New Year's In

To say 2020 was a rough, strange year is an understatement.  As an introvert, when they first told us to “stay home” at the beginning of the pandemic, I thought, what’s the catch?  The host of Breaking Pod, a podcast on Breaking Bad, even said, “For an introvert who lives alone, this must be heaven.”  But even I need to get out and interact once in a while.
 
Which brings me to New Year’s Eve traditions.  The last time I spent it alone was 2003/2004, and that was because I had to catch an early flight to Israel on New Year’s Day.  Normally, NYE might be spent at a concert or with friends, but because I’m being cautious due to the pandemic, I elected to spend it alone.  There was a brief conversation on Zoom with some fellow CoSPers, which was interrupted by my delivery of some Indian tapas.
 
I watched a movie, The Music Never Stopped, finished binging the first season of Community on Netflix, began to learn the Grateful Dead’s “Till the Morning Comes,” and watched a bit of Anderson Cooper’s New Year’s Countdown on CNN before settling in.

When I announced my plans on CoSP, someone said that they typically do that alone and that they’re governed by social norms.  As much as I’d love to say the same thing, I guess there’s some conditioning I still have.  That being said, next year, if there’s a band I love playing on NYE in New York or DC or somewhere in between, I’ll probably make plans to see them.   Still, it was nice to just treat NYE like a regular evening in with Chester.
 
Here’s to a better 2021 for all of us!