Introverts, how is your day?

[J.P.]

The ones I went to bed early and wasn't woken up by the fireworks.

[T.o.b.y]

Yes, I have had fun on New Years Eve, but what I find fun is pretty unspectacular. Basically, it's just the family sitting around playing board games and watching funny TV programs until midnight, then we watch the fireworks and go to bed.

 

Some years, I had to work and that was okay too. If I had to work on Christmas, I would be sad, but New Years just isn't that important to me.

[SherlockedCAMPer]

As a teenager I went to a New Year's Eve all night party several times. I had fun hanging with friends and meeting new ones while we listened to live music from then virtually unknown groups (if anyone besides johnspec and me have heard of the Newsboys, they played the first time I went). Also 16 years ago my brother hosted and as my hubby and I got ready to leave, I ran into a former college classmate as he was on staff at the church my brother went to at the time.

[Van Buren Supernova]

Have any of you ever had a particularly fun new years eve? (As an adult.) It's one of those evenings that always gets hyped up and yet whenever I do make the effort to do something I always have a sh*tty time. 

 

Mostly same with you.

On 'events' I can count it with my hand. In my younger days I spent them at home, as it's always holiday season and I am not those who are into parties, also it's nice to be home with warm steady meals. I believe I didn't attend a single New Year party. Christmas, yes, those day time school parties that are normally done around January. 

 

Working days, or as proper adult, there are couple of events.

 

One, I was still in high spirit of finally earning my own money with some left to spend after bills, staying very far away. So we went to the 'street party'. They closed this particular street for events, shows, sale and open concerts. Free! There were lights, music and Christmas ambiance so we wanted to feel it. But we forgot about people! People, tons of people, everywhere, with reindeer ears, shouting laughing jumping walking talking. The concerts were impossible to approach, the nicer parts like choir was the only great thing. The sales was loud and shirts were piled up and people browsed them like free stuffs. It's impossible to maintain personal space and at the end, we were seated on the floor in the train station, exhausted, looking at piles and piles of garbage, drinks, snacks, those party sticky ribbons. Even when we left early, it was still too much. 

They still have it, every Christmas Eve and New Year Eve, but there is no freaking way I'm back.

 

Two, ohoho, after the terrifying big scale social attempt, we thought it would be nice to hang out at his friend's place on New Year Eve. He had become mutual longtime friend, who helped us tremendously in the past, just married and moved to new apartment. It was a so called housewarming as well. My brother just followed my footstep to try working in the country, bunking on my couch, so we thought it would be great to have a hang out together (Three of us are frigging introverts).

Yes, it was a small event. Only the couple, us and his other two friends. Anyway, he is this cool guy who always knows cool stuffs so I figured at the very least we would have some fun activities. Hey, if there is no laser gun or rooftop jumping, I'd welcome board games! Or cards! But nooooo, he had nothing planned and what did we do to wait for count down? Watching 1000 pictures of these two friend's trip to Korea!!! You know those pictures that take sometime to load and prolonged with subject's commentary? You know those digital cameras that make people take the same frigging pictures at least 4-5 times?  And it's not even a fun trip, or exciting, remote area, it was a very commercialized itinerary that you would see in every single tour package to Korea. And my biggest problem, the people are blocking the scenery of every pictures. Yes, that was how we spent the time. When it was count down time, nobody welcomed it as enthusiastic as we did. Until now, wherever my brother made fun of me, I'd threaten him with spending New Year Eve with 1000 trip photos.Torture, tell yah.

 

Three. We were newly minted certified scuba diver back then and offered to attend Countdown event. Great potential, in a pier and watched underwater countdown. Sounds great. We were not certified to dive at night yet, otherwise it's possible (!!!) that we would be interested to take part. Anyway, so we gathered in the pier, new community, yah, cold, excited, fun, fun. And then couple of appointed divers brought out a huge board with wordings and there they went into the darkness of water when the time was approaching midnight. They would light up the HAPPY NEW YEAR 2004 (?) down there at the strike of twelve.

Ten..Nine...Eight... blob... a fin floated up the surface. Eh?

Commotion and bubbles. It was pier water. In the city, not resort. The water was questionable at best with almost zero visibility, especially I don't think they were good divers yet. Then we saw the light, by that time, count down was over, but apparently they were entangled and lost most of the lights and it read  _A__Y N_W _E_R _0_4, then the whole board floated up, and in very anticlimatic ending, the divers climbed up the pier, splosh splosh splosh like defeated frogmen, one was looking for his fin. 

