Happy New Year? Why?

I have never been enamored of the New Year's holiday.

When I was young and in my 'nightclubbing days' I resented New Year's revelers as binge drinkers who drove up the prices in my favorite watering holes. Lately, I have trouble staying awake until midnight.

My Long Suffering Spouse doesn't want to go out. But she calls her mother at midnight, and she expects her kids to call her. Older Daughter is in Indianapolis; that's on Eastern Standard Time. So she called twice the last couple of years -- midnight there and midnight here. The joke was she'd wake me up both times -- though, this year, I was awake.

I worry more each year, as the kids get older, about where they're going and whether they'll be safe. The most frightening case this year was that of Middle Son. He went to a cabin in Michigan with friends this New Year. They had talked extensively of doing a Polar Bear Plunge into the adjacent small lake to usher in 2011. Drunks jumping into freezing water? Not a good plan for long term survival. (Fortunately, in the end, they decided not to.)

But I have another objection, too: The rent or mortgage, which (hopefully) was paid for December is now due again. The charge cards that had been paid (if not paid off) are due again, too. As is the gas, electric, phone, cable.... Why should I be happy about that?