Zumwohl! - Cheers!

As contrived and hand-picked as this entry may appear, a mere thirty-seven hours from 2009, it, like all previous pieces, was selected entirely at random. Not that I can prove that, but I just don’t have the energy for lying today, so take my word for it. Now, that I’m working both Old Year’s Night and New Years day seems too convenient an excuse to not go out and get at least a little bit drunk this time round. But the truth is I just can’t find that many reasons to give even the slightest of tosses about it. Yeah, be sociable, get out there, show people you’re young, free and single and all that bollocks, but for what? The chance of an ugly one night stand or fleeting bit of tongue action on the stroke of midnight? New Years is always a disappointment, so chances are if I go and actively expect a bad night, it’ll turn out to be great, which will of course then be a let down anyway. But far better than the 99 percent of the population who’ll experience the exact reverse. I suppose it’s just another example of vague optimism through constant pessimism (see Unterschatzen, 11/10/08), but vague optimism notched down to scant sanguinity or something equally pretentious and downbeat sounding. It is just an excuse for a party at the end of the day, (and month and year for that matter) and I’ve never been a massive fan of those. For me they’re mostly uncomfortable extensions of day-to-day small-talk and chit-chat with potentially even more embarrassing consequences. It’s rare you’ll actually connect with someone and be able to converse about topics any more interesting than that new girl at work or last night’s telly. Mingling is just an exercise in negotiating a path through well-defended clique circles and pausing briefly to smiling at people who’ve absolutely no desire to reciprocate the motion. Luckily, there are certain measures as defined in the Socially Awkward’s Handbook, should an attempt to be sociable backfire horribly. My favourite is probably the talk-come-cough action, whereby ’Hi’ will morph into ’Hhh-splutter-cough-splutter’ the instant it becomes clear they’re not listening or already walking away. It never works, as anyone in the surrounding area thinks you’re an idiot or just ill and takes a few steps back regardless. But enough of me being grumpy. 2009 has lots in store at camp Andy and ought to be a fun-filled year of travel, writing, and stand-up comedy, and all possible combinations of the three. I’ve got several important aims I may choose to shoehorn into later German to English Writings, but for now, I’ll simply say bring on a terrible New Years Eve! Oh, and cheers!