We took Pat and Jenn to a Tampa Bay Lightning hockey game which was great, even though Tampa lost. Afterwards, the most amazing thing happened. We purchased Rock Band 2. I am soooo addicted to that game. I dream about notes flying towards me. It's bad.

Our first night playing Rock Band. I think we played for like 4 hours straight, taking turns on vocals and instruments. So much fun! Sidenote: Even though the Lightning were not playing the Maple Leafs, the boys decided to don their jerseys anyway. Made perfect sense. Sidenote 2: I love you Alex but you have got to be the worst singer ever. It's painful but somehow fun all at the same time.



We spent New Years Eve with Alex's family. I have to tell you guys about this crazy tradition. Every year, one of his uncle's hosts the New Years bash. It is that households responsibility to make something called "Año Viejo" which loosely translates to "Old Year".  I'm not quite sure if this is an Ecuadorian thing or a South American thing, but it's crazy.  Basically, the host chooses a disliked political or public figure from the past year.  One year it was Bin Laden, another year it was Saddam Hussein.  They make a life sized dummy, complete with shirt, pants, and shoes.  They stuff the dummy with firecrackers, and at the stroke of midnight, everyone gathers outside for the burning of the dummy and the fireworks.  It represents letting go of past mistakes and turning over a new leaf for the upcoming year.  That's not even the best part.  

In past years, the dummy has been male.  Throughout the night, every woman at the party HAS to have a dance with the dummy.  Put yourself in my shoes almost 9 years ago.  Spending my first New Years with my boyfriend Alex and being made to dance with a dummy...having no idea what was going on.  Good times!  This year they got very creative.  Instead of a person, the dummy represented our economic crisis.  The dummy was named Miss Recession.  Yes! Yes! Yes!  A female Año Viejo!  Which meant that the men would have to dance with her!  And oh boy did they dance.  There were close to 30 guys in line to take her for a spin around the dance floor. 

Not to be outdone, Pat copped a little feel and Alex put a couple of swing moves on her.

We ended the week with a little road trip to the oldest city in the continental US, St. Augustine.  It was really hard being away from Rock Band for 2 days but somehow we survived.

I hope that your New Years was absolutely fantabulous!  And remember, when the financial climate starts to turn for the better, don't forget who was responsible for that.  Burning up Miss Recession had to count for something!

I also wanted to extend a big humongous THANK YOU to everyone that commented for Cans for Comments.  We ended up with about 30 comments, so that meant 30 extra cans to the local food bank, America's Second Harvest that they otherwise would not have received.  You guys rock my world!!!

New Year, Old Friends

2009-01-13T03:45:00-05:00

Carolina Araujo

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