Live, from Times Square!
Or rather, live, from The New York Times! Yes, folks, while the rest of you were at your parties or in front of your TV's or out in the freezing cold with your mittens and sparkly 2006 sunglasses, I was inside the building of the institution that started it all.
Working.
To steal a line from one of my blog-mates: That's life, cheeks.
You start a new job at a new newspaper in a new place, and chances are you're going to draw the short stick and have to be stuck in the office during the big countdown. And, for good measure, not only stuck in the office, but stuck in the chair of the person in charge of directing the show as the clock strikes midnight.
Not that it wasn't fun, mind you. The Champagne apparently started pouring long before I even arrived at the office today, when the morning-shift folks were enjoying their breakfast rum cake. We showed some restraint and kept our wits about us through most of the night. Though after the 8:00-ish deadline came and went, we popped open the good stuff. As in the good-good stuff: Champagne from the actual Champagne region of that France place. Yay.
Yes, we have a weekend editor who loves us, and loves us well.
Thus, to get us through the late deadlines, we had a little carbonated inspiration. Just a little, mind you. You try making itty-bitty type perfect with a strong buzz on. It's not a happy endeavor.
But by 10 minutes to midnight, the stories were all tucked in, the last of the last editions on its way to rolling off the presses. And around our little meeting table on the Third Floor, we popped open yet another bottle -- all seven of us on duty on the north side of the building -- and raised our glasses and watched on TV as the ball dropped and the confetti exploded right outside our building.
Hooray for Times Square and New Year's and endless renditions of "New York, New York." And here's to 2006 seeing much less pain and suffering around the world and much more cheer and happiness and Champagne and love and hugs and kisses and all that jazz.
