New Years 1999

Nothing earth-shattering today, just a reminiscence of what things were like 10 years ago. As I stood on the Champs Elysees last night at midnight, surrounded by a million of my closest friends, I couldn't help remembering how the decade began for me.

Most of you will remember that the world was supposed to end on January 1, 2000 thanks to the Y2K computer glitch. Planes were supposed to drop out of the sky, microwave ovens were supposed to blow up, and wild hordes of looters were supposed to take to the streets raping and pillaging. The reality was a bit less dramatic.

I spent the turn of the millennium in the Algarve in Portugal. I rented this villa with a couple buddies (and our wives) and we had a ball. Another buddy of mine got married in Dublin on December 30, so I'd spent the previous week in Ireland bombed out of my mind. We were all flush with dot com dough and spent a couple weeks like absolute ballers. While we were there, Qualcomm split 4:1 and almost ran back up to its pre-split price. Shit was crazy.

I had no idea what the coming decade held in store. I'd get divorced and remarried (actually, the divorce didn't come as much of a shock), the stock market would crash twice (and I timed the first one almost perfectly - just dumb luck), I had businesses fail and succeed, I'd end up adopting a couple of Russian kids, wild shit.

No real point here beside the obvious fact that it's better to be open to change than to resist it. The Chinese have a saying that is both a blessing and a curse: May you live in interesting times. Or if you prefer, in the eloquent drunken voice of Gunney Highway from Heartbreak Ridge, "You can rob me, you can starve me, you can beat me, and you can kill me. Just don't bore me."

It's back to work on Monday kids. Have a great weekend and let's make the next decade one for the books.

4 Comments
 

I was with a few of my good buddies last night, and we were talking about the past 10 years, how there were so many changes and how each of us took different paths to get to where we are today. I think in 10 years, I will look back at the decade of 2010, and feel great about how I confronted today's constantly changing world.

 
runningcitylikediddyI was with a few of my good buddies last night, and we were talking about the past 10 years, how there were so many changes and how each of us took different paths to get to where we are today. I think in 10 years, I will look back at the decade of 2010, and feel great about how I confronted today's constantly changing world.

Wow. I hope you didn't have tears running down your face. I was too busy getting sloshed since I have one week of vacation left (first full week of vacation EVER since college!)

 

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