Jinxed on NYE!

Should I consider it bad luck that almost EVERY year I am sick on New Year's Eve? Adam and I both had to work on NYE so we didn't do much on Tues night. I woke up at 1:30am completely nauseous and proceeded to throw up for the next 4 hrs. I ended up working from home on Wed. which I'm sure my manager thought I was totally faking and just trying to start my NYE celebration early. I went to the doctor and found out that I had a severe sinus infection and a possible stomach virus. While everyone else was kicking off their celebration, I was laying on the couch watching a House marathon. We ended up making it to my parents house about 15 min before midnight. My parents friends from Atlanta, Benny and Gwen, were visiting them. Here are some pics from NYE 2008.

           

To proved that I'm jinxed on NYE with illness here is the recap of NYE 2005...

Adam and I went to Napa shortly after Christmas and had plans to celebrate NYE in San Francisco. I was sick with a cold the entire time we were in Napa. I couldn't taste, much less smell, any wine but had a great time regardless. On the morning of 12/31 we were scheduled to drive to SF for our NYE plans...dinner at La Suite and then a party at the Bubble Lounge. We headed out of Yountville towards the bay bridge and literally saw cars floating down the road in front of us and a fire truck parked side ways across the road denoting that the road was closed. I was bound and determined that we were going to make it to SF in time for our plans that night and our flight on Jan. 2 to LA for the Rose Bowl, so I literally called the radio station 15 times trying to find ways out of Napa. They were reporting that all exits were being closed making it impossible to reach the other way out via the Golden Gate Bridge. Adam decided to try to find our way to the Golden Gate Bridge by going north to Calistoga and then coming back down to get to the Golden Gate Bridge. I have never been through such flooding in my entire life. There were literally waterfalls coming down across the road. On top of being really sick I was becoming extremely car sick by the moment and started to rethink my decision to encourage Adam to try to make it to SF.

Some how Adam got us out of Napa and into SF; though it took hours we made it with enough time to shower and get ready for NYE. We heard on the news that about an hour after we cleared the Golden Gate Bridge it was closed. We were staying at my family friend's, Travis, house and he had warned us that it may be difficult to get a cab on NYE and said if we got into a bind we could use his driver, Alex. Adam called cabs for 2 hrs and couldn't get anyone that would be willing to come get us. We had come this far and there was no way I was giving up even if we had to walk. With 10 min left before our dinner reservations we broke down and called Alex. This guy was amazing...not only did he immediately come get us, he drove through parking lots, over medians and curbs and got us to our reservations ON TIME!!! Dinner was awesome, Bubble Lounge was cool, and Alex returned to pick us up and take us home so all was good.

Well, until the next day when I woke up feeling like I was dying but wanted Adam to see the touristy stuff in SF since it was our last day before we were heading to LA. We had lunch in Ghirardelli Square and then walked to Lombard street as it started to pour down rain. We ended up walking to Fisherman's Wharf trying to find a pharmacy as I was getting sicker being in the cold, wet weather. Adam didn't want me in the rain any longer so dropped me off in a Starbuck's while I waited on him to go find some meds. He was gone for what seemed like hours and we finally took a cab home. By the time we got home my fever had gone up to 102 and I really couldn't do much of anything besides sleep.

Next day we flew to LA. We were staying at a hotel in Burbank. When we arrived the desk clerk asked if we wanted to upgrade to the renovated section of the hotel. We were only going to be there 2 nights so we said no. We got to our room and it was disgusting in general but truly gross when I moved the ottoman to put the suitcase down and there was a half eaten hamburger and a ball of hair (like when you clean out a brush) underneath it. I immediately broke down as Adam called to get us moved to the renovated section regardless of cost. The other section was MUCH BETTER. I had to fire off a phone call to Kari because I knew if the room was not up to my standards it would not be up to hers. She in turn warned her mother who immediately called the hotel to get both of them upgraded.

On Jan. 4 we went to the Rose Bowl. I was still sick and miserable, I had limited hearing and overall felt like crap but it was my Horns playing for the National Championship so there was no way I would miss it. I tried to get in the spirit of things by having one beer and some classless USC fan kicked it over while Kari and I were in the bathroom...god, I hate USC fans. Anyway, the game was amazing and UT won so I'm thinking that I may be jinxed only the actual day/night of NYE but good things sometimes come the 1st week of Jan. so maybe I shouldn't worry about it too much...

A few Rose Bowl 2006 memories:

      

What happened to the 12 days of Christmas?

I'm a firm believer in the 12 days of Christmas which starts on Christmas day and ends on Jan. 6 so I insist on leaving up our Christmas decorations and burning our exterior Christmas lights until this day. It takes weeks to lug all the decorations from the attic, go through them and finally putting them out that it makes no sense to me to undecorate on Dec. 26 or even on Jan. 1. I love the holidays and don't want them to end so why on earth would I undecorate so quickly? Not to mention, that it will take me weeks to get down the boxes from the attic, take down all the decorations, sort them and carefully pack them away for next year.

For some reason this year it is just not in the cards...
1. We have lost several dozen glass ornaments this past week that have tumbled off our quick drying live tree only to meet death on the terra cotta tile floor.
2. "Someone" keeps knocking over the buck reindeer in our front yard but politely leaves the stakes in a pile right next to him. The poor thing repeatedly turns his mechanical head into the ground looking like he has been shot and is moaning in pain.
3. We finally blew a strand of lights on the big tree outside so now it goes white, dark, white, then green. I must admit every time I see the dark spot it gets on my OCD nerves but I must stick with my principals and keep my Christmas show going until Jan. 6.
4. Adam got the boxes down from the attic last night and I politely stacked them in the corner until I'm good and ready to give in and start dismantling our Christmas creations.

Unfortunately, this morning we were awoken by a small crash that turned out to be 3 glass balls committing suicide at the same time so I may be willing to compromise. I may agree to take down the main tree and safely put the Santas in their bubble wrap so Adam won't have a heart attack if his beloved motorcycle Santa crashes on the floor...but the outside lights, including almost dead buck and burnt out strand of lights, and the Hello Kitty tree, and small tree are staying up until Jan. 6 at which point I'll happily pack them all away and wish you all a Merry 12th Day of Christmas!