It was 1993. Or maybe '94.
There were hundreds of thousands of people. Fireworks. Police discreetly lining the shadow in riot gear.
We'd gone there from K-town, Germany. Had been drinking champagne all night.
I remember flashes of it. Somewhere there even exist a photo or two. I probably drank three bottles of champagne myself.
Sometime after midnight we'd piled in the car. I only remember coming a flash-series of memories... me driving... no idea where I was headed. Everyone else in the car passed out. Finally found some hotel. Checked us all in.
Woke up the next morning to horrific hangovers, all of us. We'd been driving the opposite direction from Paris - away from Germany.
Just one of many, many blind-drunk half memories I'm grateful to have survived without killing anyone.
Tonight my family and I will go see Rogue One. After that we'll celebrate the New Year's arrival with a big family hug and some gratitude and wishes for a great year ahead and we'll head to bed sober and happy with our memories intact.
Maybe someday I'll take my kids to see New Year's Eve on the Champs-Elysees sober. Share an experience with them that I'll remember and cherish.
The memory of that NYE is there, and I admit at the time it seemed fun. But what might it have been if I could recall it. What might that life had brought me had those years in Europe not been spent in weekly drunken blurs?
I'm sure glad for where I am in life now. And for the three years of sobriety I've enjoyed increasingly and for embarking upon year 4 of sobriety with all the more to be grateful and happy for.
Happy New Year, everyone.
