Should auld acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind?

Of course not.

So here we are, 4 days into the year twenty hundred and four (Why do they write it out like that on wedding invitations?) and - hopefully - we can all have a bit of a rest now that the holidays are past. Too bad for me that there are 5 birthdays coming up in short order this month, not to mention a BIRTH expected this month, too! Although the social calendar will ease up a wee bit...at least the weekdays will...I don't think I'm truly out of the clear until February.

But, phew, here I am! Thanks to all those who sent me holiday greetings and wishes. I did check into my blog as well as many of yours during the season, I was just too busy/wiped/overwhelmed to post anything of my own. Hypocritical, I know.

Speaking of those who post, if you haven't heard the audblogging tag-teamage of bastitch and muscle68 already do so NOW. To make it easier for you you can find it in the top left corner of bastitch. I don't know what it is about this particular audblog post but I'm digging it fiercely. (Actually, no, I know what it is. There are two "choice" phrases that I love from their convo: "motherfuckus" and "oh, ffffffffffuck!" Yes, very unlike me to pepper those into my wordage but they amuse me to no end.) To me, it was laden with a lot of holiday cheer. It's what the holidays should be about: good times, good company, laughter, and a bit of drinking if you're so inclined.

Gosh, I have so much to share I don't even know where to start or even how to split it up.

Hope everyone's New Year's Eve was fantastic. I do know aqua_angel and Sunny celebrated over at Sunny's house as per the ongoing tradition amongst the "smug coupleds" contingent of the unifriends. Bizkette wasn't far from where I was. I had heard she was at the Castle where we had found her last New Year's Eve but this year she had called us from the Drum and Monkey instead. Perhaps she went to both.

Civic choked and bailed on us. I was truly unimpressed. The Usual Suspects have been planning to spend NYE together for over a month now...it was just a matter of where. So we figured things out, set things up, and we were all set to buy our tickets. I called him a couple of times after he had told us to get back to him after everything had been figured out. He knew what the plans were, never said anything about bailing. In fact, he had been complaining all month about how he didn't want to go to another house party for New Year's, hence why he was joining our ranks. Anyway, like I said, he never called us back or got his ticket or whatever. This is a serious pet peeve of mine. I don't appreciate having people feign interest in spending some time with me or my friends and then completely bail at the last minute without a word. It is absolutely disrespectful and I all of us had hashed this out years ago. If we've arranged to get together for some noshies, for example, on a Friday then I have already set this time aside for you. This is because I consider you to be a friend and I do want to see you. Bailing at the last minute gives me the impression that you are belittling my efforts of giving you some of my time and have no respect for my own plans. My time is just as important as yours! Worse yet is not even calling to bail. If you can't be bothered to commit to the time that you and I and the rest of us have also committed to then be honest. Have the balls (or female equivalent, whatever that may be) to fess up that you actually have no interest in spending time with us. If that's not actually how you feel, well then even call to straighten that stuffs out, 'cuz it's certainly how it appears to me from my point of view. This Usual Suspect lost a bit of his Usual Suspect status with that stunt. Particularly 'cuz he knows how much this has been an issue in the social circle in the past. *deep breath* And now I'm chill. I promise this is the first and the last you will hear about this on here.

Despite what that little rant would lead you to believe, my family, friends and I had a wonderful New Year's Eve. (I was already over the whole disrespect-issue on the Monday, the 29th since we all got together and bought our tickets so it was pretty clear he wouldn't be joining us unless he went and got his own ticket without us knowing...doubtful.) My mom prepared a mish-mash of food for us to feast on. We had crab, we had fried rice, we had dumplings, we had tempura shrimp (yum!). Add that to some of the food relatives had dropped off during the day and we literally ate like kings and queens that evening (again.) I enjoyed a bottle of Tabu post-dinner and got ready to meet my friends for part 2 of NYE 2003. I was feeling goooooood.

Daisy, Latina, her fiance, and I headed out to Tequila. They said the first 200 guests would receive disposable cameras. I didn't think that they would have handed them all out before 10 (when we arrived) considering you needed a ticket to get in that night. Not like a typical club night. Unfortunately, I had been so sure that we would have at least one camera, disposable or otherwise, between the 4 of us that I didn't bother bringing my own. Thank goodness Latina's man came to the rescue with his own camera. We didn't take enough pictures, to be honest. A damn shame, too, 'cuz we looked amazing that night.

