I'm in a bad mood tonight, and I've been bitching and moaning about everything all day, so I thought I'd continue that on my blog and explain why I hate this time of year.1) I hate New Year's Eve because if you go to a party, most likely everyone will be drinking... champagne at least if nothing else. As a recovering alcoholic, it's really hard for me to see other people knocking back drinks without wanting to get wasted myself.
2) Because so many people get plastered on New Year's Eve, there are always people who call into work on New Year's Day saying they can't come in because they're "sick" when you know they're just hungover, and thus the rest of us have to pick up the slack and do their work.
3) People are always so focused on New Year's resolutions, and they constantly feel the need to ask you what your resolution is. I always want to say "Mind your fucking business. If I want to lose weight or give up smoking, that's my business and not anyone else's."
4) I hate how TV and radio commercials, newspapers, magazines, and so forth are totally focused on weight loss around this time of year. I even heard a radio commercial for the YMCA gym yesterday. Do these companies really think that advertising on TV every 3 minutes is going to get me to join their gym or eat their diet food? Forget that... pass me a donut.
5) I get so sick of all the "year in review" or "the year ahead" surveys on Myspace and Facebook. If you do one, you've done them all... you don't need to do every single one and post six of them in less than an hour.
6) Coworkers feel the need to make hummus out of black-eyed peas and bring it to work to share with everyone. The consistency of hummus makes me want to puke, no matter what it's made of. I don't want that stuff within my eye line, and of course, the cabinet they always put it on is right next to my desk.
7) I get off work about the time that people leave their New Year's Eve parties, so I always have to deal with the morons who drink and drive. Plus, if you factor in the recent snow that Oklahoma City got and that is still on some of the roads, this year will be really bad I'm sure. Thank God I live close to the office now and don't have to pass very many of them anymore.
8) The New Year's Eve celebration in New York's Times Square is the only thing to watch on TV until after it's over, and since there's an hour difference in time between New York and Oklahoma, the ball drops at 11 p.m. Then what? You've already done the countdown and it's only 11, so you've got to do it again at midnight our time.
9) Oklahoma has its own version of the Times Square celebration in Oklahoma City's downtown, but our ball goes up instead of dropping down. Frankly I've always thought that was retarded. They want to copy New York in so many ways but don't copy the one thing that would make sense to copy.
10) Because there's the hour time difference, I always used to go to sleep right after 11 p.m. following the ball drop in New York. Then the next day people would always ask, "What did you do last night?" I'd say I went to bed a little after 11, and they act like it's a cardinal sin not to stay up to midnight. That's another one of those "mind your fucking business" moments.
11) And speaking of sleeping on New Year's Eve, it never fails... my neighbors, no matter where I live, always have parties that last until 3 or 4 in the morning and they're as loud as humanly possible. They constantly wake me up over and over again, so I never get a good night's sleep.
12) I hate how everyone always makes a big deal about the new year and at 12:01 a.m. nothing's ever different. Nothing changes. In 1999, everyone made this big deal about "Y2K" and nothing happened. They acted like the world would come crashing down the second 2000 started, but guess what, it's 2009 and the world never ended.
13) If I hear the slogan "New Year, New You" one more time, I may scream. Can no one think of a new year-related slogan that is unique?
