New Year's Eve + New Year's Resolutions

Growing up, New Year's Eve was a holiday where I got to hang out with the crazy half of my family, dancing, running around and having a blast until super late. The family I visited was a bit of a mess (lots of alcohol was involved), but it always ended with us holding hands in a circle and singing Auld Lang Syne, whether I knew the lyrics or not (still don't). That party kind of stopped happening, and New Years became me watching Dick Clark with my parents. Woo! As I got older, I had a few fantastic years where EVERYONE was there and we partied early into the morning. Sadly, as with most thing, as we all get older, New Year's Eve has kind of become the holiday that people either spread out for, or just don't celebrate at all. I seem to do something different every year, with different people or by myself. Last year I went to Chawdogg's house, and although it was fun seeing 5 or 6 people there I hadn't seen since college, seeing fireworks, and having Chawdogg's mom awkwardly kiss me, there were a ton of people I didn't know and it was a bit blah. Dan, Naro, Sara, Kevin and Gina all partied at some bar last year, and decided to do it again this year. I was pretty set on doing this as soon as they said they were doing it again, and I was happy to know that they'd be going to the same bar they went to last year, which was apparently the Coat of Arms in Portsmouth- the only bar I've been to (and like) in Portsmouth. Dan invited a bunch of people from his work and to the shock of the world, Mysterio and Masha came up all the way from CT to party with us. We had a great time and I took waaaaaay too many pictures. Here are ones I like.

The night started off weird, with Sara getting a tattoo. 

maybe getting another tattoo was on her 2011 resolutions list?

Then we headed to the Coat, where we got the perfect table, way at the end, next to the dart boards. This meant I played a lot of darts against Naro, who brutally kicked my ass. 

he's surprisingly damn good

I like this way of taking pictures.

So did Kevin.

Here's Kevin serving up some goodness.

We played Apples to Apples, which I had never played before. It was super fun. I destroyed everyone the first time, then Naro destroyed everyone twice as bad as me the second. Kevin further proved why Kevin + a camera= hilarity.

This may be my favorite.

Gina and I always take excellent pictures.

Especially when I'm holding the camera.

Here I am being arty:

and giving Kevin enormous nostrils.

I don't think Mysterio was screaming here, I think he was yawning.

I don't know who these people are, but they seemed to be having a lot of fun.

Some dancing happened:

And then, noise. Never, EVER give us things that make noise. Especially Kevin and me. We can't control ourselves.

Here's Gina and me having a noisemaker fight.

We didn't do much. We hung out around our table and just talked and laughed. It was awesome, and for someone who wants to reconnect and spend more time with friends, it was perfect. The Coat was great too- they gave us champagne at 7:30 for Chinese New Years (but not at midnight, which was odd I guess), it was packed but not ridiculously so, the bartenders were insane and somehow friendly and calm the whole night, my cheese fries were delicious, drinks were reasonably priced and tasty, and they had a 90's hip hop DJ who kept things entertaining all night. To be fair, he kind of sucked though, since I was super into rap in the early to mid 90's and I heard like 8 songs I knew-. It's a bunch of drunk white people in a bar in NH on New Years dude- play the hits.  

I kept it pretty reasonable all night, which is even more weird since this was my first New Year's as an ex-straight edger and this is stereotypically the "get destroyed" holiday. Good thing I don't follow stereotypes! After trying a few weird drinks, I rang the New Year in with a very classy and delicious white russian, good friends, some awkward kisses, getting really messy with chips and salsa, and for some reason, Black Sabbath. The DJ decided that after 4 hours of rap, the only thing that made sense at new years was Black Sabbath. I don't know- maybe it was his homage to the upcoming end of the world, but it was odd. 

Naro and Sara headed home, and the rest of us headed back to Dan's apartment. After drawing inappropriate things all over his car, I drove home as I had sobered up and was the only one volunteering to drive. We had a brief stop for Dan on the way back to his apartment,

and then I played Call of Duty under Dan's name, split screened with Kevin, and then Mysterio. We were TERRIBLE, but you're welcome Dan, I still leveled you up some. Everyone headed to bed and I decided I was way too hot and had way too bad of a headache to be able to sleep, so I headed home at 4 in the morning on roads with a billion cops on them. 

