'For the Sake of Old Times'
New Year's Eve is my favorite holiday. Has been since my days at the Skate Center of Roanoke Valley, rolling around repeatedly for hours and hours with my friends in our favorite new clothes from Christmas, having nothing but time on our side. Skate Center always hosted an All-Nite Skate ( spelling intended for pop culture purposes, or maybe in the interest of fitting on the changeable letter sign at the street ) from 7pm to 7am. We frequented the rink at least five days a week - most of us worked there part-time at some point - and definitely accumulated more than 12 hours over those days, but to just park it there socially for the whole twelve hours in one shot seemed a daring, challenging, privileged treat. Something about having a place to be, where all your friends would already also be, was comforting and eased the pressure of adolescence social life for a bit. I've always loved the energy of New Year's Eve. I'm usually nostalgic when things move on or exper