Happy Happy!

Happy New Year!  The holidays are over.  Life can get back to normal and with the dawn of a new year, we can all be optimistic that things will get much better. 

Let’s have a Britney-free 2008 shall we?

Ray, John and I went into Old Bisbee for the New Year celebration.  First we stopped over at Montefalco to have dinner with Terry.  Ray made a light meal of baked tortellini and salad.   We had a lovely time toasting to the new year and scarfing down the food.  After that, we made our way down to Brewery Gulch.  I was kind of cold, full and tired.  There were a lot of people out.  You know when you’re supposed to be in the mood to party but just don’t feel like it?  That was me…and Ray.  I can’t speak for John, he’s all young and was supposed to be in Vegas for New Year’s but had a little trouble getting there carwise so he was stuck with us.  Thankfully,  our friends Peter and Renee saw us from inside of Santiago’s where it was all warm and cozy and they had a table with room for three more people.  I had not seen either one of them for a while and it was fun catching up and being a dork with Renee.   We heard there was supposed to be some cool event going on in City Park for the midnight countdown and planned to go there…eventually. 

After hanging around there for a while, we went up to the park to see what was going on.  I was surprised to see so many people there.  The place was filled with people, music and laughter. 

Ray, John and I huddled together to keep warm.  It was kind of fun, the three of us just pressed up against each other like a little three-man fortress.  Finally the countdown began…or did it?  It’s kind of hard to tell in Bisbee.  There’s real time and then there’s Bisbee time. 

People who live here know what I’m talking about.

The music got really percussive and kind of hypnotic and the suddenly a giant–I mean GIANT–bunch of balloons took off into the night sky.  There was some sort of creature attached to the balloons and it was tethered to a few people on the ground.  Everyone started cheering and cameras were flashing like Studio 54 on a Saturday night.

I love Bisbee.  My funky little town. 

After the balloon creature flew across the park to the main stage, it did some sort of interpretive dance thing with some other creatureettes.  I don’t do interpretive dance at 12:00 AM in the park huddled together with two people for warmth.  We decided to go to the Bisbee Grand for a drink.  Yes, I drank.  It was New Years for chrissake and I was cold.

We went there for a bit and said hello to some friends.  After that we made our way back to the Copper Queen Hotel where we ran into Rene and Peter. Ray didn’t last much longer after that.  John and I hung out for a bit and then went back to Montefalco and ate some leftover tortellini and pecan pie with extra creamy Cool Whip (Extra Creamy partially hydrogenated trans fat if you ask me).

We all crashed out.  All was well. 

Happy New Year world!  I am forever optimistic about what lies ahead. 

Here are some photos from the evening:

Cobban & John

City Park before countdown

Happy New Year!!  Yay!

Isn’t that the sign for fuck?

The next morning, Ray and I took a walk around our place.  That’s Stolen Horseshoe int he background.