Life in Ink and Footsteps

So, the end of the year was here. The plan was a party on Connie Island. Do you remember my Halloween fiasco? Yeah, me neither. I wasn’t really going to repeat that and go to a crowded party full of strangers. But my friendly Dutch friend, F., and my new—still not really bestie at this time—hot friend, S., from Denmark, wanted to go to a party. “You’re in NEW YORK! We have to go to a party; it will be so EPIC!” Sure, sure, it will. Because sweaty, drunk people pushing you around and bumping into you is a goal for your night out. I should mention that I am not a fan of New Year’s Eve—Silvester, in my language. So many people go absolutely crazy trying to catch up on all the “fun” they missed during the year. So many people get emotional and whiny about all the things they didn’t achieve or failed at—in their minds, at least. So many people vomit and are just gross. Nope, not for me. I made a tradition of not going out on this night. I stay home, do a Lord of the Rings marathon, and eat jednohubky and chlebíčky—google it; it’s the best snack party I know. The whole of Eastern Europe loves it. It’s just a spread over baguette with sliced hams, cheeses, and small pieces of veggies or egg. It’s delicious. Some years later, I timed my Avengers: Endgame viewing exactly for Thanos’s snap at midnight. It was epic.

So you can imagine how quietly ecstatic I was when friendly Dutch girl F.—who was still my closest friend at this point—got a fever the morning before and developed an ear infection from her new ear piercing that she got at a mall. I also had a sweet moment of “I told you so” since I had advised her not to do it. Damn. Where is the girl who got her first tattoo at the age of 16 in a basement with her grandpa and uncle after two shots of slivovice to calm her nerves, and behind the back of the rest of the family? I used to be so much fun.

What did we actually do at the end? We stayed at her place, watched Tangled, and colored in mandala and flower coloring books. Sounds lame? Yeah. I had a blast. We drank nonalcoholic sparkling wine since F. was on antibiotics and just chatted. Chatted with whom? My ex-boyfriend. The one I/we made videos for. Which is also the only reason why I remember all of this. I watched through the whole 19 minutes of the video we made that night. It was probably the most awkward thing I watched in a long time. Why? For once, I no longer dated this young man. I have no idea what he thought about these or how we communicated; I no longer possess any messages from that time. The other reasons might be that it was two girls—his ex and a random friend he didn’t know—just literally coloring and mostly talking to themselves in terrible English about a bunch of nonsense. Some topics had merit—what’s going on, why is there no party, etc.—but the rest? Nope, just random thoughts about the Disney movie, coloring, shopping, and things like that. Let’s not forget to mention that we—ehm, I—put the phone so close to the computer that you could barely hear anything we said! The background noise is so crunchy and loud that it is barely believable. I hope it’s because it’s a very old recording that was moved around a lot, and that eight years ago, when I sent it, it was in better quality.

There is one observation that I made from the video that is interesting to me and that I do not remember. If you can explain it to me or shed some light on it, I would be grateful, thank you. When we were waiting for the movies to load—we watched them on pirate online streaming services, and it took forever to load; it was also in parts— we watched the live streaming from Times Square. We were obviously waiting for the ball to drop. Is this how you say it? During this, we were mind-blown when we saw the commentators “randomly” pick one woman and four men. They gave her a blindfold, and she had to kiss every one of them without knowing which was which. Question 1: WTF? Question 2: Seriously, WTF? And finally, Question 3: are they really randomly picked? That was so weird. Americans. Also, we were mind-blown when they said they guessed there were 2 million people in Times Square. Two million. I mean, how? I was there several times. How do you fit them all in there? Also, how do you count them?

I am a very dramatic person. I like it when things have a bang. So of course, I wrote a diary entry right after the midnight countdown. Obviously. What did I write about? I reflected on all the things I did in 2016—starting with the previous year’s celebration with that ex-partner I just made the video for, my thyroid health issues, finding my American family, breaking up with that boyfriend, and going slightly crazy during summer and then the four months in the USA. I did not mention THAT man at all. I wonder if I was too sad to think about it, too petty to mention him, or if he actually didn’t cross my mind. I would like to know, to be honest. Because that seemed to be a big love just a few months prior. Oh well, some things are meant to stay forgotten, I guess.

And what did I wish for?

1. Be healthy—was not.
2. Travel—definitely succeeded.
3. Love deeply—ehm…
4. Save money—yeah, no.
5. Always have fun—fuck yes.

How do you celebrate this night?

Oh, and what do we listen to today? Good question. I am running out of thematic options. It will probably just be a random song from my favorites from that year. I seriously love Spotify. Oh, also, I found out about Spotify in the USA, and 2016 was the first year of my subscription. I still have it. Worth every penny.

Another One Bites the Dust – Queen