On the Eve of 2007

Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true. ~Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 1850

I still think going out on New Year's Eve is lame, so if you can't make it to Times Square, I recommend curling up with someone and watching it on TV.
~Anderson Cooper

New Year's Eve can do strange things to people. It's like in the final scene of the movie "When Harry Met Sally." Harry hunts down Sally at a New Year's Eve party and tells her he wants to spend the rest of his life with her. Sally doesn't bite - at first.

"I'm sorry Harry," she says. "I know it's New Years Eve, I know you're feeling lonely, but you just can't show up here, tell me you love me and expect that to make everything all right. It doesn't work this way."

For most people, New Year's Eve does work this way. It's a chance to clean the slate, start fresh and do the things you've always wanted to do. Harry pleads it's not because it's New Year's Eve, but because: "when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of the life to start as soon as possible," he says.

I believed Harry loved Sally, but I can't help but think it was New Year's Eve that gave him the final push. It's a holiday notorious for producing high expectations and delivering big disappointments. But nonetheless every year, with optimism by our side, we don a party hat, clink champagne glasses and vow through resolutions to do things differently in the year to come. For Harry, it was to live not a day more without the love of his life.

And like some of you, my expectations for this evening are high. I'm spending the evening with someone I didn't expect to spend another holiday with ever again. I'm hoping that he will be possessed by Harry's spirit and make a declaration of his undying love for me. If you listen closely you can hear the soundtrack music in the background, but as I pull my head out of the clouds, I will undoubtedly wake-up with the realism that it was one perfect evening and that there is nothing that can't be fixed with good hard run and a dose of reality as real versus reel life comes back into focus.


Everyone has their own way of celebrating, how will you be ringing in the New Year?

Thanks to Cassie Pence for the perfect inspiration. And thanks to an Anderfan for the photos!