New Year's Eve

I got to Vilnius for New Year's Eve Wednesday evening, cause nothing was going on at work and I was bored ;)

Wednesday night I went out for Chinese food with Juste and Gedas. Afterwards we had a beer at Pilies Mene and drove back to my place. We played poker for change, and Juste, who is a poker dealer at a casino, lost everything big time (three lits). Well, she did drink a bottle of vermouth. Gedas and I drank “Kalnapilis 7*30.”

Thursday night we partied hardy again, the three of us plus Cedric, Rastenis (“Angele” from here on in), and Neringa (with a lovely new haircut drawing more attention to a very gorgeous face). We played quarters with lits, and then we played Asshole. I think we played Circle of Death as well, and if anybody can help me out with any other actives in which we partook before the sauna, help me out ;)

Then we hit the sauna. As I recall, it was Gedas, Cedric and I, just the three of us beating each other with these things called “vantos,” which are bunches of soft beleaved twigs that are soaked in hot water, warmed on the burning stones, then used to pummel someone’s backside. It’s quite exhilarating and relaxing at the same time, plus it looks funny when you stand up and are covered with leaves. Cedric contests that Angele and Neringa were there too. Maybe.

The next day Angele and Neringa were off to work in the morning (God help them). I made chicken North Hudson for the remainder of us. In case you’re not acquainted with this wonderful dish, it’s basically chicken thighs baked in olive oil with much garlic. Also I made fries and corn and Cedric made salad. We ate like kings. LIKE KINGS I TELL YOU!!!

Sorry about blowing up like that, my coffee just kicked in.

We had just this morning received an invitation we would accept for a New Years. We spent some woeful minutes wondering whether we would even make it out again after two nights of dusk till dawn drinking.

Then came the big night: New Years Eve. We had, of course, decided to go out (Note: my mother had asked me if I’d be going out to celebrate New Year’s; I said “What? Are you kidding? I go out to celebrate Wednesdays!”). Cedric and I spent some time before leaving talking about what we should bring and wear; there was some ambiguous instruction about costumes and drinks and performances. First of all, in Lithuanian the word for costume and suit is a homonym: kostumas. So we weren’t sure if we were supposed to dress up in suits or togas. It was Gedas who took the call, and he was gone with Juste to get ready himself by the time we were considering this. We decided on base ball caps and if we were supposed to present something we’d put them on and do this dance I do all the time (privately) that I learned from Nick Bristol: one hand grasps your junk, the other hand pointing up above your head, and just dance around like a drunk blind man with a shit eating grin.

Waiting for Gedas in front of Minima we again discussed drinks, which was hard because I couldn’t talk about vodka. I was tearfully like, “I don’t wanna talk about it…” I convinced Cedric to go for Jagermeister, but Minima didn’t have any, those bastards. We got bottles of whisky, 999, and champagne. We went in. I met and talked to several girls with interesting names, including Ugne (fire) and Angele (angel). Also there were two guys named Liutauras, which sounds like Liutas (lion). A lot of people left early though, for other parties.

The order of events that follows is blurred. We walked down to the Cathedral as a huge group (one of many huge groups) to see the fireworks a welcome the New Year. It was funny. Having brought one bottle of champagne total, Gedas, Cedric and I each marched to the square with a bottle each J LOL

We got back and danced a little bit, but I spent most of my time in the smoking room, not necessarily smoking, but that happened to be where people met each other and had conversations. There were even non-smokers who spent hours at a time in there. At one point, a very cute girl, whom I was thinking about how to approach, approached me with “may I sit here?” Chatting chatting dancing drinking smoking chatting sitting on my lap (and now we’re dating). At fourish, though, she left with a friend who was able to give her a drunken drive home.

We stayed. We…were…retarded. There’s an excellent word in Lithuanian (zvengti) that is hard to translate: “to bust a gut laughing hysterically,” I’d say. Well, we zvengem for the next three hours straight. The three of us sat in the smoking room chatting with whomever came in, trying to be serious, and laughing at each other’s feeble attempts. Also, almost nobody had a lighter at this party. We didn’t. So all the people that came in for a smoke and asked us for a light just had to wait around with us dumbasses till someone better equipped came in. At one point Cedric broke out his impressive knowledge of Lithuanian, which consists of about 50 words, every one of which he explained joyously with hand gestures and pointing to a Lithuanian girl sitting next to him. When she told him she wasn’t drunk enough for such mindless banter, he declared that he would switch to a more serious theme: dinosaurs. He only knew the names in French, and even in French he only knew a few though. Still, he was willing to talk about them (he generally considers dinosaurs to have been “assholes”) at length, designating a dinosaur by mimicking its movements and sounds.

We had stupid adventures on the way home at seven o’clock. It was a very good new years eve, followed by several days of healing movie and sauna marathons.