An Engaging 1920s New Years’ Eve

Last night was a truly wonderful New Year’s Eve! It kicked off with a few of my girlfriends coming over to my place for some food and champagne before we got ready to go out. I popped a bottle of Rosa Regale that I had picked up for my housewarming months ago, which we had forgotten to open at the time. New Year’s Eve seemed as good an occasion as any! In addition to the small bites that I had prepared, my girlfriends also brought over some dangerously delicious homemade baked goods. (More to come on those.)

We headed up to Boulder via the RTD bus, which dropped us off just a block from our destination: the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art. They were having a “Night at the Speakeasy” event, and we definitely dressed up for the occasion. Honestly, I might not have dressed up if I hadn’t already had a 1920s outfit that I’ve worn to a lot of events (what was it with 2014 and so many 1920s-themed events? I went to four this year!), but when we arrived, I was really glad I did dress up. Everyone was dressed to the nines! I don’t think I’ve ever been to a theme party with such a high rate of costume compliance; I would guess that out of the 500 or so people there that maybe only a dozen hadn’t worn a 1920s costume. It made it so much fun!

Once we arrived, we met up with my friend Kelly and her husband Den (they had gone out for a special dinner date in Boulder, which is why they weren’t at my place earlier), and then wandered around the art gallery. I was really glad we had eaten beforehand, because the promised “small bites” available turned out to be just pretzels and popcorn (albeit from a cute old fashioned popcorn machine). Definitely not filling! However, that was literally my only complaint about the event – everything else was perfect, from the delicious specialty cocktails (named after the 18th and 21st Amendments) to the fun little activities tucked into different corners. And for $30 a ticket (which included a free champagne toast at midnight), I thought it was quite reasonable.

The space was crowded enough to be fun, but there was still plenty of room to move around, and lots of stuff to do. Upstairs, there were several bars and a big dance floor; downstairs, there was another (larger) bar and a burlesque performance. In another part of the gallery was a photo booth (still waiting to get the pics back from that) and then a big long line leading to… fortune tellers! The line was slow but we enjoyed socializing and sipping our drinks while we waited, which is probably all we would have been doing wherever else we stood anyway. Once at the head of the line, we decided to go to the tarot card reader (in favor of the astrologer), and settled in on some cushions around a low table to have our fortunes read.

For whatever reason, I got it in my head that the card reading was really going to work, and took it very seriously. I knew that this guy was probably hired from a temp agency and paid by the hour to make up very general fortunes that could apply to anyone… but his was somehow really spot on for me. He told me that the first card represented my past – and that the last year had been kind of quiet/calm for me, with me being more reactive rather than doing big things. The next card, which represented my future, indicated that 2015 would be the year for me to start making some big moves and getting closer to my passion. Um, was he reading my blog beforehand? 🙂

We then headed upstairs for the midnight countdown, and after toasting and hugging all around, danced the night away. I couldn’t believe how the time flew by! We had originally talked about catching an Uber home shortly after midnight (to try to avoid the surge pricing), but instead, stayed until they started shutting down the museum and sending everyone home at 2am! Since the surge pricing was insane (7x the normal rate!), we planned to take the RTD bus instead… but that ended up being a bit of a mess.

The RTD, Denver’s public transit system, made a big deal about how all the buses would be free all night in order to help people celebrate the New Year while cutting down on instances of drinking and driving. However, while it was a nice gesture and great in theory, they didn’t change the normal bus schedules to have extra buses after midnight – so the last bus from Boulder was at 12:01am (oops, we were still partying like it was 2014) and the next one wasn’t until 3am! We ended up heading to a pizza joint where I inhaled not just one but two slices of delicious pizza while we killed time waiting (and continuously refreshed the Uber app to see if sure pricing had died down).

Most people try to start the new year on a healthy foot. I, on the other hand, definitely started it as unhealthily as possible with all that late night pizza – especially when you consider that I snarfed down a few more delicious brownies and biscotti when we were finally back at my place! Oops. We didn’t go to bed until about 4:30am, and since my early bird tendencies meant I still couldn’t sleep past 7:30am, today hasn’t exactly been the most productive day.

BUT.

I had such a fabulous night out with my friends! Since my goal in 2015 is to engage as much as possible, it was really perfect… and I don’t even care about the junk food that I probably would have been wiser not to eat. I may not have started the new year on a “healthy foot”, but I do think I started 2015 right.

Happy New Year!