Mentalechoes

I remember it all; the party, the people, and all the gear on the tables around the flat. No alcohol stupor for me, nor the missing time effect that so many others would face when they woke up on the morning after. It was a hardcore crowd though, make no mistake, not satisified with chit chat and gin and tonics in the living room. No this group wanted to feel the rush of the approaching new year, and have the surge take them across midnight into their field of dreams.

I got into the swing of things, being picked up by the general crowd fever of excitement and thirst for intoxication; I didn't want to be left behind, so I put my own head to the table and went with the flow. A little while later, when the clock struck midnight, I held my sparkler in the air and twirled it at the stars while singing Auld Lang Syne, my heart full of cheer.

I remember looking around the room many times during that night of the party, seeing the faces of the crowd, most of whom I knew, and remembering the history behind them. The last year had been a good one despite how terrible some of the bad days of my breakup had been. I could think back to a lot of fun times with this group who I had come to call my friends; they were a balance to everything else that was painful. I felt happy to see out the old, and in with the new, with them by my side.

It was around 7am on that day of the first when we finally put on our coats and headed outside to the dim grey dark early morning, that is the norm for winter in Europe. There were only 2 people left around the table, now all covered in party litter, like a ships bottom is covered with barnacles. My little group was one of the last to go and by that time our feet ached and our heads were blurred and sluggish. Little matter, it was a whole day to sleep it off, when sleep would come. The important thing was, it was a night to remember, and a long kiss goodbye to that babe of a year, 2007.

Padwanna