A Perfect New Year’s Eve

In pajamas by 7 pm.
Curtains drawn.
Candles lit.
Hot cup of tea with lemon.
Hall’s Mentholyptus.
Fur slippers.
Fleece blanket.
Hours of reading.
Oh yeah. And I made lasagna. I have been pretty much unable to eat for 4 days. FOUR DAYS. So I had about 5 yummy bites of lasagna and then I called it a day.
Finished They Call Me Naughty Lola: Personal Ads from the London Review of Books. Howling with laughter.
Continued to read The French Revolution: A History (Modern Library Classics) by Thomas Carlyle – a book I have been working on slowly for months. I adore it but man, it’s dense – I can only take a couple chapters at a time. For example:

Patrols of the new-born National Guard, bearing torches, scour the streets, all that night; which otherwise are vacant, yet illuminated in every window by order. Strange looking; like some naphtha-lighted City of the Dead, with here and there a flight of perturbed Ghosts.

O poor mortals, how ye make this Earth bitter for each other; this fearful and wonderful Life fearful and horrible; and Satan has his place in all hearts! Such agonies and ragings and wailings ye have, and have had, in all times: — to be buried all, in so deep silence; and the salt sea is not swoln with your tears.

Great meanwhile is the moment, when tidings of Freedom reach us; when the long-enthralled soul, from amid its chains and squalid stagnancy, arises, where it still only in blindness and bewilderment, and swears by Him that made it, that it will be free! Free? Understand that well, it is the deep commandment, dimmer or clearer, of our whole being, to be free. Freedom is the one purport, wisely aimed at, or unwisely, of all man’s struggles, toilings and sufferings in this Earth. Yes, supreme is such a moment (if thou hast known it): first vision as of a flame-girt Sinai, in this our waste Pilgrimage, — which thenceforth wants not its pillar of cloud by day, and pillar of fire by night! Something it is even, — nay, something considerable, when the chains have grown corrosive, poisonous, — to be free “from oppression by our fellowman.” Forward, ye maddened sons of France; be it towards this destiny or towards that! Around you is but starvation, falsehood, corruption and the clam of death. Where ye are is no abiding.

See what I mean? Marvelous, really, but dense.

Also reading 1776. So much fun I can barely stand it. I am in love with Nathaniel Greene now. Good ol’ Rhode Island man.
Switching back and forth between 2 books.
Refilling my cup with hot tea.
Soft music playing: Dean Martin. Swingin’ with Dino.
Fell asleep at 11:30 pm.
Woke up at the brou-haha at midnight and thought, annoyed – “What the hell is going on out there? Keep it down!”
(This is reminiscent of one of my best New Year’s Eve memories with Ann Marie. We got manicures, we went to her place, we had dinner on TV trays, we drank 2 beers a piece – and I believe we watched Sleepless in Seattle?? Or was it Harry Met Sally?? And it became midnight and we could hear horns going off and people screaming outside, and we both were like, “What the HELL is happening out there? Oh. Right. It’s New Year’s Eve. Happy New Year.”)

This also reminds me of one of my favorite Ann Marie quotes. (The woman is so quotable, she is her own walking Bartlett’s.) We were discussing how we didn’t like to go out on New Year’s Eve, because the drunkenness was usually out of control, and sloppy, and – as Ann has said – we both like people who can hold their liquor. Professionals can hold their liquor. Amateur drinkers are the ones who cause all the problems. Ann Marie summed it all up perfectly when she said:

“New Year’s Eve is like open mike night at Alcoholics Anonymous.”

Back to my reading.

The Bastille has just been stormed!

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24 Responses to A Perfect New Year’s Eve

  1. Chronicler says:

    Happy New Year! And feel better soon!

    Carlyle is on my list, but I just finished Alistair Horne’s “La Belle France”, what he calls a short history of the country but is really a quite well-done serial biography. It’s a nice companion to his “Seven Ages of Paris”, which I finished over the summer.

    You’ve inspired one of my three New Year’s Resolutions – to bookblog more regularly!

  2. Rob says:

    I spent a quiet New Year’s Eve at home with the last remnants of the flu, too. Not my ideal evening but I’m not complaining. Happy New Year, red.

  3. Dave E. says:

    Happy New Year, Sheila. And get well soon. I just got “1776” as a gift for Christmas and I’m tearing through it now. What a joy.

  4. red says:

    It’s so fun, isn’t it??

  5. Heather says:

    Wonderful blog and sounds like a wonderful evening. Happy New Year!

