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Can you stay awake until midnight?
With the holidays nearly behind us (and showing up on our behinds), just one major party remains -- New Year's Eve. Many Christmas traditions begin as a child and continue through to adulthood, the same year after year, only to be passed on to the next generation. New Year's Eve is different. It evolves as you age, as you become a couple, as you grow older, as you have children, and did I mention, as the years pile up.
As a child, you slowly become aware of the midnight significance on New Year's Eve. You try with all your might to make it to the 12 a.m. hour, despite the protests of your parents or babysitter. Parents have been known to set the clock ahead one or two or six hours just to get the kids to bed. In the end, the child just passes out on the couch before the magical hour anyway. At some point, you are able to stay awake until midnight without much work. While that was an accomplishment, for me that meant a new problem -- boredom. What are you supposed to do for five hours, when your sole purpose was to stay awake? For me and my best friend, that meant innovation. She and I became adept at building and quickly maneuvering obstacle courses involving the living and dining room furniture. The 13-year-old dog, which moved every three to four hours, usually became part of the course. On the plus side, we never required a trip to the emergency room because of our resourcefulness. Even better, our "slightly inebriated" parents would return and "find" the obstacle course by tripping over the footstool and falling into the three-high pile of dining chairs. As we moved into our teen-age years, this just inspired us more and gave us new ideas for future New Year's Eves. Why not create a welcome home surprise for our "altered" parents? Erring on the side of safety, this usually entailed a bucket of glitter hanging over the stairwell, ready to fall when they ascended the stairs to their bedroom; a box of torn and shredded paper resting on the main door of the house; and squeaky toys on every step. Nothing dangerous, just lots of cleaning the next day by two teenagers and adults with hangovers.
At some point, you become old enough to attend a New Year's party when yet another problem rolls along: Do you have someone to kiss at midnight? Fortunately, that weight is lifting from your shoulders when you get married. Truth be known, it's half the reason people get married. As a couple, you fall from those two camps of revelers which form every New Year's Eve: those desperately seeking out someone to kiss and those desperately avoiding that someone to kiss. And then the kids come along. You've been up to midnight (for at least a few minutes) five out of the past seven nights anyway. What is the big deal about New Year's Eve? It's just one more night that you are required to stay up late and miss out on your sleep. At least, now you have an eight-month-old who will stay up with you. Finally, you've got it all in place. You're old enough to go out; you're old enough to party; you're old enough to have a significant other; you're old enough to leave your children alone or with a babysitter. Then it happens.
You reach a new point, which somehow feels vaguely familiar. It becomes a chore to stay awake until midnight. You find yourself slapping yourself in the face, pinching your arm, doing jumping jacks (and nearly passing out from over exertion anyway), just trying to stay awake. You consider setting the clock ahead one, two, maybe six hours just so you can get to bed. And in the end, you just pass out on the couch before the magical hour anyway. Happy New Year to all. I hope you stay awake to see it.