How Was Your New Year's Eve?

I had a different kind of Eve this year.

In the past, our options were:

1) Have we been invited to anyone's? No? Do we want to invite anyone in? No?
2) Should we take in First Night activities? No?
3) How about staying home to watch movies and eat pizza? How's that different from what you do most weekends, dear?

But this year, The Boy was invited to his friend's house for the evening and a sleepover and The Man is far away. That left me at Roseneath to close 2005 and bring in 2006. It was a very good Eve.

A friend and I decided we would bring in the new year together. She wanted to sit and be entertained. I wanted to be with a few people, not a large crowd. And I didn't want to stay in or stay out all night. That meant staying in for part of the night and being out for part of the night. I was thinking we'd meet late in the evening for a toast and go watch fireworks. But my friend had a much better idea.

We took in a Second City show! Five of us set out at 7:00 pm to our evening of entertainment and good cheer. The Second City has a new home on Mercer Street. The show, The Second City Reloaded, is the company's first show at the new theatre with a band of very fine comics.

We were seated just as the show was about to start. As the lights went out, our server crouched low to take our drink orders so she could shine her flashlight on her pad without distracting other customers. As she stood up, another server walked by with a full tray of drinks. Head meets tray and the drinks came tumbling down around us. A bottle of beer teetered a bit, then went plonk on its side, going glug-glug-glug down the whole left side of my body. Another friend at the table got his arm coated with strawberry dacquari. But we're a cool bunch in good humour. Friend and I stood up and quietly went to clean up in the washroom.

When I got back to the table, the servers were busy cleaning up our area. One man at a table in front of us did not get soaked, but his coat did. Did he make a fuss! He got a voucher for dry cleaning.

The main show on stage was still fantastic though. I guess good comics thrive on being irreverent - how far can they go without crossing the line into poor taste. I thought they hadn't crossed the line. One friend thought they had, several times. As a parting gift, each guest received a hardcover book called The Second City - Backstage at the World's Greatest Comedy Theatre and a voucher for a return visit to the show in January. What a deal!

After the show, we went back to Friend's house to toast in the new year. Three others joined us around 11:00. At midnight, the eight of us toasted each other and Friend opened the front door to welcome in the new year. A Scottish tradition, apparently.

I came home to find a message from The Man, who had phoned earlier at 4:30 when new year arrived in Yemen. He was thoughtful enough to call again when new year arrived for us. There was also a message from our cousin in Australia, wishing us happy new year. It was a good start to a hopeful year.