Never You Mind

Much like 3 of the last 4 years, 2013 started out at Dan's New Year's party with Ralph, Kate, Dax and most of that gang. And George. Strangely George had a New Year's Eve off, which is almost unheard of for a less senior member of LV Metro PD. So I asked him to come along with me. Partially because it would be nice not to be out alone late at night on New Year's Eve, but also because he could buffer some of those awkward moments after the greetings and standard chat were replaced by a lack of things to talk about. I was glad he would finally get to meet Ralph as I'd talked to both of them about each other for ages.

We took separate cars from George's apartment after having Raisin' Cane's Chicken Fingers for dinner and watching some Doctor Who reruns. We arrived around 10pm and he followed me in the door. Ralph, Kate and Dax were all standing at the entrance to the living room, and immediately greeted us. Dax had actually been outside when we were parking, but I didn't recognize him in the dark. He had walked from his house. "Hey," he said, "I thought that was your MINI." Dax's parents Connie and Ladd are in the MINI Club with me. I introduced George to the three of them.

Keir's friend Dave came over when he saw me and said, "Hey, you're here... Keir's friend. Is he here?"
"Not that I know of," I said, as Ralph confirmed he was not with a shake of his head. A look of disappointment flashed over Dave's face, then he smiled and moved back into the crowd in the other room. In a way I had hoped to see Keir and not to see him at the same time. I was hoping just to know if he was doing okay after seeing him in such a bad way last year. I was glad however that there would be no more awkward moments with him trying to dance with me, and/or stealing my shoe and tossing it across the room. And as much as I'd confided in George about him, I did not want George to meet him if he was as wasted as he normally was at this party. Everyone I talked to was as much in the dark as I about Keir's current situation. I understood his absence; he was probably worried Janice would be there with her new husband and wanted to avoid them. But she was not there either. Ralph said he had heard from somewhere that Keir's mom had died. He didn't say where he heard this, but that was all he knew. We wondered whether he would still stay living with his stepdad or if he was off on his own somewhere. No one had seen him at all in the whole year. Ralph said there was a sort of rift developing between some of their group. Dan and Violet were on a trip to Hawaii in October instead of at Janice's wedding. Surely they knew when it was going to be. There were a few other notable absences as well. It's common though, isn't it, I posited, that when people get married they have a whole new group of friends and family and spend more time with them than their old friends? Ralph said he guessed so.

George and I spotted Dan, in his Mets jersey as usual, playing host. We moved toward him but he was too quick. It was almost midnight by the time we tracked him down to talk about the Mets. We talked about our excitement for the 51's which will be the Mets AAA team starting this spring. His brothers Joe and Mike were hospitable co-hosts, saying hi and offering drinks and thanking us for coming. I introduced George and they were very welcoming.

Ralph showed me the Tardis bank he had brought for Joel and I got to show off my Tardis watch that George had given to me and pictures of the amazing Tardis cake. Joel and Sandra are two of those people who I just never knew what to say to them. But once Whovianism was found to be a common trait, we were excited to share in it.

Fortunately George is very outgoing compared to me and got into several conversations about his police work. We talked to Johanna who teaches 6th grade in North Las Vegas and I was disconcerted to learn that the gangs actually approach special needs students to join their gangs because they are easily manipulated and make good scapegoats!  Also the gangs have rush weeks like fraternities to get new members when there is a spike in drug activity and violence in the school. Johanna was understandably weary as she and George discussed this. "At least we don't get a lot of pregnancies with my 6th graders," she said matter-of-factly. "That's mostly the 8th graders." And I was just standing there incredulous. She said that the parents of these kids so nothing to curb their children's behavior unless the offense was the most serious possible - disrespecting the teachers! That is absolutely not tolerated. Johanna said that whenever she spoke to a parent of a misbehaving student, she made sure to emphasize the disrespect that was shown. The gangs operate on a strict code of respect and disrespecting another gang's members is often the source of the worst violence. Then the sobering discussion was set aside, along with the many tragedies of 2012. And we resumed trying to enjoy ourselves.

Martin was in charge of the music as usual and played the traditional songs including Tom Jones's "Delilah", Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline," Billy Joel's, "Only the Good Die Young," and of course Gladys Knight's "Midnight Train to Georgia" to which I sang the alternate lyrics from 30 Rock "....I missed it...I missed that Midnight Train to Georgia! It was at 11:45 and I was misinformed about the time...Misinformed about the time, never even got to stand in line!"loudly into George's ear, making both of us laugh. George and I alternately bobbed up and down side by side and went out to the backyard to stand near the fire-pit and talk to random people about random stuff like movies and TV shows, especially Sherlock where someone told us that the most devoted fans of Benedict Cumberbatch were referred to as Cumberbitches!

There was another guy from New York named Mike. He was now working as a court officer here in town so he and George had a lot to talk about. Actually, around 1am as we were starting to say good night and make our way to the door, this Mike (not to be confused with Dan's brother) continued chatting to George even though he was putting on his coat and trying to edge his way out. Mike mentioned his years working in Brooklyn South for NYPD and that when he came here he didn't want to go through another police academy, so he went to the TSA before becoming a court officer. Oh, he worked TSA too, I said, referring to George. He was going on about the crazy things he saw at the courthouse, especially in the child custody cases in the family court. Finally we were able to make our exit. I had already said  good night to Dan, Mike, Joe, Dax and Joel. Ralph and Kate had left just after midnight.

Outside George told me that the Mike he had been talking to worked at TSA when he did, and didn't remember him. But George remembered that he was rumored to be in trouble for stalking one of his co-workers. Hmm, that's weird, I said. Not that I knew this guy at all. I just saw him every year at this party and didn't know what his connection was to Dan and the rest. All in all, George and I had a nice time, he got to meet some of my friends and we got to celebrate the New Year together.