Welcome 2008

I've never been a really big fan of New Year's Eve. It always seems to feel like one of those 'forced holidays', as in everyone shoud be happy and having a great time on New Year's Eve. I do fondly recall a couple of NYE's back in the late 70's, going to First Night in Boston, the early years of First Night. And a few comical ones in Europe with expat friends, all on R&R from Nigeria. Two of those involved Mexican restaurants in Austria, totally coincidental.

This year, I spent from about 10:30 am EST to 10:30 pm PST in transit from Boston to Portland via Newark. A 4 plus hour layover left plenty of time for people watching and contemplation. The crowd at the gate that my plane would leave from next was on their way to Rome. They'd be in the air for their midnight, whenever that was. How do you figure midnight? Does the pilot look on his GMT clock and extrapolate where he is so he can count down to Happy New Year? I think not. I watched midnight come to Moscow, then Berlin, while spacing out on Wolf Blitzer. Thankfully, he would break whenever a notable place hit the mark.

But I was running away from midnight. I got to Portland an hour and a half after Boston's Auld Lang Synes. Mine was still to come. We drove up I84 through the Gorge. It was surreal. Not a car or semi in sight. We eventually passed two trucks and two cars, and had the road to ourselves with a blustery head wind. Our midnight came just past midway over the rickety Hood River Bridge. Some fireworks went off in the little town of Bingen. It was quiet driving through Bingen, until we got to the corner where we turn up towards White Salmon. A small crowd of revelers was on the corner blowing horns and banging pots and pans. We honked the horn for a few yards to add to their celebration. White Salmon was already tucked in for the night. Very Peaceful.

I'm happy to be home. I wish for Peaceful in 2008.