Well yah, we found good friendship in the community though, actually after we gave up going to their events like this, and bar hangouts, and finally filtered some like minded people who are more passionate to the sport than the perceived glam.

 

Four, another attempt to enjoy New Year Eve in public, well to be fair, this was more than a decade from the first one. There was a new nice area opened up at the bay, and with two good friends, a couple. We were trying to catch the magical firework show by the sea. It was free, in a gorgeous setting and we were very into photography back then. Sounds like good idea and we actually went there early to get good spot for photos. We did get good spots, the fireworks were spectacular, but even where it was crowd controlled, there were still jerks who tried to get better spot by walking over people that created some yellings and rows. Although it’s not too bad, it was exhausting night as well and enough for…. Ever?

 

Five, the best one. We had regular nice affordable remote place as a go to for scuba fix. So we went with the two friends above who are not divers but like to tag along as they enjoy relaxing. We also matched the time with our long scuba friends. In this place, we had known the people well and everyone who went there are regulars. So the resort actually prepared a very special meal (roasted pig :P) for all of us and tons of fireworks. Privately launched at the place, although it was choreographed as and how the launchers felt like it. But it was nice, private but festive, and we did play cards and pool while waiting for the countdown. Those are best.

 

There were some nice little Christmas or New Year dinners when we were somewhere else. Once in remote farm, it was my first encounter with those pop with small present on the table, small nice choir in the park, one and only time I went to Disney for fun. Other times, I would be curling inside my blanket, watching the celebration from TV in comfort of my home. Or last year, cuddling my dog for his first firework experience with us, and this year as well. Looking forward to that.

 

Conclusion, I think events mostly suck too. XD

 

 

The ones I went to bed early and wasn't woken up by the fireworks.

 

Eh... give me more years before that!

I don't want to be deaf yet. XD

[Artemis]

Have any of you ever had a particularly fun new years eve? (As an adult.) It's one of those evenings that always gets hyped up and yet whenever I do make the effort to do something I always have a sh*tty time. 

 

I've never had a particularly fun New Year's Eve as an adult or a child, lol.  Which is alright with me I guess, it's not as important to me as other holidays.  I like to start the new year with a fresh feeling, so I usually spend my New Year's Eve cleaning and decluttering, while I've got some NYE special on TV for ambience.  I wash my clothes and my sheets and my dishes.  I clear out things I don't need and start a pile of items to donate, if applicable.  I go through my computer and do updates, organize files, delete what I don't want anymore, and back up all the rest.  I buy myself a new toothbrush, and make my favorite New Year's snack (pickle pinwheels).  And I take a shower before bed.  I never go to bed early, I always stay up until at least 2am, which is when the westernmost timezone of the continental US hits midnight my time.

 

My birthday is a week later, which is kind of like a second New Year for me, so anything I didn't get done on NYE I continue to work on over the next week.  But I like to finish as much as I can before the year closes.  It's a big job but I kind of enjoy it really, it makes me feel clean.

 

 

[Pseudonym]

Lol, VBS - when you said about the fin bobbing to the surface I thought you meant a shark fin, I thought maybe he'd come along for a bit of a midnight feast!

 

And the photos. One Christmas my brother got out his holiday snaps of Florida. I wanted to die. 

 

Smaller house parties and gatherings definitely seem the way to go. I normally stay home and treat it like any other night. Last year I went out to see a show that I was under the impression would last until midnight, but it finished at 10, and because it was new years I was obligated to stay out until 12, and I hated it. 

 

This year there's a masquerade ball. I'm partly tempted, but I know if I go I'll hate it. 

[Van Buren Supernova]

Lol, VBS - when you said about the fin bobbing to the surface I thought you meant a shark fin, I thought maybe he'd come along for a bit of a midnight feast!

 

Alright, now admit it that it would be your New Year's eve event of choice if it was indeed shark that ate all the divers and blurped proper Happy New Year. Hmm? Hmmmm? Come on! Admit it! I'll be right there with you and this could be my favorite story to tell to my grandpuppies.

(I just realized I had never told this story before to anyone, it was just shared exclusively among us who attended the event. Geez guys. the extend I'm willing to go to make you suffer The thing I do for you guys.

 

What is masquerade ball?

Costume party? You go in disguise?

What would you be? Richard Brook is easy to pull.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Alex and I prefer to stay home, due to all the drunks on the road, and we generally watch the Times Square countdown on television, because, y'know, that's what you do.  But daggone it, I still miss Guy Lombardo!

 

His last New Year's Eve broadcast (midnight is at about minute 20):

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pL60HdslvOk

 

Yeah, I know -- it's corny.  But tradition ain't supposed to be hip!

