New Year's Eve; The Full Body Experience

I feel like I haven't given you the background on this steam pipe thing. Don't hold your breath, go read what Robin said about it, she's got the research and the history down.

Last year I just knew I loved it. It was chaos and fascinating and there was all this information and it was weird and I was full of love. I knew I wanted to do it again but I couldn't have told you why. If you don't believe that then you just ask anyone who asked me, "I don't get it, what was so cool about it?"

This year, though, I have an inkling. With the steam pipes, ringing in the new year is a full body experience. They're loud, so loud and deep that you can feel the vibrations all through your body. You know when you can feel your sternum vibrate? The steam rolls around you. At one point Kath and I were standing downwind of the large pipes and right up close. We had to cover our ears it was so loud and then the steam billowed out over us so thick that I couldn't see her and had this moment of panic so I had to remind myself to breathe and I reached out and grabbed Kath's arm to be sure she was there. All the while I couldn't stop grinning and laughing because it felt so good to be surrounded by celebration, to be sort of bathed in the fact of the brand new year.

Like I said last year, I'm so doing this again. It embodies my neighborhood and some facet of me and the way I feel about the change of calendar. I hope that your celebration fit you as well as mine did.

Welcome to 2008!