I left work at my usual time, and wended my way through the revelers of Copley Square to the T. On my way home, I ran a few errands. I thought one of those errands would be stopping at the Post Office in Coolidge Corner, but they were already closed by the time I got there. (I did, however, manage to stop at the library and the drugstore.)

Nomi and I spent the afternoon and evening relaxing at home. My brother Josh called me, followed a few hours later by my brother Jon. We talked about New Year stuff. Josh told me about a ball drop they do in Richmond, Virginia; Jon and I reminisced about the New Year's Eve night we played the Avalon Hill board game of Lord of the Rings.

Finally, as 10 pm rolled around, Nomi and I went out for the Unparty being hosted by our friends around the corner. The gathering was small, consisting of four frum couples plus the husband of one other couple whose wife had to stay home.

(Message to the others: I have learned my lesson and will not refer to the gathering as an "intimate" one.)

Probably the most amusing part of the evening happened when our hosts put out a dish of Lactaid pills for those of us who would need them. Nomi joked that she didn't realize this would be that sort of party. I noted that this wasn't the '80s, and I idly added that in the '70s the dish would have been a bowl of keys.

Which prompted one of the other guests to ask me what I meant.

So I, the squarest of squares, found myself explaining the concept of a key party to a woman who was a toddler when I was in college. After all, I justified to myself, it is a part of American cultural history.

It also ended up becoming a running gag for the night. And beyond.

Anyway, we laughed and talked, and at midnight we counted down the time using my Casio WVA104HLA-8V Wave Ceptor Atomic Watch. We also had the TV tuned to Dick Clark, and, as I suspected, their broadcast was about two seconds off of the real time. To quote 530nm330hz from his post OK, so I'm a geek, "...the way I see it, if you're going to celebrate an arbitrary second in time, you might as well celebrate the correct arbitrary second in time."

All of us ended up staying later than expected at the gathering. Nomi and I got home around 1:30 am, and after reading her post from last night 2007: The year in review , we decided to call scarlettina to wish her a happy new year. Which was a lot of fun.

And then, we slept. The end.

Tags: personal