whoop-de do - happy freakin' new year

so here we are, boys and girls, in the wild times of 2k4.

gosh, feels an awful lot like 2k3 ...

my bitterness is half in jest. it's just that i hate new year's eve with a passion. least favorite in my list of holidays, new year's is, to me, a day full of expectations and hopes that are never met. it's probably the biggest letdown holiday of the calendar year.

don't get me wrong - i spend just as much time as anyone else looking back at the year past and forward to the 12 months to come. i make resolutions, i try to watch the ball drop each year and freak out over dick clark's ever-preserved appearance. but it seems as if there's just so much attention cast on 24 hours out of all the hours of the year - and after 8 p.m., it just gets more and more ridiculous.

part of this year's jadedness comes from the fact that i worked. but, in many respects, i took this to be a potentially beneficial factor. after all, i'd be going around town covering things and trying to capture the sense of hope and anticipation in the air.

but instead, i just wound up feeling blah. i don't get why everyone gets so excited. i don't understand why everyone wants to spend so much time focusing on the fact that it's a minute later than it was before.

nevertheless. i spent new year's much as i've been spending a lot of time lately - on my own (insert carrie bradshaw voiceover talking about being single & fabulous - exclamation point!). because it was drizzly for a little bit, there was a definite possibility that they would cancel the fireworks, so rather than stand out in the cold for a half hour, i headed home. by the time i walked back to my car from the waterfront and made it to my house, the clock had just hit midnight and i had a lovely view of the fireworks from my back balcony. good times.

so i watched television, spoke with some friends via phone, wishing them a happy new year, send warm thoughts to all those i wasn't with for the first moments of 2004, drank a bottle of boone's farm (bwahaha) and dragged my tipsy self to bed around 1:30.

whoo hoo.

but, in good news, i found a new singer-songwriter that is fantastic (prepare yourself - here comes the first vickie music plug of 2004) - syd. he played two sets downtown yesterday and i was floored. i interviewed him for my column and he and tuck are laidback guys with an incredible thing going. i wound up picking up some bootlegs and syd's debut album (i will happily burn copies of the bootlegs for whoever's interested - he encourages it). he scores extra points for taking care of the obligatory covers with one song, a medley including "stir it up," "bubbletoes," "why georgia," "the sharp hint of new tears," "semi-charmed kind of life," "what's my age again?" and "glycerine," with a few others thrown in as well. the scary thing being that it all forms this incredibly cohesive single song. i dug it. while i've heard some of his music before, it didn't really click with me until yesterday. now i'm hooked.

and, i should note with a laugh, it's always amusing to hear updates about people from waaaay back in the day. i know life goes on and people continue to do their things when i'm no longer a part of their existances, but for some reason, i half expect them not to. it's as if once they're out of my life, they've put on perpetual pause mode or something.

and then you hear that those lives are not on pause - well, not really, anyway. always interesting ...