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New Year’s Eve 1999 Revisited

Celebrating the new year at the end of 2000 got me thinking about how I spent the end of the year back when the year started with a 19 and not a 20, back when we were living in the 90’s.

The Big Hoop-la
This was it. The so-called end of the millennium. Even though there were many people who would argue that the end of the millennium would not take place for another year, people paid no heed whatsoever, and were more attentive to their televisions and other advertisement transmitters. The big question on my mind, of course, was what to do for New Year’s.

Follow Tradition? Sure!
Since 1995 and with only the exception of 1996 and this year, I have spent every New Year’s with a little Vermont quartet known as Phish. Through the year, speculations were made as to where Phish would have their big 1999-2000 New Year’s shows. I had seen all of my New Years shows at Madison Square Garden, but it seemed that this was already booked by another musical artist. Also, in recent years, fans had been experiencing difficulty in getting tickets. In an announcement, spokespeople for Phish had announced that Phish wanted to have a sort of show where everyone that would want to come would be admitted. As the months went by, possibilities started to sprout up. First, there were talks of a show in Hawaii. That didn’t work out. One area in Florida was chosen, but the town voted against it.

The Location Is Chosen
Finally, it was settled. Phish would be playing a multi-day festival at the Big Cypress Seminole reservation in the south of Florida. When this had been decided upon, and an announcement was made for tickets-by-mail, I was in Israel and thus could not participate in the program. I would have to get my ticket through TicketMaster, which wasn’t a problem for this show as there wasn’t really a specific ticket limit set for the show. Who knew how many would go?
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The Luck of Love

There’s a scene in the 1998 Woody Allen film Celebrity which I have been thinking about lately. The main character, Lee, is having a conversation with his ex-wife and, in a move that essentially summarizes one of the main themes of the film, she says “When it comes to love, it’s luck.” Oh, how true those words are.

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How Florida Made Me a Political Junkie

On the eve of November 7, 2000, I went to bed thinking that everything would be nice and over in the morning. The election might have been a mess, but at least now it would be finished, one way or another, and I could go back to checking in on the political scene when information was in the proximity. To say the least, I was mistaken.

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Musings on Mating

We sometimes look for qualities in searching for the “right person” to have a “meaningful” relationship with. If all the person has is one or two minute qualities, it doesn’t mean that you’re going to find the rest of them all too agreeable, as I found out through a little experience…

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Driving a New Jersey Madman

I recently changed my style of driving from a more aggressive one to a considerably more relaxed one. In doing this, I realized that it wasn’t the other people that made me hate driving – it was me.

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Shun Relay Ships

Every “serious” relationship I find myself in with a woman seems to fizzle out and die, or explode violently, in less than six month’s time. That’s right, I’ve never even celebrated a real anniversary with that special someone. Why is that?
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Pecunia Conundrum

Pecunia means money in Latin. Why didn’t I just write Money Troubles as the title? Because to me, writing an occasional word or phrase in Latin makes it just sound, I don’t know, that much more intellectual somehow. Mind you, I am not out to impress anyone – I just like looking at titles in Latin. And well, why not?

The Title Is Not A Joke
I just got my last direct-deposit from the job where I quit, and it ended up being something along the lines of eleven dollars and fifty-two cents. That’s two dollars and fifty-two cents more than the bank charged me for not having a whopping ninety-nine dollars in my account for a couple of days. I don’t have enough money, so they take money away from me. Yes, now that is definitely going to help me have more money somehow.

Somehow, it doesn’t cost them anything to maintain my account when I have $99, but if I am four dollars short, they need nine dollars to maintain it. Or, as my father put it, they are taking advantage of the fact that I didn’t maintain my minimum balance. It was probably written in the fine print: “We’ll take your money if you don’t leave enough with us. But you know, that fine print is really fine. I’ve seen ants that give up on the fine print section.

Why I Have Given up on Retail
I got an interview offer from an upscale retail store today. In all likelihood, given my retail experience, I would have immediately gotten a job. But you know something? I don’t want to work in retail anymore. I am dead sick of people looking me straight in the eye, with an enormous size chart right behind me, and asking me a question about size. What do I always do? Look at the size chart. I don’t know sizes any better than they do, despite having been there two years. Is this item on sale? Well, is the price reduced? Is it under a large sign that says “SALE”? No? Then it isn’t on sale.

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