In Which I Ponder My Lifetime To-Do List

Tonight’s weather promises to be very ugly for the expected 1 million revelers in Times Square. Winds are expected to gust from 40-50mph, bringing the wind chill to far, far below zero. Nightmare.

I had pondered actually going to Times Square tonight, until a dozen or so of my friends collectively threatened to have me committed. Times Square on New Year’s Eve is one of those once-in-a-lifetime events that has long been on my now almost completely checked off to-do list. I’ve done Mardi Gras, Fantasy Fest, a Super Bowl, a World Series game, and virtually every major gay/bear/leather/dance event in the country. (And some of those, many many times.)

I’ll tick off a presidential inauguration in just a few weeks, leaving only Burning Man, Sydney Mardi Gras, Carnival in Rio, and the Boston Pops Fourth of July concert on my bucket list. Those I hope to mark off in the next few years or so.

Times Square on NYE still interests me, purely for the spectacle of being in one place with a million screaming people. But I fear my sick need to be preceived as a “real” New Yorker, who would never ever ever be caught dead on a stick in Times Square tonight, will ultimately cause me to cancel that entry on my lifetime to-do list.