The last week has been absolutely insane. New Year’s had been declared a City Year reunion date almost since we all parted ways in the first place. And while I absolutely loved having everyone here I am kind of glad that everyone’s gone home and my schedule is a little less full.

One of the best things that happened was New Year’s itself. The party was at Halley’s house and I was lucky enough to be included in the planning of it. Perhaps it’s in my genetics, but I really enjoy planning parties. This one wasn’t as huge as others that I’ve been a part of but between the two of us we made almost 300 jello shots, prepared a bunch of “jungle juice,” and created something that I hope was memorable.

We called it “the man” mostly so I could make a bad pun on “sticking it to the man.” Well, that and because when I burn man-shaped objects I tend to be reminded of Burning Man. It was a paper mache monstrosity that was only vaguely man-shaped at all, but we propped it up in a corner with a roll of tape, a mess of paper slips and encouraged people to write down what they disliked about 2010 and tape it to the figure. (I ruthlessly stole this idea from a co-worker, although her version was much more classy than mine)

The party was a little lighter than expected, but with a little prodding by midnight the man had quite a few words stuck to his body and near the end of the night we all gathered outside and doused the figure liberally with lighter fluid.

Luckily there was a man in a kilt in attendance. Even more luckily, he was more than happy to take on the role of fire marshal. Because burning away the badness of the last year is even more entertaining when the fire is lit by a large torch borne by a man in ancient Scottish battle clothing.

And there was much toasting of jello shots as the ashes spiraled into the sky.