1-1-11

Happy New Year!!!

Ok, I admit, I am bit of a dork; I like numbers. And today is 01/01/11. :) Doesn't happen very often.

I worked on the 31st, and since my mom is also in town, I delayed making the plans for that evening until that very day. In the past, the three of us would go for the First Night Austin festivities downtown, and either ring in the New Year there with the fireworks or come back home. But, due to lack of funds, the City canceled it for this year. Instead, there was a much scaled down version with the ANY, Austin’s New Year. I was also invited to a swing dance NYE party at Go Dance, and had the ticket placed on hold, because I wasn't sure if I'll be able to make it over there.

So, after dinner, mom and I headed over to my brother's, to take over some food and wish them a happy new year. We thought it would be a quick visit, but we didn't get out of there until around 9. The plan was then to just drive around the Auditorium Shores and see what that event is all about, from the car. But, the streets were blocked off, and since I spotted a good parking spot real close, we decided to walk through. It was really scaled down. There was a little stage with music, few fire performers around, some solo acts, few bike floats for people to drive for couple of minutes, some visual and sound art exhibits, and several food vendors. And the crowd was tin, too. It was about quarter till 10 when we headed to the car. I realized that by the time I drop mom off and get to the dance studio it will be at least 10.30. And I was kinda hoping to maybe get home at midnight, as I felt bad leaving mom alone, to ring it the new year with her. So, since it would mean I'd be at that party for just maybe an hour, and we were so close to the start of the fireworks downtown, I decided to spend that time with mom.

We walked around a bit more, then climbed up on the little hill by the pond, along with couple of dozen other folks, and waited for the fireworks at 10.15. The air was so clear, and the view of downtown really pretty with new buildings lit up in different colors. It was very cold that evening, in the low 40s, but we have bundled up. The fireworks were spectacular! The view was great from that elevated location, and the downtown skyline gave it a nice backdrop. It was probably the longest fireworks I have ever seen; almost 25 minutes! It was again one of those moments I wanted to savor - my arm around mom's shoulder as we enjoyed and got excited with every new light display! Loved it. Don't regret a bit not going to that party. (although, I am sure I would have enjoyed that, too)

We got home a bit after 11, and commented how only one other house on our street had the Christmas lights still on. As we pulled into the driveway, another surprise - our front door was WIDE open!!! What! Again?! Two years ago I had almost the same thing happen to us, but a police officer came home before us to lock everything. This time, we had lights in two rooms in the house, lights on the house, and on the bushes outside, so the inside of the house was very visible from the street. I walked in to a cold house, the heater blowing like crazy, and slowly went through all the rooms. Once I realized that my laptop was still sitting on the coffee table I knew that nobody was inside. Whew!

It was time to prepare for the big start of the new year. We were still cold, so instead of champagne we had hot chocolate milk to toast with! :) We sat out some finger food, snacks, cheese, meat, and I decided to quickly make the Russian Salad, a new year's tradition of ours. We talked with Zoran and Emilia just before midnight; they stayed at home, too. We then set and watched the program from Time Square for couple of more hours, and called it a night.

The New Year's day was slow, as it should be. :) We drove by the Main Street in Round Rock, hoping to have coffee there, but the the Friar Tuck’s Pantry was closed, and then to the outlet mall, which, surprisingly was open. We ended the evening with the Vienna New Year's concert on PBS, which we used to watch at noon every new year's day growing up. Loved that time of renewed memories!