Insomniac Almanac -- Vol 3, No. 1, 1/1/07

Three and a  half hours of sleep this year.  (2555 Last year)  Not enuff.  Should have been four, but I got up for half an hour to "ring in" the new year.  Was very quiet.  A few bangs outside in the distance, and NOTHING in the old folks home.

I looked in the hall and saw two care givers, but they didn't see me.  No shouting "Happy New Year".  I went back to bed.

I remember new year 2000.  I thought people would go nuts at midnight, tear around the halls in their underwear (or less), shout, sing, bang pots and pans.  What an event...changing the calendars from 19 something to 20 something.  Happens once in a lifefime.  But no.  It was almost as quiet that new year too.  A few more bangs, and a auto horn or two. 

I used to take a swim at midnight on new year.  No reason, except to say I had done it.  Yes, it was always chilly, but I didn't stay long.  I used to excuse myself from whatever party I was attending, go out to the pool, (in Southen California there was always a pool), strip off my clothes and jump in.  Made people laugh.  Nobody ever joined me. Once I dove in, at the shallow end, and hit hy head so hard I was lucky I didn't break my neck. Sort of sobered me up suddenly.  I had a stiff neck for some time after that. 

Other than the sock on the head, I cannot remember any memorable new years.  After 82 of them, they all seem pretty much the same.... lots of expectations, very little excitement. You sort of have to force yourself to be jolly, and force yourself to be nostalgic by singing Auld Lang Syne, that draggy tradtion.  The kissing one another is nice though.  I liked that.

My mother used to pass around smoked fish at midnight and make us eat a bite, whether we wanted to or not, to insure good health, (or maybe wealth, I forget) for the coming year.  I guess it worked, I'm here, aren't I?

The new year is four and half hours old.  Think I will turn in again and see if I can sleep until breakfast.  It won't be fried chicken though.  The first thing I ate in 1937 was fried chicken.  Isn't than an odd thing to remember...fried chicken for breakfast seventy years ago today.  Mother and Grandmother were frying chicken in preparatioj for a picnic when I got up that morning, so I had some for breakfast.

Aren't you glad I can tell you these secrets? Midnight skinny dipping and early morning chicken eating.

And Oh, I have been to the Rose Parade a couple of times on new years day, and to the Rose Bowl one year when I was a UCLA student. We lost. 

Hey, that reminds me.... get to bed now...I've got to get up to watch the Rose Parade in a few hours   

P.S.  What I actually watched was a Rose Parade for a couple of floats, Cotton Bowl for a couple of plays, and then over to a  Monk rerun.  What does that say about me?