Should auld acquaintance be forgot?

New Year's Eve just ain't all it's cracked up to be. It's like Valentine's Day - full of optimism and planning, and nearly always disappointing.

About a month and a half ago, I had a conversation that went as follows:

Me: I'm trying to decide on Christmas travel plans.
Unidentified Other Person: Yeah? What's the problem?
Me: I can spend New Years' either here or at home. If I stay home, I am guaranteed that Mom and Dad will go to bed by 10pm, and I will ring in the New Year alone at midnight because I am too damned stubborn to go to bed before then. If I come back here, chances are my friends will forget about me/not know I'm back in town because I'm too tired to remind them and I will ring in the New Year alone at midnight because I am too damned stubborn to go to bed before then. Either way, there's a 90% chance I'll be alone at midnight anyway, so I don't know why I'm debating it.
Me again: Oh, and this is complicated by the fact that I have a friend that has invited me to a wedding on the 30th. Not that I'm expecting that particular invitation to hold water, since this friend has a history of disappointing me.
UOP: Well, my friends and I never decide until a couple of days after Christmas what we're doing, but whatever it is, you're welcome to join us.

It was a nondescript, yet I believed sincere, invitation.

Around this time, I am also invited by BNL to a "house party." I tell him I already have a tentative invitation, but will keep him in mind if that falls through. I am a first-come, first-served kind of girl. Besides, I'd rather hang out with people my own age and not attending a kegger, no matter how ragin' (but I keep that to myself).

Cut to a couple of weeks later. I ask AforeMentioned Friend if he knows yet if he is invited to said wedding with guest, because I would go with him if he agrees to take me to the airport the next day. I figure that way I get to see him (which would be nice - AMF is one of 3 people from high school I still make an effort to speak to) but also get a ride to the airport out of it, which makes everyone happy. He agrees to this arrangement, but qualifies it by saying that he's not sure he's going to get invited with a date, because it's going to be a small wedding. Okay, let me know, I say.

Cut to a few days later - I ask if the invitation has come. He says no, but don't count on the invite, because his buddy got his invitation and his wife wasn't even invited. A day later, it's confirmed that when his invite arrives, it will not read, "AMF...and guest." Glad to hear that my low expectations have been met perfectly.

Cut to a week ago. I e-mail the UOP because I haven't talked to them since I went home and am about to be out of internet/phone contact for a couple of days. I figure this would be a good time for the UOP to renew the New Year's invitation if they were actually serious about it. No response.

Cut to yesterday. I arrive home after 14 hours of travel and no sleep. Still no response. AforeMentioned Friend IMs me: "hey there."
Me: "hey."
AMF:

WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH MEN? Why would you IM me if you have nothing, repeat NOTHING, to say to me??? Oh, and may I add that the AMF lives in my hometown? He has waited until the very night I have arrived back in Toronto to even attempt talking to me. Even though I popped online every evening while I was home. He has a knack for doing this.

Fine...

Me: Aren't you supposed to be at a wedding?
AMF: That was yesterday.

THE MOTHERFUCKER HAD THE DATE WRONG.

Me: you told me it was the 30th.
AMF: it was the 29th. The invitation hadn't arrived yet, and I was just going on what I was told.
Me: I'm glad I didn't make travel plans around it or anything.

A little history on the AMF: He made a trip to Buffalo this past summer. Months ahead of time, he told me he was planning said trip. He said he would come see me (Buffalo is only about 2 hours away from Toronto). I said, "great." He hinted at it again about a month before he came up...how it wouldn't be a big deal to drive up here since it wasn't far. I heard nothing from him for a few weeks, until he IMed me to say, "I was up in your neck of the woods a few days ago." This is fairly representative of our entire relationship. He and I are great together in theory, but in practice, he can't seem to care enough to actually see me. Ever. Don't let the frequent mantra of, "so when are you coming home? Harrisonburg isn't that far..." fool you. I've learned not to.

Anyway, I digress. I managed to not let the AMF fuck up my plans this time like he has with, oh, pretty much every other trip home ever. It was a narrow escape, but an escape nonetheless. The problem is, I still haven't heard back from the UOP, the person I would really have liked to spend New Year's with. The UOP is fun and interesting, and has fun and interesting friends that I can make conversation with. And okay, fine, the UOP is a single man whose company I enjoy and whom I would not at all have minded kissing at midnight, platonically or otherwise. So sue me.

Regardless, my prediction came true. It's midnight, and I'm alone and wearing flannel cow pajamas. To be fair, I don't feel much like going out anyway - I'm allergic to something in my parents' house (probably their Christmas tree, although you'll never see me buying a fake one because I don't believe in them) and have come home with something that may or may not be a sinus infection but involves something fluid inside my right ear because I can hear better if I tip my head to the left. And sometime this morning I decided to make myself a Good Dinner because after a week and a half away (and a few days beforehand of takeout because I didn't want to leave any dirty dishes behind) I miss my own cooking. I won't get into the details, but there was Sauce involved. And I have discovered a new cocktail - a glass of bubbly with some pomegranate juice and a few seeds dropped in - it's like a pink, sparkly, alcoholic lava lamp that I can watch along with Shrek 2 and some old episodes of Sex and the City. And tomorrow, I have a few inches of snow and a full afternoon of football planned - I have laid in a good supply of beer and whiskey and a Crock Pot dinner in the works - and if you know me even a little bit, you know that you probably shouldn't disturb me (Gator Bowl + Rose Bowl = blue and orange collegiate goodness all around). So all in all, it's a pretty nice New Year's, and a freaking fantastic Monday night.

It is the nature of the self-indulgent blogger to look back at what they have written and re-evaluate. Last year, I wrote, "So I'm raising a glass to 2007, in the hopes that a new cycle will begin. One in which every year is the BEST year of my short life. Foolishly optimistic? I'm sure. But what can I say? I'm a hopeless romantic."

Here's to 2008. So far, so good.