Well, dear readers, the eternal age-old question is, of course: What are you doing New Year’s Eve? And the answer is, of course, that I’ll be attending our Annual New Year’s Rockin’ Eve Bash right here at haineshisway.com, which is always the best partay in town, where we can shake our collective booties until the proverbial cows come home. It’s also the safest place to be to avoid the dangers of drunk drivers and liquored up folks. I hope you’ll join us here for the bash. In the meantime, here we all are, on the final day and evening of the year 2023. And so, we’ll bid a fond farewell to that year, and we’ll welcome in a brand-new year I like to call 2024. After the love/hate relationship of 2023, I’m hoping it will settle down into just a love relationship. Wouldn’t THAT be loverly? But let’s not get ahead of ourselves as I haven’t even discussed yesterday. Here it is, in a nutshell: Yesterday was okay. I got a little over eight hours of sleep, got up, answered e-mails, did a few things on the computer, and then dressed and got in the motor car, girded my loins, had my shopping list, and went to Ralph’s to do the shopping for the Do. But before I get to that, let me talk about the movie I finished prior to getting a bit over eight hours of sleep, entitled Spartan. I’d already said I’d watched the first fifteen minutes and was enjoying it. Unfortunately, every minute thereafter was more ludicrous than the previous minute, and it quickly devolved into an absolutely, stupendously stupid motion picture. It was written and directed by David Mamet, and I’ve certainly enjoyed some of his motion pictures. But this thing just became laughable once the actual reason for the plot was revealed and it kept going from bad to worse and beyond. And then – it ended. Just a terrible movie any way you slice it.
So, there I was in Ralph’s. The parking lot was jammed, and I was actually going to leave, but I had a bit of luck and got a spot right near the doors in the parking lot, which lead directly to the escalator to the store. So, loins girded, I got to the store. And there was not a single shopping cart to be found. Again, I was about to leave when I spied a single cart in the fruit section that didn’t seem to belong to anyone. So, I grabbed it. I got all the spaghetti ingredients first, then the tuna pasta salad stuff, paper plates, rolls and a few other necessary items. Happily, every checkout line was open, so I found one with one person ahead of me who’d already paid and was just bagging her stuff. So, I was in and out in about two minutes. From there, I went to the nearby Taco Bell and got my food, then came home. I ate the food, and it was pretty okay. I then put the stuff for the Do away and realized that’s I’d left a key ingredient for the tuna pasta salad off the list, namely the tuna. And I forgot the yearly bottle of champagne. Damn them, damn them all to HELL. I then watched the first half of the original Willy Wonka movie and thank goodness they had Gene Wilder to make it work. I watched the first half of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope, organized stuff for the Do, and then did a quick trip to the post office and miraculously both important envelopes were there, along with a SAG residual that was pretty decent. So, that was good news.
Then I went across the street to Gelson’s and got the tuna and champagne and since they were having a sale on Diet Coke, got two twelve-packs. If I go out for anything today, I’ll go grab one more twelve-pack. I came home and that was that and here we are.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll get the stuff I’ve already written into the new book template so that I’m ready to go tomorrow morning, then I’ll go out for something to eat – not sure what yet – and whilst I’m out I’ll pick up that extra twelve-pack of Diet Coke. In the evening, whilst we partay, I’ll make the tuna pasta salad and also slice and dice the garlic and onions and mushrooms. I’ll be at our Bash, of course, and then, I suppose, I’ll do the contemplation thing, just because I am a creature of habit. At nine, we’ll do the East Coast New Year and our balls dropping, then at midnight PST, I’ll toast in the New Year after the balls have dropped with my one sip of champagne.
Tomorrow will be a new month and a New Year, and it is my fervent hope and prayer that both New Year and New Month will be filled with health, wealth, happiness, creativity, and all things bright and beautiful. As soon as I’m up and coherent, I’ll begin writing the new book. At noon, I’ll prepare the famous spaghetti sauce, and then I’ll write more, shave and shower, at around four-twenty I’ll start boiling the water for the pasta. I’ll try to have everything ready at five, which is when people will start arriving and the Do will go until nine. After that, I’ll try to write a few more pages. Then the rest of the week will be taking care of business, writing every day, and doing whatever needs doing.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up when I’m up, put the stuff into the new book template so I’m ready to go the following morning, I’ll go out and get something to eat and grab another twelve-pack of Diet Coke, we’ll have our Bash, I’ll make the tuna pasta salad and dice and slice onion, garlic, and mushrooms. I’ll do the yearly contemplation thing, and then toast in the New Year with my usual sip of champagne. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, as we bid a fond farewell to 2023 and a welcoming welcome to 2024.