So it's New Year's Eve-

and I am sitting here with a bag of Wavy Lay's and drowning my sorrows in French Onion dip rather than the liquid happiness I have come to know and love over the years.

No, I am not an alcoholic. But I do like my social occasion drinks, and the New Year is a social occasion worthy of one, or two, or several. However, since I am now MIDDLE AGED, anything stiffer than a Diet Coke causes me to go into migraine alert. I've had nightmares of myself confined to a dark room with a cloth over my head, hand clutching my bottle of Fioricets, and moaning in agony. And that, my readers, is why I don't drink anymore.

I used to laugh at my mom and grandmom when we'd head up to Canada for the weekend and they'd let me, a 16 year old girl, loose in a discotheque full of hormone raged young Frenchmen. My mom and grandmom would head to the bar with me, and buy a bottle of Molson to share, asking the bartender for two glasses. As soon as the cap was off, I swear they acted like drunken fools just by inhaling the scent, without their lips ever touching the glass. I'd send them up to their room (the hotel was upstairs) and I would dance and drink until 3 am. And then go to Mike's for pizza with friends before staggering upstairs to my room. Sometimes an eager Frenchman would want to "help" me get to my room, but the moment I got upstairs and near the door good ole Gram would open the door and yank me inside while swearing at my admirer in French. Ah, the good old days of my youth. And now, I have trouble keeping down a good Margarita. I think I've become my mother. And I have already told the kids if I act stupid to lock me in the bathroom and throw away the key.

Less than an hour here on the East Coast until the ball drops and people go nuts in Times Square. It's hard to believe that #10YearsAgo (as I posted on twitter earlier) I was partying it up in RI with my buddy Nancy while dancing bachata and merengue in Horizontes and the Tropicana. So I am forcing myself to stay up and watch the ball drop... and then I can say "Happy New Year, here's to 2010!" before my head hits the pillow and I fall fast asleep.

2009 has come and gone, it has been a year of challenges, surprises and heartbreak. The world has changed very much in this past decade, and I worry about the future for my children and grandchildren. And I wonder what the future will bring, while trying to have hope and think positive thoughts. In the meantime, I wish all of you a very healthy, happy, and prosperous New Year-Happy 2010 everyone!