: 'Heaven' by Live
: Festive
What were you doing at midnight? I was a party surrounded by my closest friends and some wonderful acquaintances. We toasted the new year after playing games such as Trivial Pursuit and Cranium and gnoshing on goodies. D's sparkling grape juice was a perfect cap to a wonderful evening. She made a veggie 'pizza' that was very good--raw veggies in a ranch/sour cream sauce, I think, spread out on a pizza crust. There was also a yummy bean dip and plenty of vegetarian-friendly munchies.
I'm home now, tired, but pretty happy with how things went tonight. N's townhome is beautiful and open. Like me, she and her roomate have a menagerie, in their case two parakeets, one darling but easily excited Cocker/Lab mix, and her cat, a Devon Rex, whose fur is just this incredible curly texture with tortoiseshell markings. She was very gentle (no putting her claws everywhere for this one), very curious, and absolutely hilarious to watch. I discovered that I'm much bettter on the facts/words aspect of Cranium than on the charades/illustrating side, but I can apparently draw pictures without looking very, very well. I also realise that I suck big time on pop culture Trivial Pursuit, but that was okay, because everyone else did, too. It was really a lot of fun.
It was a busy day, as if I were trying to cram a whole lot into the last remaining hours of the year. I got the last job application I needed to in (yay!), went by the unemployment office for my eligibility interview (which went well, although since I've only got a couple months left, I now have to have three job contacts per week, which is a little daunting) and ran some errands. I managed to trip over a tree root at one point and bruise my knee, but otherwise made it through the day unscathed. I couldn't complain too much, though, since I fell outside a restaurant where I was being treated to dinner.
Some random stuff: today marks the 12th anniversary of my cat Buns coming to live with us. I'd had a hard time trying to find a cat in December after I divorced, and Spock was beside himself since his sister had stayed with my ex. Fortunately someone in the army was moving to Hawaii and couldn't take him with her. I'm not sure when his birthday is, but I guess this is as close as I can come in terms of celebration.
Speaking of birthdays, it's apparently DA's big (whisper) 3-0. Be sure to go over to his comments and leave him a birthday wish. And don't worry...the 30s is the best decade of all--you've lived through the big mistakes and you're still young enough to enjoy life anyway. Happy Birthday. Hope you don't get a hangover from wild partying.
I was halfway tempted to borrow D's husband E for a few minutes for a 'first footing'. That's a Scottish tradition where it's considered lucky for a dark-haired man to enter the house first for the new year. Dark hair is preferred to light, and any man, I believe, is preferred to a woman. Red hair is considered unlucky. I'm not sure if that's due to associations with witches or with Vikings. A man with dark hair and a red beard is right out, by the way. So, dark-haired men can make the rounds of house blessing, usually enjoying drink and merriment for his efforts. It's been awhile since I've known any guys that are dark-haired.
Okey dokey, I'm officially sleepy. I plan on sticking around home tomorrow, maybe watch a parade, work on the house, etc. Only four more days of vacation left, and my weekends are usually pretty full. :)