  6. Dave E. says:

    Yeah, I love it when McCullough writes stuff like this:

    “General Henry Clinton, not an impressive man in looks or manner, had thus far in the war done little to show that appearances could be deceiving…”

    heheh

  7. red says:

    hahahaha Yeah, that’s great.

    I like paragraphs like this, too – that just gives a nice flavor and feel of the time:

    ‘It was an army of men accustomed to hard work, hard work being the common lot. They were familiar with adversity and making do in a harsh climate. Resourceful, handy with tools, they could drive a yoke of oxen or “hove up” a stump or tie a proper knot as readily as butcher a hog or mend a pair of shoes. They knew from experience, most of them, the hardships and setbacks of life. Preparing for the worst was second nature. Rare was the man who had never seen someone die.”

  8. Tommy says:

    Happy New Year, Sheila. Glad to hear you enjoyed it.

    Spent mine on a warm night, in the company of friends, drinking good scotch and admiring the steady downpour that arrived around 8 and stayed the night.

    Also enjoyed the show of their neighbors venturing outside, fighting the rain and inebriation, trying to light off their fireworks at midnight.

    I couldn’t much think of a better way to ring in the new year….

  9. mere says:

    I can’t remember the last time I stayed awake till midnight on a new years night. I hope you are feeling better. mmm lasagna..

  10. red says:

    mere – I’m on the mend – this was a helluva flu though. It’s been 5 days of recovery now.

    And yeah, the whole staying up past my bedtime thing has lost its appeal somewhere in the last decade.

    I miss you!

  11. Kate says:

    So glad you’re feeling better, Sheila. I was in the middle of a diaper change when midnight came. woo-hooo!

    love you and wishing you a Happy New Year. . .xoxo

  12. red says:

    happy poo year.

  13. sarahk says:

    happy new year! feel better soon!

  14. Alex says:

    “Happy poo year.”

    I’m going to have to kill you now.

    Chrisanne and I didnt move out of bed for 48 hours. It was the best New Years ever in the history of our lives.

  15. Ceci says:

    Happy New Year, Sheila!

    I am very glad to read that you are feeling better now – and that you are eating again! You must be really skinny right now! But other than the flu, your New Year’s Eve sounds so nice… the candles, the fleece blanket, “hours of reading”. I’m envious, since I greeted the New Year in Dante’s Inferno: we had 110ºF in Buenos Aires yesterday. I can’t begin to tell you how much I HATE such weather. Thank God it rained in the evening, otherwise I would have gone insane by now!!

  16. red says:

    110??? are you kidding me???? Do you have humidity too? That sounds awful!!

    It’s certainly been quite warm up here as well – at least in New York – my fellow Americans in Kansas and Colorado have been buried in snow – and while a blizzard is no fun, I do wish we would get a nice cold snap.

    The warmth has been good, though, while I’ve been sick – I haven’t feared for my life every time I’ve gone outside to get more orange juice from the store.

    Happy New Year, everybody. :)

  17. JFH says:

    We had a similar New Year’s Eve with 4 out of 13 kids with strep throat and 3 out of 12 adults with the flu… Made for one “fun” beach house (actually we “quarinteened” the sick ones to a rented beach house nearby, so it wasn’t THAT bad).

  18. Kate says:

    or, in your case, Happy Flu Year. . .

  19. red says:

    That’s what ….

    I got out of it ….

  20. Ken says:

    Glad you’re on the mend.

    I put 1776 on my Christmas list, but settled (contentedly) for a Muppet Show DVD (I’ll get 1776 myself later, anyway).

    Hippo Gnu Year.

  21. Can I just butt in to say that I love the phrase “cold snap”? I just love the sound of it.

    Carry on…

  22. Ceci says:

    Actually, the real temperature was 100 degrees, but since it usually comes coupled with high humidity and low air pressure, it feels like much more to the poor humans who live in this city. The weather service in Buenos Aires therefore always gives two temperature levels, the actual and the “notional”; the first was 100 degrees, the second 111 degrees. Either way, I’m still reeling from it – it’s been fresher now for 2 days straight, but I haven’t been able to shake off the heat, I’m still flushed, sweaty and out of breath!

  23. red says:

    Damn – that’s intense heat. Were people just losing it??

  24. Ceci says:

    People were not losing it, actually – such days of intense, humid heat are not unusual in Buenos Aires during the summer, and everyone just tries to make the best of it; it helped a lot that the city seems deserted, after many people left for the beach.

    I guess it would help my crankiness to have air conditioning at home, but I don’t, so I tend to just lie around, do nothing, and feel wretched. ;)

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