Here comes the jackpot question in advance

"To alcohol! The cause of—and solution to—all of life's problems."
    - H. J. Simpson

When I look back at my tee-totaling teens, I mostly see an overly-worried, overly-judgmental person who should have lightened up and enjoyed himself while still keeping with the good decision (I still think it was a good decision) to stay off of alcohol.

But while I could have stood to be much less damning in those days, and while I've made up for lost drinking time in my adult years, I still think I was on to something in one respect: that drinking took a lot of the creativity out of having fun. Instead of trying to figure out interesting things to do, everything was done in relation to drinking, whether it was formals or softball games, going to movies or just hanging around and talking. The school was/seemed full of people who couldn't consider anything fun unless it involved drinking.

As we got older, we all got more creative and more accepting of different kinds of fun. But the spirit of those uncreative high school drinking days has a tendency to stick onto New Year's Eve. There's a constant pressure to go to a party and get wasted, and the day seems split up between those who have a getting-drunk opportunity and those who have been left out of them, and just about everyone feels as though New Year's Eve is for drinking.

Tomorrow, I'll get on my annual soapbox of talking up New Years Day as the answer to all holiday problems. But today, New Year's Eve, I just hope that no one's feeling any pressure about the day. Spend it quietly, spend it doing whatever you like and enjoy the new beginning tomorrow. As for me, I'll be hopping a train to Baltimore to spend a quiet night with my sweetheart. I may not get to kiss her on the lips, because I have a cold, but I'm glad to be spending the evening with the person who's made my 2005 a wonderfully memorable year.

As a little New Year's Eve present, I've given you a few songs to enjoy today and tomorrow: "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?" by Nancy Wilson, an instrumental version of "Auld Lang Syne" by Guy Lombardo AND His Royal Canadians, and my favorite New Year's song, "Happy New Year" by Camera Obscura.

And indeed, have a happy and safe New Year's Eve.