New Years
I now understand holiday fatigue. In years past, I’ve had stress-free options for the holidays. I have very few responsibilities when I’m spending holidays at friends’ houses, traveling, or staying with parents who cook a good meal and watch a movie. This new year, I’m starting to burn out.
In the past, my cousins had the roof draped with a tent and threw a party. There are some challenges with the process. The tent folks come at an ungodly hour in the morning, they have expectations of how the infrastructure will be and they get annoyed by the little bit of extra work they have to do. The tent creates a large space that is sometimes hard to decorate and has a tendency to fall apart.
While talking about what we want to do for New Year's, we started telling stories of New Year’s past. For me, the day has been a disappointment. Last year, I spent it “solo traveling” around Seattle and ended up doing nothing and being pretty uncomfortable. It was a huge waste of time and money, just like the previous years. It’s very similar to 4th of July for me. I’ve had good celebrations for both, but I’m usually just spending most of the time searching for something to do.
The 4th of July is also the only holiday celebration that mirrors the tent on the roof. For the past two years, my friends and I have thrown an amazing beach party at Golden Gardens. We arrive super early in the morning with a small group, set up camp, and spend the day hanging out. There’s no pressure to come and you’re welcome to come and leave as it works for your schedule. We’re basically out there from dawn to dusk. It’s not a 4th of July party without a canopy for shade, lawn games, copious amounts of beer, and a group meal (again, Jake’s ideas/enthusiasm and Karin’s organization come in big).
As I shared the story of the 4th of July with my cousins, I showed them what a canopy looked like. We looked up canopy equivalents in India and somehow, we ended up deciding to buy a canopy and set up the tent on the roof ourselves. This way, we can have a party whenever we want and have a canopy we can travel with. The idea went from concept to execution in a matter of days. My cousin, Tushar, came up big to research, buy, and deliver a canopy. The day it arrives, we’re like little kids on Christmas Day. We tear up the packaging and set up the tent to see what it looks like. Sitting inside the empty tent, we imagine all of our possibilities - we can throw parties, play cricket, eat meals in the summer, and even take it for travel.