ThE nEw CaRpE DiEm

I did New Years Eve in three stages this year: dinner, dancing and bar ditching. After a relaxed dinner, a group of us made the obligatory journey to the YSA dance just in time to ring in the new year. However, soon after the meh-celebration we decided to try a Georgetown bar. With only a three-car caravan (not too hard?) the leader managed to lose us. But rather than making our own way there, a few of us decided to bail on the boozing scene and instead live it up with a {cough} livelier Lincoln.

At about 1am, we parked our cars near the Fed and made the short (but seemingly long) stroll in high heels over to and up the 57 marble steps. Once we'd climbed the steps and paid our respects to Honest Abe, we scurried off to the side and opened our bottles of fruit bubbly. After a few rounds of "my goal this year..." toasts, a couple that was climbing the stairs saw the bottle I was holding and yelled out, "Do you have champagne?!" to which I responded, "No, but you're welcome to some of what we have!" She gave a polite no thank you and just said how impressed she was that we dared bring drinks up to the Lincoln. I retorted, "well, it just says no food allowed, nothing about drinks!" To which she replied, "Ooooh, that's ballsy. I like that!" ...And then she promptly fell forward onto the steps she was attempting to climb. Apparently intoxication, climbing stairs and holding a conversation are not a good combination; but I digress.

We laughed a little at the phraseology, yet considering the goals we'd all been announcing we thought her declaration an apt banner for the coming year. So, we turned back to our fake vino, 2011 goal-making and look-forward-tos with gusto. Some of which included the following:

Start and stick with a new hobby
Embrace change
get a new job
Get rid of old baggage
Be more selfless in friendships
Embrace the thirtieth birthday
Do an art exhibit
Settle in one place and be happy

I've now taken this brainstorming session into account as I use this week to prayfully solidify my 2011 goals. But all in all, I have a feeling they need to go with what the drunk lady dubbed me--ballsy! Here's to 2011: The Year of Being Ballsy.

Stage 1: Dinner


Stage 2: Alors on danse

Stage 3: The Real Celebration

At this point I was singing a Rick Astley song, I blame it on being 3am