How I Said Goodbye to 2009

For most of my twenties, New Year’s Eve has served the role of de facto reunion for my group of college friends. No matter where we were in life, New Year’s was a time where we all came together to celebrate friendship, re-tell old stories, and drink until we were ready to create new ones. Since we turned 21, we have spent New Year’s Eve in New York, Chicago, New Orleans, Austin, & Houston

Nothing lasts forever. For a variety of reasons, things never really came together this year. Jon, Reid, & Jeff were in Austin, the Trinity girls and a few Rice friends were in Denver (separately), the Rammage triumvirate celebrated in Dallas, the Chicago doctors stayed home, and a few other friends were spread out in Houston, Atlanta, Miami. For someone as nostalgic as I am, the fact that this tradition was on hiatus (if not over) was difficult to accept.

I began to look forward to New Year’s Eve 2009 when Julia, C.J., and I decided that we were going to celebrate together. We made it an open invitation to co-workers and friends, and ended up recruiting a group of 11 to take the train up to Portland, Maine. Besides the 3 of us, Emlen, Brian, Matt, Rebeca (yes… A Rice connection!), Rebeca’s friend Samm, Dave, Lola, and C.J.’s girlfriend Kim. If you don’t recognize all of those names from my previous entries…well, it isn’t only because I haven’t written in a few months. Not counting Samm (who I had only met once before), I’m not sure the rest of us had ever all hung out socially before. Instead of hanging out with the same people I had forever, I was going to be celebrating with an unknown entity. Going into the night, I was cautiously optimistic that the group would gel (SPOILER ALERT: It did!) With that in mind, here are the ten words I will always associate with NYE Portland 2009.

1) SNOW – When we arrived in Portland, snow was falling steadily. Although this wasn’t much of a problem for us in Portland and actually provided a pretty amazing view out of our hotel window, the snow caused havoc with the groups that were driving up from Boston. Emlen ended up soldiering through a five hour drive (it is normally two), but unfortunately Lola and Kim were stranded in Boston.

2) BED – Although everyone was very disappointed that they couldn’t make it, it did allow us to consolidate everyone into one bedroom. Nine people in one room may seem like a lot to those of you who are post-college, but to those of us who still hang out with 22-year-olds and/or make less than $30,000 a year, this seemed like a perfectly reasonable decision. We ordered two cots up to the room and proceeded to combine them with the two beds in the room to make one giant bed. I wish I would have remembered to take a picture…it looked like something straight out of Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice. Somehow with that much bed space, Brian still managed to sleep in a chair.

3) JERSEY SHORE – Ok, I cheated. That’s two words. But I can’t think of a better way to describe the Oasis, a ridiculous bar that we went to around 10:00. This bar had a weird mix of teenagers test driving their new fake IDs, predatory middle-age men looking to meet them, guidos (MTV officially made that term ok to say) in tank tops or Ed Hardy shirts, recent divorcees on the hunt, and two guys in brightly colored tuxedos who looked like they got lost on the way back from The Roxbury. C.J. and I looked at each other and agreed that there was absolutely no way we were spending midnight there. But I have to admit, that bar immediately picked up what had theretofore been a slow night. Well, it was either that bar, or the speed that we finished our drinks to get out of there.

4) DJ LENZA – My favorite part of the Oasis was their house dj, DJ Lenza. Now Mr. Lenza’s whole persona was a sight to behold. His booth sat atop a large boat-shaped stage (yes, he did play I’m on a Boat). When he spoke over the microphone, he sounded like Isaac Hayes. This was only strange because he looked like this and when he wasn’t speaking into the mike, he sounded like a normal white kid from Southie. I couldn’t figure this out…he was saying things that made sense (such as “It’s 2 hours ‘til 2010!”), but it was coming out in the clearly African-American voice. Either he had a friend pre-record all of these sound bites, or he had some voice changer on his microphone. Either way, it was very jarring since he had an open booth and we could all clearly see that he was white. Unsurprisingly, Julia befriended him and was given his pre-made mix cd. Can’t wait to hear that one next time I am in her car.

5) PUNCHED – We spent the turn of midnight at a bar that was perfect for our purposes. There were multiple bars and a dance floor, but also enough table space and quieter areas to relax when you needed to escape the hysteria. After the New Year’s countdown, everyone was exuberant and happily celebrating with those around them. Well, almost everyone. Dave said “Happy New Year!” to a group at the table next to us…this led him getting punched in the head by a girl at that table. I never got the full story, but I think that he got hit because Samm had said something to the girl’s boyfriend. Somehow, Dave got hit for that. At the time, I didn’t care at all…I just thought it was funny that he was hit by a girl. I’m a great friend to have your back.

6) PICTURE – Thirty minutes later, I agreed to kiss a girl for the sake of a good picture…I’m nothing if not altruistic. The next morning when scrolling through a series of embarrassing drunken pictures, there was nothing but laughter. Well, that is until she came to the kiss picture. She exclaimed, “Oh, God!” as her head immediately dropped into her hands. That picture was deleted within seconds. Causing that kind of reaction is just what I need for the old ego. In all honesty, though, I probably deserved it. Last year in Austin, I did the exact same thing to a picture of the girl I made out with post-New Year’s 2008!!! As Truong, Emlen, and Tes would say, that’s Karmageddon!

7) GALLIVANTING – I’m probably not the person to write this section, but Brian and Dave apparently had the most exciting portion of their night after they split up from the group. I’m not sure of all the details of their adventure, but it included smoking cigars, high-fiving every stranger they saw, “chivalrously” offering up our hotel room to a scantily dressed girl who was abandoned by her friends, and even being invited up to the hotel room of two older women (they declined). At one point, Brian tried to get two girls on the street to give each other a New Year’s kiss. When they said they couldn’t because they were sisters, Brian’s only response was. “So?” My friends…the same no matter what city I am living in.

8) STEALING – Julia is a little bit of a closet klepto. She never takes anything of value, but over the last couple of years she has come home with a framed picture from an Irish pub, the key to the city of Cambridge, a pitcher from the same Irish pub, and too many other pint glasses and knick knacks to count. At the last bar of the night, her latent streak came out as she swiped this basket off the shelf in one swoop. Any suggestions on what she should keep in it?

9) GRAPES – Rebeca’s family is originally from Spain, so she introduced us to an interesting New Year’s Eve tradition. In Spain, everyone is supposed to eat 12 grapes over the last 12 seconds of the year to bring luck for the following year. Everyone was excited to try this, but unfortunately we could only find the oversized seeded grapes. Although we didn’t work it into the countdown, we did try to eat the grapes when we got back to the hotel room. This didn’t work quite as planned…everyone who tried to do it either choked on the seeds or gave up to throw them at each other across the room. I’m not sure if this portends a year of bad luck, but it may have been worth it.

10) CELEBRATION – The old joke was always that New Year’s Eve was a night for amateurs, but I really enjoyed the professionalism we had built up over the decade. There were always people drifting in and out of the group, but the core were always the people who knew us the best and had bared witness to the myriad of embarrassing things we had done. While everything else changed, New Year’s Eve had been this reassuring constant. Well this year, that changed too. That said, I had as much fun this year as I have had any year since New Orleans (which might never be topped). I probably have always over-emphasized New Year’s. Sure, it is special to have your oldest friends around, but a group of new friends who are up for a good time is a pretty great substitute.

What I’m Listening To: – Don’t Haunt This Place – Rural Alberta Advantage, All My Friends – LCD Soundsystem, You Can’t Say No Forever – Lacrosse