One great thing about living in San Francisco is that we get to celebrate something like 6 different New Years.

There is the regular Western one that's going to happen here in California in about 45 minutes; there's the Persian New Year, the Chinese, the Vietnamese, the Thai, and probably a dozen more. Because January 1st is the one I grew up with back in the southern United States, I've got to say it's my favorite, though I'm not biased against the others.

Here are a few significant moments from a few New Years I remember. They might not be in exact order.

I celebrated two in Germany, at some disco or another. I had had quite a few beers and don't remember much of what happened, except that I was probably being a nuisance to the local girls who put up with me because I could speak passable German, and since this was about 18 to 20 years ago, I was probably a little bit cuter:-).

Back in 2003, I think, I was staying at the Classic Place Hotel on New Petchiburi in Bangkok, near the new Underground stop, and very close to Nice Traditional Thai Massage. For the celebration, I went to Nice and hung out with Usa, the owner, her two daughters, and the other people who worked there. That was my first time in Thailand and I ate some stuff I had never seen before; something like small round shellfish? The girls put on some music and we danced and ate and drank whatever was there.

On another New Years, a couple of friends came up from Santa Cruz. We went up to the Embarcadero Center, near the Piers, and waited for the clock to strike 12 midnight. There were too many people there for me, to be honest. On the way back there were throngs of people just yelling, drinking, and acting like wild asses. There were teens out there with their big, loud sounding music boxes. At one point, as we were walking, I looked around and saw that the woman with us was leaning over in some teenager's face and yelling something at him. He jumped to his feet and was yelling back at her. I yelled out to her (since her boyfriend was too cowardly to do it) "Hey Carol, get over here and leave those people alonel!" That was not the place to start a riot with a bunch of possible gangbangers.

By this time Carol (who had been saying she's only a social drinker) was seven-sheets to the wind, that is, she was "**** face drunk". She started complaining and whining about her aching feet. Hey who goes out knowing they're be walking up to five miles, and wear high heel shoes? I'll tell you, Carol, that's who. By the way, I've known Carol since we were kids, and she is much more than a "social drinker".

But I guess my saddest New Years day was ten years ago. My first niece died of pneumonia back in Washington, D.C. At the time I had no idea that pneumonia still killed people, but it can. The comedian Bernie Mack died of pneumonia just this past year. But with my niece it was surreal; she was the daughter of my much older sister. I remember when she was born, I used to help take care of her, tickle her, listen to the cute baby things she would say, and saw her become a smart, wisecracking, and attractive young woman, and then like "poof", she was gone. Damn! Life can sucker punch you when you least suspect it.

Tonight, I think I'll stay in and watch a documentary about Dinosaurs.

Happy New Year(s) to everyone. I really wish you peace of mind, of heart, and prosperity in the coming year.

happy new year mate

bud it's not so happy 54 dead ppl with a big fire in bkk anight club

Yeah Monkyman:

It's such a tragedy, that fire. Sad to say but I used to wonder about those places in Bkk that let in hundreds of people while having only one or two exits. Same with many places I've been to in London. In London they were never large, but were very small and you had to go down a tight set of winding stairs to get inside.