From Slough To Ka-Pow In Under Two Hou....rs

The ripple effects of an accidental [pun] appointment with the dentist and the intention of killing three birds with one stone found us late on NYE way up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, which is every bit as wonderful as the Americanized late hit television series The Office depicts it, as in, not very wonderful. But as we do, we make the best of it, and managed to have an entertaining dinner at the only joint open at 9pm, one Ruby of Tuesday (still the only entity giving any purpose to that specific day of the week), with the company on Susie who downed her fair share of classic margaritas amongst a multitude of randomly shaped/colored pills from a gold brass box she keeps hidden somewhere on her person for just such an occasion, what we can only hold responsible for us now being able to add such visually magical terms as "the shrimp dance" and ... well, let's move on from it.

Laura got her steak so all was right with the world and Yuula enjoyed the challenge in capturing a photo of diners as they stuff their faces one last time for the year.

I felt a bit like I was watching it all happen, as I went for the 8oz of malbec and overheard the vast array of resolutions being made and subsequently broken before they even saw the light of day.

Then the baby boy dropped before the ball in Times Square.

We brought Susie back to her place, recovered from a day of highs and lows, and began the winding roads to our place just before 11pm. By the time we got to our home and got our shoes off, ready for bed, throwing in the towel on 2013, we (Yuula) got a 3rd wind and decided we'd take up our young new neighbors on their earlier invite to their place for a little Auld Langing. When we walked in the door it was 11:44. At 11:45 I was halfway thru a pint of Yuengling. At 11:46 I had a second, as we caught up with some of our other neighbors we'd met once before, but never scraped any surfaces. They were silly, and well ahead of us on the inebriation, considering the four of us were drinking for one. We giggled, one girl admitted to just vomiting moments before. This was a party. We found shelter from the beer pong in the warmth of the front room (I'm not sure this houses rooms have designations yet), as a mad rush to arm the parties occupants with things that make pops and smoke, including the three year old, and as the countdown hit 00:05 someone threw a blanket over me and ran away. I was thinking how strange this all seemed when we started hearing loud blasts coming from just outside, so....

Happy New Years. We were home and in bed by 12:06am.