Saturday, January 1, 2022

Celebrating The End Of Another Year

New Year's Eve was another wonderful weather day in my area. Hubby Tony and I did our best to enjoy it. After lunch we stopped for coffee on our way down to the Central West End neighborhood, where we went to a matinee screening of the new version of West Side Story at the Chase Park Plaza. The hotel was setting up for an evening event. I was thankful I would be gone before the hordes of people arrived to ring in the new year.

Floors so polished they reflect the lights

Tony had bought our tickets online, but we still had to wait in line at the cinema concession stand, which also doubled as a ticket collection station. Everyone in line was masked. The theater showing the movie was set up with two-seat rows on one side of the aisle, and we selected one of those. However, any row would have worked; the room was empty enough that patrons could spread out. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this version of the movie. I thought it was a little more realistic than the original one (or as realistic as a musical can be). All of the singing was fantastic, and some of the dancing moves were reprised from the original version. Rita Morino, who played the character Anita in the original movie had a part in this one as the owner of a drug store.

After the movie let out it wasn't even 5 pm yet, so Tony and I walked around a little bit to kill time, then ended up at Shake Shack for dinner. I used to eat there on a regular basis, but that was before Covid times. The food still tasted as good as I remembered. We got sandwiches and split an order of fries, then went back for shakes.

 A couple of decades ago those activities would have just been Act I of a proper New Year's Eve. This year they were the entire show. We were home before 6:30. At 9 pm (midnight in Rio de Janeiro) we broke out some fizzy water, toasted to the new year, and headed to bed.

19 comments:

  1. A lovely New Year's Eve you had! We watched the ball drop on TV and a bit of Miley Cyrus New Year special, we like her. Then we opened a bottle of that sweet sparkling Martini Asti which I like not being a drinker it tastes like soda haha.

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    1. I saw Miley Cyrus on one of the late night shows earlier in the week; before that I had no idea she was hosting a New Year's special.

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  2. We stayed up and watched a little of all the specials on TV. Then at midnight my son and I went outside to watch all the fireworks. We were surrounded. They went on for 15 to 20 minutes at least.

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    1. How nice! I heard fireworks in the distance as I was going to sleep. Had no idea what actually happened at midnight.

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  3. I wondered if that movie is any good. I saw something on TV on it being made.

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    1. I was surprised to read that although critics really liked this new version attendance was really lagging. Probably attributed to the fact that the audience would skew older and older people are not going out in public as much.

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  4. We used to do that with the kids... so they could ring in the New Year and still get to bed!!

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    1. I thoroughly liked how the day flowed..in my opinion we may have started a new tradition!

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  5. Happy New Year to you and your family.

    God bless.

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  6. We headed off pretty early. It's been a time. I haven't been to a movie theatre in a couple of decades!

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    1. Brain like a sieve, Happy New Year!

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    2. I'm not a big movie goer either, but I found out that this chain has great prices on matinees. Might have to take advantage of it.

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  7. West Side Story is such a classic. I remember watching the stage version of it in London years ago and the songs and storyline are so timeless.

    Happy New Year!

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    1. I agree that West Side Story is one of those musicals that will continue to be performed for decades.

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  8. Your holiday celebration sounds wonderful. Happy New Year.

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