Happy New Year, Lieutenant Dan!

During every crowded bar New Years Eve ball-drop countdown, I always find myself reminded of the scene above in Forest Gump. Lieutenant Dan sitting there, small and still, jutting out amongst the writhing sea of celebration and merriment; covered in it, in fact…but not saturated to the point of being absorbed by it. The band stops just in time, and the countdown begins…and I always find myself feeling very far away as everyone around me erupts into the ten second chorus, before exploding into a plume of cheers, horns, and kisses. I always wonder how many people are kissing between 12:00, and 12:05, and who I might know across the globe that would be a likely member of that demographic. Such thoughts were interrupted this evening, however, as the old upper class lady in her early 50s stood staring at me like like she wanted to eat me alive, clutching her half-sipped cosmo to her breast with one sagging hand. I smiled at her, as I often to do people I catch staring at me, and she immediately dipped her tongue into her glass without breaking eye contact with me. I fled the moment, finished my drink in one gulp, and called it an evening immediately.