Real Kato Blog: The Curse, and Other Happenings

I'm back after being away in New York for a few days... here are some things that happened.

I spent New Year's Eve in New York this year. I was there to visit my friend Erika.

It was good to get away from home, even if it was just for a couple of days. I had been getting tired of worrying about my falling-apart house, my car troubles, and my job. So I just left it all behind.

The weather in New York was nice. We were able to walk around town a lot, so we did some shopping; Erika helped me find some cool clothes. (It was like an episode of "What Not To Wear". I think I understand the Rules now.) So that was fun. Plus, we ate some good food and had many hours of interesting conversation. Oh, and of course, there was LOTS OF BOOZE. So all in all the weekend was great.

There were a couple of strange moments.

- I saw someone on the subway who looked like Janet Reno. It's as if she purposely tried to make herself look Reno-esque, with big glasses and a short haircut. Who would choose that look on purpose? I wondered if there was a secret society of women who looked like Reno. I tried to imagine them all in a big room together, milling about in shapeless blue dresses and talking about legal issues.

- I also saw a couple of people with walking canes going into the subway station. One was helping the other. It was literally the blind leading the blind. I wanted to take a picture of it and make some caption about managers in the technology business, but I couldn't get the picture in time.

- One of the flights for my trip was on Delta Connection, meaning we had to walk out onto the tarmac to get on the plane. When we got to the plane, it was empty. It turns out the crew had boarded the wrong plane. It did not make me confident in our ability to make it to our destination. At least I hadn't checked any bags. (By the way, if you can, avoid getting on those CanadaAir jets that Delta Connection uses. The seats are horrifically uncomfortable. When you sit in them, you start to slide off, so for the whole flight you have to clench your buttocks and push with your feet to keep yourself in place. It's like an hour and a half of constipation.)

Okay. Now I have to talk about the Curse.

The Curse has plagued me for as long as I can remember. The gist of it is this: For one reason or another, I never get kissed at midnight on New Year's Eve. In the past, it was always because I was visiting my sister over New Year's, and my girlfriends at the time were too transitory to consider bringing along. Then there was a stretch where I would just get dumped shortly before the holiday. Last year I had a girlfriend, but I had already made plans to take a New Year's cruise before I'd met her, so she wasn't with me.

So usually, I just have to watch enviously as everyone around me is kissing away. Sometimes if I'm lucky, I get a pity-kiss a little while later. But it's not the same. The stroke of midnight is the moment people make a point to be with their One Special Someone. It's not the kiss itself that I want; it's what the kiss symbolizes.

Alas, this year the curse continues.

I try not to dwell on it. The way I look at it, the curse works backwards, not forwards. So if I don't get kissed, it doesn't mean I'm going to be miserable for the next year; it means I just ended a bad year. So now I enter 2005 as I enter every year: with hope and optimism. Without that, why would we go on trying?

Permalink 3 Comment

Posted by Ken in: life

Comments

Comment #1 from Crouching Hamster (Guest)
2005 Jan 3 - 7:26 pm : #

Bleah. You've set yourself up. So you've created the curse. When did you make this up?

Why, oh why, is this so important, in the grand scheme of things? How can this be equated with a "curse." And really, do you fell "cursed" for the past 34 years? Curses are locusts, followed by plagues, followed by tsunamis, followed by a painful death.

It's like saying, "I shall be cursed unless (fill in the blank here with something - anything - the sun shines on my birthday). It's silly. It's crazy.

Comment #2 from Ken (realkato)
2005 Jan 3 - 7:45 pm : #

Please don't be so dismissive.

In the "grand scheme of things", this has to do with not being alone for the rest of my life, and that is something I think is important. Don't you?

Comment #3 from Crouching Hamster (Guest)
2005 Jan 4 - 12:18 pm : #

You're not alone and won't be. And c'mon, being alone for the rest of your life has absolutely nothing to do with a kiss on a certain night. I can come up with, oh, at LEAST ONE thing that might have more significance.

What if you received a HUGE kiss on New Year's Day? What if you were in Australia and received a kiss on New Year's Eve there, by some hot gay guy? How would you evaluate this?

You need more comments on this one.

Comments are closed for this post.

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