NYE in Bisbee

It was a Bisbee New Year's Eve:

12:20 pm: The kids and I arrive at City Park where there are supplies for the kids to make their very own kitschy lanterns to carry in the "Impromptu Kids Parade". There are pom-pom balls and tissue paper and plastic flowers and candy canes and moms trying to figure out how to attach these magnificent accessories to the paper lantern shades. Sofia creates her masterpiece (as shown in the picture, minus the many dangling accessories which detached at some point during the parade, thanks to her mom who was apparently not so crafty after all). Mason starts his masterpiece, then "takes a bweak" to run around the park, climb on the playset, eat some string cheese, and monster chase his little friend Natalie around. He comes back and pouts that his "pwoject" isn't finished and instead settles for a balloon.

1:50 pm: The kids and I head back home to take a little rest before the kids parade in the evening. The kids watch Mulan two more times because they haven't gotten enough of it over the past seven days. I'm just thankful that Strawberry Shortcake and Totoro have been put back on the shelf.

6:10 pm: We head out the door with Sofia's New Year Lantern. On the drive up to Old Bisbee, Sofia and Mason ooooh and ahhhh every time they see a house with its Christmas lights still up. Or a car with its headlights on. We arrive downtown and proceed to Goar Park where children are already milling around with their kitschy lanterns or other props provided by the organizers (I'm still trying to figure out the symbolism of a huge padded foam wrench carried by a tiny 2-year-old). There are adults dressed up as some kind of white furry creature on stilts. Sofia is a little scared. "Don't worry, Sofia," Mason says. "They're only goats." There are also children on stilts. Apparently, we missed out on the fun of stilt lessons offered over the previous days. "I didn't know anything about it", I told my children which was, of course, a lie. For those of you who are familiar with Bisbee streets, you'd understand why I chose to pass on that activity.

6:30 pm: The parade proceeds past Grassy Park, up Subway Street, down Main Street, up Brewery Gulch. The "parade" is a huge mob of children (some on stilts) with their parents- some guy is carrying some kind of carnival music machine. Cars have to wait for the procession to pass. As we're walking, we realize that there is no one actually watching the parade, other than a few tourists with their cameras. But that's okay. This is a Bisbee parade. We're a parade for ourselves.

7ish pm: We end the procession at City Park where the guy with the carnival music machine leads the children in a countdown to the New Year. My friend and I decide to take our kids to the coffee shop for a cup of hot chocolate and a few elevator rides before we take them home. The town is starting to fill up with locals and tourists ready for a crazy New Years Eve in Bisbee. "Thank goodness we won't be coming out in this mess", my friend and I say to each other.

9:30 pm: The kids are asleep in bed and my boyfriend is asleep with a headache. The house is quiet and I have nothing to do. My brilliant idea of doing away with cable television seems less brilliant, especially since I don't even have any Netflix movies to watch.

9:45 pm: I'm in the car, on my way back up to Old Bisbee. It occurs to me that maybe I should've dressed up a bit, seeing as it's New Years Eve. But it's cold out, so I convince myself that I'm fine in my jeans and grey wool sweater with the stripe of little penguins across the front. This is Bisbee. Casual.

9:50 pm: I step into the Bisbee Grand. It's crowded. I don't know any one here, so I step out and head down to Brewery Gulch. I see some coworkers of mine, so we hit the Grand, the Copper Queen, the Stock Exchange... an out-of-town friend of one of my coworkers comments on my sweater, asking if it's my "nordic wear". Coming from a gay man, I am initially a bit self-conscious since their fashion sense is usually better than mine. But then it turns out that he's not gay after all, so once again I'm okay with the penguins.

11:50 pm: We head up to City Park where the Flam Chen "Toy Box" Spectacle is happening. It is crowded and loud and we can't see anything. But then one of the Flam Chen performers is being lifted up into the sky by some humongous balloons- she does her thing with her legs and her flips and her wrapping her body around the mere piece of cloth holding her to the balloons. There is no countdown, but at some point it does turn to midnight. We decide to finish out the evening at St. Elmo's where Buzz and his band are playing. A good time is had by all except for those who had too much to drink and are now becoming sick. As we leave St. Elmo's and walk down Brewery Gulch, we see a young guy (college kid?) sitting on a stool on the sidewalk. His friends have ditched him (we saw them carrying him earlier) and now he is sitting on the stool, crying like a little boy, being counseled by a local frequenter of the gulch. "You seem like a good person. What horrible thing could you possibly have done?", I ask him hear the boy, which makes him sob even harder.

1:20 am: I'm walking up the hill to where my car is parked by the old high school. I'm thinking about previous Bisbee New Years and all the people I've run into tonight (friends from high school, friends of friends, even my daughter's 1st grade teacher). I hear staggering footsteps behind me. "Hey", he calls out to me. "Wanna party? Wanna smoke some pot?". It's dark outside and he senses that he has startled me. "Don't worry," he says. "I'm not dangerous." As I continue walking ahead of him, he's telling me about his memories of this same hill he walked thirty years ago when he was a teenager, before he moved to California. "I'm one of the Valenzuelas," he says. "You probably know my family. You sure you don't wanna party?" I politely decline and keep walking. "I think I've partied enough for the year." Meaning 2009, of course.

1:30 am: I walk in my door, set down my purse, and check on each of my children. I spend some time gazing at their little faces, watching them breathe and hearing them sigh as I bend over to kiss them on the forehead. As they dream of hot chocolate, elevator rides, and white goatish creatures, I whisper a prayer of gratefulness for these two little blessings in my life.

May 2010 bring happiness, prosperity, and a little bit of kitsch to your lives.