Easing in the New Year

New Year's Eve was a pleasant stress-free time once I made it home from work. Traffic wasn't too heavy so I reached the apartment much quicker that I thought I would, with plenty of time to slice the pumpkin roll I made for the dinner party that evening. CM arrived a bit later, and we tidied up before trying to be fashionably late to the party.

And by "fashionably", I mean 15 minutes.

A few othes were already there, snacking on the spinach-artichoke dip and other goodies while the enchiladas baked in the oven. We hugged our hellos, exchanged the remaining few Christmas gifts, and chatted about Disney annual passes and handjobs. During the middle of the laughter, some new faces arrived. They glanced into the room for a quick examination of us, then headed the other way down the hall to the kitchen. Where they hid themselves for most of the dinner. It wasn't until they had to leave, to go to another party, that they briefly introduced themselves then dashed away.

We took that as our cue to leave as well, and the remaining partyers headed for a pub crawl of the gay bars along Broadway. Starting at the overpacked Paradise in which we were forced into a corner and couldn't move except toward the exit, we stopped at tem all, comandeering a table at the Brit for at least an hour before moving to the smoke-filled Mineshaft, to the sardine-like Falcon and finally ending at the Sweetwater where we counted down the seconds until 2009. Ballons popped, champagne poured, kisses abounded, a young girl passed out on the pool table -- a very non-descipt but fun evening.

We strolled back toward the apartment in the fog shortly after midnight, listening as the myriad fireworks exploded all around.