and Blessed Be all of you.
This promises to be a quiet night for me. Which is just fine. I've never been much of a party person. I usually end up sitting in a corner feeling depressed. Or maybe just morose. I don't think I've ever really had a bad New Year's Eve except for a couple spent away from my wife in a foreign land. But even those weren't bad, just not great.
Probably the one I remember most is when I was... hmmm 19? 20? I was working at the Arco station on the Sunshine State Parkway. Southern most plaza. The night was quiet. Hardly anyone was out on the highway. I was scheduled off at 11pm although I didn't have any plans that night. When my relief roared up on his bike he was drunk off his ass. Just swell. So I told him to go lie down in the locker room and just stayed the rest of the night. At midnight the dispatcher wished everyone a Happy New Year and the wishes were echoed up the Parkway. I had one call out, probably somewhere around 2 or 3am. Someone had tried to use a barrier to cut his car in half. Fortunately he only got a couple of feet through it before stopping. He wasn't hurt so the trooper took him and I hauled his car off the barrier, picked up the odd pieces and pulled it back to the station. And that was it for the night. I just walked around to keep awake and watched the sun come up over the palm trees. It was a beautiful dawn.
And one of the best parts? My boss said "thanks for staying".
Happy New Year