[Pseudonym]

Will check the vid when I get to work. Today is going to be DULL, the machines aren't working properly and it's quieter than it should be this time of year so I may well expire of boredom. Send any entertainment you can think of this way!

 

A masquerade ball is where you dress fancy and wear a little mask so no one knows who you are. 

 

*Happy sigh* Yes, a shark mauling divers would be my ideal night. 

[Pseudonym]

Someone with the surname with the surname Lombardo should be introducing the lambada. (I know my timings are off).

 

 

Always reminds me of my holidays in Spain as a little kid. 

 

I'm in work now, and god I was right, I am bored. Just fended off a very insistent offer of cake. 

 

[Artemis]

 

Why resist cake?!

 

 

[Pseudonym]

I lost a fair bit of weight over the last year and don't want to put it all back on over Christmas. So I'll be chilled over Christmas itself... but not yet. Trying to be good!

 

[Van Buren Supernova]

Good god!

 

Look what you did to Mycroft!!

[Pseudonym]

Look what YOU did to him!

 

Is that him undercover on one of his MI5 legwork cases? Is that why he hates legwork?  :lol:

[Van Buren Supernova]

You see, in Buckingham Palace, it's not allowed to have second serving of cake. One has to be creative.

 

You have to give it to him that he knows which cake is the real deal.

 

Look at him barely reacted to human cake.

[Pseudonym]

Human cake? Is Sherlock human cake?

[Artemis]

That reminds me...

 

 

 

[Pseudonym]

Oh, Sherlock, you have a bit of icing on your throat... come here and I'll get it off for you. *lick*

[Pseudonym]

Oh god, I seem to have developed a Sherlockian inner voice. I was out this evening with my Meetup group, and was sat next to some woman I'd never met before. She did... not... shut... up. And if she was talking about interesting things then fine, but she would tell some completely mundane and painfully dull story, interjected with reams of extraneous details, and I started to get a Sherlockian voice in my head interjecting 'obvious,' 'irrelevant,' 'dull.' Pretty sure my eyes glazed over a few times because I caught one of the other woman giving me an amused look, she's obviously been on the receiving end of it before. Even worse, when there were interesting conversations going on elsewhere on the table, one of the guys was regaling us with a story of the time he was on a plane with a criminal in shackles in the seat behind him, and she kept sort of sidling up to ask me inane questions. "Do you like prosecco?" Screw if I like prosecco, he's just got to the point in the story where the guy behind him has been wrestled into a gag for screaming and spitting. Another woman was telling a story about a purportedly haunted hotel she stayed in, she gets to the point of the story where she hears her husband scream upstairs and "Do you like singing?" ARGH! WTF?! I can't be cruel and ignore her, so again I miss the most interesting part of the story. I got to the point of just answering by shaking or nodding my head, single word answers to try to put her off, and then as I was leaving, she gets out a little notebook and asks if she can take my number so we can meet again outside of the group. I don't like being mean to people but no way in hell was that happening - I said I was too busy, that I'm not normally home until late. It was weird too, every time she asked me something it would end with my full name, only first name, but no shortening it, using it every single time. Whenever someone asked her a question she would repeat the whole question in the answer, so for example, "Are you going to the meal in the bar next week?" "No, I am not going to the meal in the bar next week..." followed by a long convoluted story. I know the name of this woman's chemistry teacher in school. I never needed, or wanted, to know that. Good god. 

I'm going to a Christmas party with this group next Friday, I hope to hell she doesn't latch onto me all night, I don't think I could take it. At least she was friendly, I guess, and trying hard. Just too hard. And if someone has stopped responding and their eyes have glazed over then maybe, just maybe, it's time to stop talking. 

[Fantasy Lover]

I was going to post this awhile ago but I was busy with work and stuff so I didn't have time. But anyway I am so disappointed in myself, I was taking practical driving lessons from a driving school since I have no one to teach me. But when you take lessons from a driving school you have to follow 20 hours of driving lessons if you no one to teach you before you can have your temporal driving licence, so I took them all but on the final lesson I got so nervous that I kept making mistakes and have to take extra lessons as a result. But I'm just afraid that I have to take extra lessons over and over and I don't really fancy paying that much money, if only I had someone to teach me :(.

