I Suck At New Year's Eve

Today is the day Karen's cousin (Karlene) from Lowell ruined New Year's Eve. And they claim there is a lot to love about Lowell. I'm just kidding. I like to give Karlene a hard time. Essentially for the past decade or so, a tradition has been created between Karen, Karlene, Karlene's husband (Tommy) and I as we celebrate New Year's Eve.

That tradition was interrupted this year when Karlene made the executive decision to cancel our plans today. In all fairness, Tommy was sick. So it only made sense to cancel plans. Hopefully, Tommy is okay and does not have the virus that Karen has. Karen has been sick for what seems like forever (over three weeks). Get better, Tommy!

With the cancellation in plans this year, Karen and I had nothing to do on New Year's Eve. I guess you can say that I suck at New Year's Eve. My first reaction of course, aside from the "I hope Tommy feels better" thought, was to contact my BFF (Kerry). After all, for what seems like a decade, Kerry and my friend (Jen) have always hinted at wanting to spend New Year's Eve with us. And with the cancellation, today was the chance.

Luckily for me, Kerry happened to be around today. Having spent last night at my friend's (Marc and Kelley), she ended up going to Stars in Hingham for breakfast and Red Robin in Plymouth for lunch with her family. After her family fun, she was able to stop by and hang out.

Needless to say, I had a great time hanging out with Kerry. One thing that I will remember from today is my twenty one month old daughter (Briana) playing with Kerry. Briana, while playing with Kerry, purposely tossed her Winnie the Pooh taggy blanket up, over, and behind our new couch. So when Kerry went reaching over the back of the couch to grab the taggy blanket, Briana immediately started tickling both of Kerry's feet. I found that rather comical.

I'll probably remember that for a while, much like how I will remember the time Briana went to give my friend (Joanna) a hug only to slyly reach in and grab Joanna's iPhone from within her pocket. That little sneaky pickpocket.

Incidentally, Kerry was not the only person to visit us on New Year's Eve. My favorite sister-in-law (Janine) and her BFF (Gretchen) also stopped on over. Apparently, they had some time to kill as they waited for their Chinese food order for their New Year's Eve dinner. Sadly, I did not get to hang out with Janine and Gretchen that much. In terms of timing, I was in the process of making dinner for Briana when they came on by. It was probably just as well since I would have been the only guy in the room.

As it turns out, Gretchen will not partake in my dastardly plans to play a practical joke on Kerry the next time Kerry leaves her clothes outside of her mother's place. Gretchen told Kerry that she would not take her clothes. The good news, however, is that she did not mention anything about not letting me into the condo. So theoretically, I could still take the clothes myself. For anyone curious, Gretchen lives in the same condo complex as Kerry's mom, which is where the connection is.

Anyway, it was definitely a fun and interesting day today. It was great hanging out with Kerry. I feel like I don't do that as much as I'd like to. Although if I do see her more next year, it may involve seeing her eat beans. We'll see. And it was good to see Janine and Gretchen too. Janine is usually busy a lot with her own family stuff. So it's nice when I do get to see her.

All in all, it has been fun today. In case anyone is curious, I am DVRing the infamous ball dropping countdown for when we do eventually see Karlene and Tommy. It'll be like we were still having our "tradition"... just days and days later.

Regardless, have a happy new year everyone! May the new year bring good fortune to the new hopes, dreams, and aspirations of everyone.