Five Years a Writer

New Year's Eve is fast approaching. That moment of reckoning with myself and the world: Will I get out and into the celebrations or stay in and ignore the hoopla? Of course, it's a no-brainer: Staying in and away from all the hoopla is what I'll do. And have done for the past few years. I've had my share of fun parties and gatherings to ring in the New Year, but am gratefully over the desire to be part of a crowd to enjoy the moment -- which comes well before midnight for me these days! In the previous century, during my early university days, my flatmates and I hosted a New Year's Eve party to which a lot of people came. I remember nothing about it, other than my sense of amazement that people had actually come! Because I remember equally vividly the housewarming party my roommate and I had thrown to which no one came - not. one. person. Mortification doesn't begin to describe the emotional experience of that dreadfully empty evening. And to this day, I c