Mysterio and The Masha

It was a solid New Year, and if they decide to do it again next year, I'm probably in. Let's hope more people want to get together next year too (if the world doesn't end). Here's to not being old farts in 2012.

Sorry Dan and Masha, I guess I didn't get a picture with everyone.

Oh, here's a sweet "Happy New Year" video I made:

"Happy New Year!" from Mike Alexander on Vimeo

2011 was obviously a pretty amazing year for me- one of the better years of my life. How could it not be? I quit a job I wasn't happy at anymore, moved out of a basement I wasn't happy in anymore, and did everything right afterwards. I moved in with 2 of my best friends, dedicated my life to enjoying life for once, and started a blog to document it all. I reignited a lost love for writing, found a love for photography and exploration, have started bringing back a love for art, and am beginning to find music again. I started being less hung up on bullshit, I became more positive, more loving, more honest, more free. Now, I just have to keep it up. Whether 2012 brings a new job or a continuous emptying of savings to live a vacation, and whether it brings yet another move in September, I will keep up the awesome. I want to stay the way I am but get better, and I want to keep this blog going, whatever it may mean in the future. 

NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS:

I don't usually make New Year's resolutions, and if I do, I certainly don't tell anyone- telling people you've made them is a surefire way to never do them and have people call you on it when you don't. I don't like setting myself up for ridicule and failure to make empty promises because "it's something you do." Or at least that's what I say. But come on, we all make them. 

And if I have a blog that thousands and thousands of people (me) read, why not throw a few up here. 

1. Do more things with, have more fun with, and reconnect with friends that I miss and don't see enough, mainly the blue zoo crew. I'm going to try my best to birth more events this year- the idea being that if it's a huge event, everyone will go, it will become a tradition, and eventually, it will be something we can all look forward to. 

2. Record a song a month. Where to record is a problem, but I have some possibilities. Music is something I need badly in my life, and I finally have everything I need (minus knowledge and drive) to record.

3. Start a "postal service" project with Hilton. He was my musical partner for years, then he moved to San Diego. It's time for us to start mailing each other tracks and making some epic jams.

4. Finish my Dongus Bologna album. 

5. Complete 1 art piece a month. I tend to not do art for long periods of time, get super into something, then leave it sitting there. I want to be able to say "DONE" on 1 a month. That should be a reasonable goal. I'd also like to try and just do more art in general, even if it's just crappy sketches.

6. Get the balls to spend a lot of money on a nice camera. Whether a nice camera means I find a job involving photography or not, I have developed quite a love for photography, and it's time I take it more seriously.

7. Ridiculously organize and drastically cut down my CD collection by at least 200 CDs (I probably have over a thousand). I have started this process, and it is going to be a long one. 

8. Projects: I have a few projects I've been putting off forever. Winter without a job should be the perfect time to do these. They include digitizing VHS tapes of classic stuff (homemade movie type stuff), digitizing cassette tapes (absurdly classic audio recordings), etc. In a time where it's this easy to digitize stuff and hard drives are pretty cheap, there's no reason for me to still own stuff like this in their original dated form. 

9. Get to 2011 by the end of the year on my "best of" lists. I started doing my top 10 best albums for every year awhile ago, and stopped at 1992. I got busy and 1993 kind of sucked, but I need to get through the bad stuff to get to the entertaining stuff. I'd love to be able to start having one every year, but I need to get caught up first.

10. Be more awesome, and live the dream. If I'm gonna call other people on not hanging out and doing cool stuff, I need to make sure to continue being what I want other people to be. And the things I love, I need to do more of. Fuck living a boring, meaningless life. Live a life more awesome.

currently listening to: Stay Ahead Of The Weather- "We Better Get Goin' If We're Gonna"