Day 361: New Year’s Eve, the Best Possible Way

What an awesome day. Went a little something like this…

[Glorious sunshine.]

9 am – Teddy got up and left for a hike while I read in bed. (btw “Barbarian Days” is either the best or worst book choice for the end of this year. Apart from being un-put-down-able, it’s deliciously evocative for a Hawaiian moment of deep reflection. Unfort it’s also just …so….the opposite of a winter in New York City…depositing salt directly into the wounds of my return.

10 am – The kids poured their own cereal and listened to the Frozen II soundtrack while I wrote at the desk-with-a-view.

11 am – Kids in the pool; I wrote by the pool. While floating in a flamingo innertube, James shouted: “Mama, this is a good life.” Dead.

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12 pm – Video chat with Claire Voorhees and cousin crew back in DC, who were revving up for an …8 pm ET bedtime.

1 pm – Teddy came home, with funny reports:

• The Na Poli hiking trail wasn’t open to anyone without a reservation/parking pass. He had neither so left the trail head and went jogging on a nearby beach instead. Interestingly, the first beach he tried to run on was closed to any people. The lifeguards told him beachgoers were at risk because every once in a while “a set” of waves would smash way up onto the sand so hard it would wipe everything/one out and suck everything out to sea. Um – scary??
• He hit an organic market and a fish market for dinner. I love when Teddy goes to food shopping when he’s hungry. Comes home with the best stuff.
• He remarked that everywhere he went was packed. Lines all over the place. I’d also overheard two locals talking yesterday about the crowds, saying “Dude, everyone on the island must have off this week.” Made us appreciate our house/oasis — our own fridge, pool, “lanai,” view. The best call ever for our last week.

All this writing by the way? I’m desperately trying to record every thought and feeling from the year 1) while it’s still fresh and 2) before we return to the land of distractions. I’ve got 20k words so far. And so much more I want to put down on paper. The deadline here really helps. As I keep promising – it’s coming soon!

The kids and I never left the house today. It was sheer heaven. Outside it was sunny, sun-showery, misty, sunny again, golden-y — the sound of wind in palm trees and rain on roof, depending on when you listened. Oh and at least one rainbow. All very Kauai.

The swell was enormous out on the water. From our window, the far reef breaks looked like the silhouette of Sonic the Hedgehog when he hit high speeds (giving away my 90s-ness).

As if we needed reminding that the kids don’t need a bunch of toys and are fine improvising with whatever’s around, James and Willa spent a few hours playing with the house’s measuring tape. 

When they got tired of measuring things in the house and writing down their length on a sheet of paper, they started using the tape to “fish” for a magnetic marble James bought (with his own allowance) in New Zealand. They’d roll out the marble, then “cast” the measuring tape’s metal tip out to “reel” the marble in. Again and again.

There was also reading, writing and Yahtzee in the late afternoon.

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By 5:30 pm our time we turned on CNN and watched Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen host a pathetically hilarious Times Square NYE special. I have never watched this before. Is it a thing? I read Andy’s memoir a few years ago and know he and Anderson are BFFs. They were getting increasingly drunk and doing satellite interviews with D-list celebs around the world. We could not stop laughing. Is it because we’ve just missed all things American for so long? Or because it was actually just so effing hilarious? The combo of this Odd Couple (Andy so brash and poor stuffed-shirt Anderson trying to keep things under control as he got drunker and drunker) and their bad audio/video and god-awful guests kept making me snort with laughter.

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Btw the NYE entertainment tonight on US TV — Green Day, Paula Abdul, Alannis Morisette, Sheryl Crow — made us realize that the popular music of our teen years is 1) 90s throwback novelty, very in right now and 2) 100% targeted at the middle-aged audience watching on a couch at home. Aka us. Eek! We’re old!! And that’s not even the music we liked when we were teenagers!!

We celebrated the only NYE that matters: New York’s! So nice to do at 7 pm. 

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What a year 2019 was. Feeling ready for 2020.

Put the kids to bed with some Hobbit (almost done!!!). 

MISC:
There was this sappy animated VW commercial commemorating the retirement of the Volkswagen Bug after 70 years. Ugggh, I drove my grandmother’s ‘71 orange beetle for all of high school and in the last few years have expressed regret at not having it anymore. The commercial made me tear up!! Granted, I’m in a fragile state these days, but c’mon. That was a great car!