Our New Year's Story

Roger Remembers:

on new year's eve 1988 i went to a party of friends. sometime early in the evening i met the twin sister of a man i knew in santa cruz. i knew of her existence, but little else. someone introduced us. we shook hands, mumbled a few words, and went our separate ways. i was happily dateless that night, having just decided that i needed to be alone for a while, so i had a great time dancing among a crowd of friends.

at midnight, or close to it, lovers kissed, partners danced with each other, and my newest acquaintance and i, both being dateless, saw each other and danced together briefly but intensely. i don't recall speaking.

two weeks later a friend told me that she knew someone who would like to go out with me, and gave me the phone number of my midnight dancer. i had been divorced for 3 years and dated several women, but all were mismatches of one sort or another and i was tired of trying. so i decided that i would call this woman and talk to her and maybe go out to dinner, but that i would be my rasty self and let the chips fall where they may, so to speak. it worked out well. better than i expected. she too had a bit of an edge.

we had a nice dinner. we found each other interesting. we talked up a storm. we never stopped. we're still at it. well, we do enjoy silence together too. we have never stopped being together since new year's eve 1988.

One of our very first dates. He was beardless, I had short hair.

A month after we met, we decided to drive to Muleje. Here we are camped somewhere in Baja.

We were dressed up for a party. Summer 1989.

Robin Remembers:
Seventeen years ago, at a New Year's Eve party, I danced at midnight with a man I had just met. When the clock struck twelve we found each other and just for a short while danced a crazy New Year's Eve dance together.

I was newly separated from my husband, had just gotten to California, and was not really looking to start a romance. My twin brother and his wife had been invited to a New Year's Eve party, but they are as reclusive as I, so were not planning on attending. They suggested I go rather than stay home and mope with my broken heart. I was a bit wary because as kind as their friends are, it was a new-age spiritual group, and I am not exactly new age or spiritual (in that "everything happens for a reason" kind of spirituality). I decided to go anyway and wound up dancing with Roger at midnight. There was definitely something about dancing with him that made me want to see him again. I told a mutual friend that I wouldn't mind if Roger would call me. I didn't really know how to go about dating. It made me feel like I was back in high school. Robin likes Roger. Okay, now what? The friend gave Roger my number, and he called. Two weeks after New Year's we had dinner. Interestingly, we both had a bit of an acerbic edge, having decided that we would just plainly be ourselves. If the other didn't like it, well no big deal. So neither one of us was on our best behavior. It was great fun, and we've been inseparably together ever since. We know it's an understatement to say it, but we're so glad that we broke with our personal traditions, went out to celebrate, and stayed awake until midnight on New Year's Eve in 1988.

In Muleje with a guy we had met. He was bicycling from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego.

We loved each other's company and took up boogie boarding together.

So, we decided to grow old together.

The first sunset photograph we ever shot together. This was in Muleje.

Happy New Year to you all.