I have never seen Tequila so packed. I know there are a few, such as Bizkette, who have been unimpressed with the place...saying it was full of young'uns. Maybe I've just been lucky, but I've always gone when the crowd was at least my age or a bit older. You would think, that with the club being so full that they would have certainly had some young whippersnappers around....but I didn't see any of them. Tequila's still fantastic in my books.

Alas, it was also too crowded to find my coworker and her friends. There was no way I was going to find her amongst the throngs of people.

But I DID find a familiar face behind the shooter bar. Mr. Smoldering Eyes! Way back when, he used to be one of my regular customers when I sold Beanie Babies at a kiosk in the mall. We got on such good terms that he would give me VIP tix to Metro where he used to work as the guy selling pizza slices inside the club. That was a beautiful era when my friends and I would go to Metro almost religiously every Friday. (Sometimes even Wednesdays during the summer.) After a while he got a gig bartending at Outlaws *gag* and I hadn't heard much from him since except for the rare encounter out and about in the city. So nice to see he's working in one of THE hot clubs now.

Got lots of compliments/pick-up lines that night. One of the sweetest? "I didn't think I'd meet a beautiful woman here tonight." Everyone, say "awwww!" *lol* Nah, I don't want to pick on him...he honestly was my favorite guy there and I think he seriously meant well. Besides, how could he not say that? Fat-schmat, I was HOT on New Year's Eve.

*sigh* I really wish I had a picture to show you.

Dance floor was a bit messy, and that was pretty much my only complaint of the evening. Needless to say there were a few inconsiderate people "dancing" around. Like the couple who weren't really grinding but were rather swaying pretty violently and bumping anyone who was in their path. Absolutely rude. And I got an elbow to the head from this one chick who was flailing her arms about as if she were auditioning for a synchronized swim team but was instead trying not to drown, and not very gracefully either. Another girl stomped on my sandal-clad foot with her own kitten heel. I can understand how that accident could happen, but it took all my self-control not to jab my own heels into her leg.

Then there were the opportunists who took advantage of the crowded situation and groped you on the sly. Sharing notes with Latina on the ride to Denny's afterward, it turns out she knew there was a groper making the rounds when she felt someone squeeze her ass and then moments later I had "a weird look" on my face. I wasn't making a weird face just 'cuz someone had grabbed my ass, I mean, it happens. I was, however, making a weird face 'cuz said ass-grabber, when grabbing my ass, had one of his fingers somewhere where it really shouldn't have been. *shudders*

Some other cherished moments from that night: A guy who was apparently (though not apparent to me) dancing with Daisy and I was disappointed that we were leaving him on the dance floor. Daisy's apology? "I'm really sorry but I just grabbed that guy's ass over there and now I really have to run away." Somehow Latina's fiance got a party hat placed on his head at some point when we were all dancing and none of us can explain how it got there. Not even him.

Annnnnd...right when we were at the front of the line to get into the club this guy comes up from the street and tells the bouncer he's on the guest list. I swear to God he looked like Vin Diesel. Holy crap I just about died. I turned to Latina, and she had the same ga-ga look on her face so I knew I wasn't imagining it. 'Tis a shame I only came across him one more time that night. I regret not pouncing on him, or something. :) Ohhhhhhhh God there's a Vin Diesel clone roaming the streets of Calgary!

Near the end of the evening, after another shot, Latina and her man excused themselves from us. (Not that we were all joined at the hip all night.) The plan was to reconvene up in the Havana Lounge in 20 minutes or so so we could all go have some noshies/go home. No problem, they're a couple. It's not like I'm a little kid...I know people need time to be "alone" together.

But then we bumped into them dancing together again on the dance floor. That's when I knew for sure that they were my kind of kids! I haven't seen such a cute couple since Sunny and Sunny Boy. I miss the days when we all used to go to the Purple Turtle (yes, someone has already pointed out that Purple Turtle sounds kind of dirty for some reason) and whenever a country song would come on Sunny and Sunny Boy would go off onto the dance floor and two-step together. I loved watching them dance together. When I get a boy of my own, dancing is a must. Daisy and I must've ranted for 10 minutes or so in the car about how cute they were together.

I can't wait till Latina comes back to Calgary for a visit. The two of them have already asked what other good clubs there are here, so that naturally means more good times ahead!

Anyway, long story very long that was my New Year's Eve. I hope you all had a great time whatever you chose to do. I also hope you all looked as hot and felt as hot as I did, 'cuz that's the best feeling in the world right there (at least for an attention whore like me). And here's to having this much fun all year long! *hugz* Just give yourself enough time to rest up between good times.