-70s. 70s!
I can't imagine a late night out these days, New Year's Eve, or any other. But it sure is sweet living vicariously through all the teenagers on Pasadena's infamous Orange Grove Blvd. tonight and through my 70-year old parents enjoying the sunset of their lives tonight, with family and with friends... and they will be singing an old beloved Scottish song...
Auld Lang Syne...
...The Good Old Days...
XOXO Breeze
