Saturday, January 1, 2011

Twenty Eleven

Matt says that saying "Twenty-eleven" instead of "two thousand eleven" sounds more comfortable and familiar, like you are actually living in a time and not imagining it from a distant vantage point. He says that "two thousand eleven" sounds like something people in the 1960's would be saying, with wild surmise.  I told him that I still feel that I am imagining 2011. I expect we'll get better acquainted though, this year and me.

How was your night last night?  We were up in North Carolina, at the mountain house with friends and my mom and dad.  We let the kids stay up until ten.  I love my children and delight in their company, but to me, ringing in the new year is adult time. The bigger kids asked if they could stay up, please please, and we said, "No."

We watched Inglourious Basterds, drank some prosecco, and watched the fireworks set off by some people farther down the mountain.  We know them only as The Two Lawyers, but word reached us via mountain grapevine that they would be setting off a whole mess of fireworks.  Word also reached us that, before returning to their house after Christmas, they had left the heat turned off and their toilets froze and broke. They apparently rallied from this misfortune, as they did shoot off some fireworks that we could see perfectly from my parents' deck.

When I say "mountain grapevine," I mean this old begrizzled guy who rides around on his four wheeler and will come into your house and drink you dry, if you are not very careful.  Dad said, of entertaining this visitor, "I just make no move toward a second drink."

One afternoon while the snow was turning to slush and Mr. Grapevine was inside drinking my dad's whiskey, Mr. Grapevine's dog was outside cavorting around by where the kids were sledding, and Hank slid right into him.  It was a scene.  Hank took the dog's legs clean out from under him, and for a few moments, the dog was sledding on Hank's lap.  Then the dog clambered off, leaving Hank in a state of shock as he finished his ride.  It didn't seem like it had been a serious collision, so naturally every adult in the vicinity started laughing.  It had just looked so ridiculous.

If it were a just and good universe I would have been filming this.

But then Hank began to cry large splashy tears.  I asked him if he was hurt and he said, "It hurts all over my body."  So I think it might have been a solid body blow for both boy and dog.  Both recovered just fine, though Hank's eye was swollen. I think he hit the dog's collar with it.

So that was about it.  We watched the Two Lawyers' fireworks, toasted the good company, finished watching our movie, and wished 2010 well on its way.

Happy New Year! Here's to getting acquainted with the future.

13 comments:

M said...

Let me encourage you to enjoy that early bedtime before the tables turn and knock you over. The 14-year-olds at my house last night handily outlasted me and giggled incessantly til the very wee hours. The college kid stayed overnight at his party and sent a text at 12 to wish his sister a happy new year.

It's just weird to be the first one to pass out(and, sadly, this after only one glass of wine.) Seems like only yesterday I was dancing on the tables one NYE to the raucous new sound of my friend's punk rock band. ;)

Happy New Year!

Michele R said...

I second M. We have all been going to bed way past midnight this whole week, and rang in the New Year together....plus we had to stay up to retrieve our 14 yr old and his friends as scheduled from a party at 1:00.
Happy New Year!

Anonymous said...

the handy man who lives next to our family cabin in Ashe County comes over and spits like a camel. he doesn't drink all the booze, though. Just spits.

Elizabeth said...

I am of the same mind as you regarding children and staying up into midnight, but one of my neighbors invited my boys over to celebrate and I let them go. That meant lots of quiet for myself and my daughter as my husband was working. At midnight, though, I woke to the sound of my sons screaming on our street, my nine-year old, shirtless, waving his shirt over his head as he ran barefoot down the sidewalk. Insanity.

Amy said...

Poor Hank! That sounds like a scene from a movie. Hilarious! Glad dude is ok, though.

Ava and Nate stayed up till midnight this year, but we paid for it all day the next day! Oh well...they had fun.

Wish I coulda been there! Miss y'all.

Keely said...

Poor Hank! He just breaks my heart.

X stayed up til 10 (!) but he's been staying up late due to holiday hours anyway. I lasted approximately an hour longer and then turned off the zombie show and went to bed.

Char said...

i stumbled across your blog in blogstalking some else's reading list. i connected on a southern level as you write how i speak, especially when you say a "whole mess" of fireworks.

happy new year. i look forward to reading more.

Kate said...

Cheers to 2011 bringing you good health, laughter, peace, love and more happiness than your heart can hold!en

Leciawp said...

Happy 2011, my friend. xo

gretchen said...

Poor Hank! Poor Mr. Grapevine dog! Amy's right, it sounds like a scene out of A Christmas Story.

I think Matt has a point. I, however, stubbornly insisted on using the word "ought" during the past decade. As in Twenty-Ought-Three". Weirded people out.

laura said...

Happy New Year! Thanks for making me laugh and cry this past year.

Lawyer Mom said...

It's that song "In the Year 2025" that's got you and Matt hung up. But to me, "twenty-eleven" sounds more 2525 futuristicky. (word?)

Star said...

"two thousand eleven," or "twenty eleven"...that question came up in my ESL class just before the Xmas break. I opted for the former, as perhaps more correct, but certainly more formal, and added the caveat that I've been living outside the States for so many years now that I'd search the internet for options. I didn't even have to search, you brought it right to my e-mail box, thanks!