{"id":2874,"date":"2014-01-03T20:04:29","date_gmt":"2014-01-04T04:04:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=2874"},"modified":"2014-01-03T20:07:50","modified_gmt":"2014-01-04T04:07:50","slug":"postcards-from-the-edge-at-sea-12312013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=2874","title":{"rendered":"Postcards from the Edge \u2013 At Sea \u2013 [12\/31\/2013]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"postcards\"<\/a>Over the years, New Year\u2019s Eve has been a great many things to me.<\/p>\n

When I was a child, and actually well into when I was a young adult, New Year\u2019s Eve was a working night. I grew up the daughter of a musician, and New Year\u2019s Eve is the only night of the year that musicians actually make any money (and even less so now because of the insane take-over of synthesization and the over-popularity of DJs and the fact that people simply won\u2019t pay for a 12 piece orchestra anymore\u2026but I totally digress) \u2013 so my New Year\u2019s Eve was always spend at home entertaining family, waiting for Dad to return from work. I will forever associate the advent of the New Year with the taste of Ritz crackers, smoked oysters and garlic sausage, the sound of my mother\u2019s laugh and the perpetual smell of my grandmother\u2019s cigarette smoke.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until I was in my early twenties that I realized one could actually go out on New Year\u2019s. I remember coming down the stairs to go out for the very first time ever<\/i> and feeling my heart wrench because it seemed like I was breaking tradition, like I was flouting the very law of my family\u2019s existence. At 22 years old, I still asked my parent\u2019s permission to ring in the New Year elsewhere than in front of my own fireplace. After that it somewhat became a new tradition: Christmas was for the family, New Year\u2019s Eve was for my friends.<\/p>\n

These days of course, I\u2019m out here for New Year\u2019s. On a pitch black sea that at the moment seems determined to roll us as much as possible on the way to 2014. Ship-board New Year\u2019s celebrations are very different from what I would prefer if I were given a choice. Despite the requirements of my rather wonderful job, the truth is that I\u2019m really not all that good with strangers most of the time, particularly if there\u2019s any kind of alcohol involved. I do drink yes, but not a great deal (okay, usually not a great deal), and only among those I trust \u2013 and I\u2019m really not that good with being around<\/i> people who have been drinking. And let\u2019s just say that most guests don\u2019t seem to mind kicking off the New Year with a hangover\u2026<\/p>\n

So, on nights like this, I pull my connections to my Pack close, and remind myself that we\u2019re not really all that far apart. In miles we might be, but I know that at some point tonight we will all be thinking about each other, all vaguely wishing that we could all be in the same place. And that has the odd accomplishment of putting<\/i> us in the same place \u2013 at least for a few fleeting mental moments.<\/p>\n

No, it\u2019s all you, you\u2019re part of me now, I\u2019ve got ya right here\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

And so as I work through the final moments of 2013, and prepare to head for the ballroom to shine and sparkle and stumble through all the people who think they can dance \u2013 I swear I will feel several sets of steps fall into place beside mine, feel the weight of invisible hands on my shoulders, and I\u2019ll remember \u2013 that never once, in 31 years, have I rung in the New Year truly alone.<\/p>\n

Alright 2014\u2026let\u2019s see what you got\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the years, New Year\u2019s Eve has been a great many things to me. When I was a child, and actually well into when I was a young adult, New Year\u2019s Eve was a working night. I grew up the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,73,17,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-below-the-waterline","category-holiday-cruises-2013","category-reflections-below-the-waterline","category-theme-events"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3GtNE-Km","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2874"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2876,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2874\/revisions\/2876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}