[Artemis]

I was going to post this awhile ago but I was busy with work and stuff so I didn't have time. But anyway I am so disappointed in myself, I was taking practical driving lessons from a driving school since I have no one to teach me. But when you take lessons from a driving school you have to follow 20 hours of driving lessons if you no one to teach you before you can have your temporal driving licence, so I took them all but on the final lesson I got so nervous that I kept making mistakes and have to take extra lessons as a result. But I'm just afraid that I have to take extra lessons over and over and I don't really fancy paying that much money, if only I had someone to teach me :(.

I so feel your pain on this FL, I never had anyone to teach me either. It's a really difficult situation to be in, I wish you the best of luck.

[Van Buren Supernova]

I was going to post this awhile ago but I was busy with work and stuff so I didn't have time. But anyway I am so disappointed in myself, I was taking practical driving lessons from a driving school since I have no one to teach me. But when you take lessons from a driving school you have to follow 20 hours of driving lessons if you no one to teach you before you can have your temporal driving licence, so I took them all but on the final lesson I got so nervous that I kept making mistakes and have to take extra lessons as a result. But I'm just afraid that I have to take extra lessons over and over and I don't really fancy paying that much money, if only I had someone to teach me :(.

 

I took my motorbike license in place with very strict regulation (have to be from driving schools, no personal teaching as you are not allowed to drive under any circumstance except formal learning). And I had similar experience as you.

 

I passed my first subject well but it went downhill after that. Failed multiple times, the circuit was small and we were required to perform all those hideous tasks. Riding up to fifth gear, maintaining position for ten seconds on plank without falling, curve courses, all those in small circuit together with other nervous students. The bike was bigger than me and heavy but eventually I got used to lift rear part of it around, it's almost always necessary to be able to do that with the bike you choose to ride. We were also require to practice very strict riding method, order of operation, leg brake, hand brake, clutches, which one goes first on various tasks (mixed order, they fail you, seriously), we never should drop our right leg and we also need to have a pretty good head turn for blind spot checking (too much, too little, they fail you). We never had fixed instructors, they are different for every subject although some handle more than one subjects and there are multiple instructors for each, so there are slight possibilities we would encounter same instructor once in a while. We are never assigned the same bike, so each time we had to re-learn the nature of the bike. Some brake or clutches are deeper than the other, etc.

 

I'm lucky that I never had to struggle for everything in school. I did well for academic and also top in the class for sports. So when I kept on failing it felt foreign and frustrating to me. Like you said, with nervousness it got worse. It didn't help that some instructors were not good at teaching, they could say discouraging things or some preferred to use their time flirting instead of giving tips for doing well. I developed anxiety when I had to face instructors that I knew was not good from previous experience, and if I was assigned a 'bad' bike, especially during final test. Luckily, some instructors were good and sometimes, the jerk ones surprisingly turned into helpful in another lesson. Sometimes I pissed off getting stuck and kept spending money, it would turn well and made me relax but the other time it made me too brave that I hurt myself.

 

Anyway, probably all I could say is never give up regardless how difficult it is. Those hours you dedicate actually would help in making you better and safer driver. It is costly, I admit. Hopefully you'll get more relaxed.

 

And coincidentally, now, I'm learning to drive. I learned before but never put it into use so I need refresher courses. Some weather it's not easy to survive just on bike. Luckily the learning here is relaxed and mostly evaluations. Just yesterday I was told that I hold my steering wheel as if I want to fight with it and I drive like a man (not a compliment --> huh?) XD

 

Good luck

[Pseudonym]

I think most people here learn with a driving instructor rather than a friend/family member. 

 

I passed my theory test perfectly, but I failed my driving test twice. It depends what idiots you encounter on the road and things beyond your control, as well as nerves making you accidentally do something stupid. 

[Van Buren Supernova]

I'm face down on my table. My extrovert colleagues are very high in their gears.

Luckily now they are not in the office, peace for a short while.

 

Just had a full day meeting, and because we skipped our lunch time for the meeting, there was no excuse not to eat together after that.

And I'm not sure if it's year end mood, or whatever, they kept asking to take group photo. And when I didn't let them, they stole and illegally snapped pictures secretly, even video. And it happened multiple times in office previously. I swear, those smartphones with cameras.. *^&%@%^&%@#

And since they will be spending Christmas and New Year away from home town, I gave them suggestions on places and things to do, then again, they complained that I won't be joining them.

 

I'm exhausted.!

One more day to go, one more day to go...

[Artemis]

I absolutely despise having my picture taken, and it really bothers me when someone takes my picture without my permission. (Partly because it can trigger an anxiety attack for me, but I won't get into that.) It's one of the few things that will infuriate me really quickly, and enough to let my anger show. I got so angry at a guy who wouldn't stop taking my picture once that I nearly smashed his camera/phone.