It's 9:15 p.m. Colorado time as I start writing this. I can feel the New Year gathering in the Atlantic, building offshore, straining toward the land until the stroke of midnight EST when it breaks over the eastern shoreline and sweeps across the United States like a temporal tsunami. New York will fall before it, Chicago an hour later, then it will wash over me here in the mountain time zone and continue on to engulf Los Angeles.
It's going to feel strange not to be with Beth as midnight strikes. I've spent the last four or five New Years Eves with her and it doesn't feel right to be elsewhere for this one. On the bright side, I'm getting bragging rights on 1998 since I'm getting there first. But she'll have 97 to hold over my head, seeing as how it'll be an hour longer for her. That's okay, though; I'll take a jumpstart on the future over stalling in the past every day -- especially on December 31st.
But still, I wish I could be with Beth and Zoe tonight. I've only been gone for two days and I miss them already. I'll see them soon enough, but the fact that technically it'll be next year makes it seem longer. At least it won't be the next millenium.
I'm going to wrap this up so I can upload it sometime this year. Happy New Year, gentle reader. Let's hope 98 brings good things for us all.
Should old acquaintance be forgot...
