The sort of wonderful and amazing thing about approaching the turn of another year is this: Everyone, for the most part, is anticipating the arrival of the very same year.
Counting helps us here -- 2014 follows 2013 -- and the knowledge that one year generally comes after the other. But what if we greeted the next year, bubbly and music and all, and we chose the year we'd greet?
This very thing will go down, in part, at Union Station on Tuesday, Dec. 31. A "roaring '20s event" will take over the Art Deco-nice 1939 landmark, complete with burlesque dancing, a Robert DeLong performance, and jazz courtesy of Brian Swartz and the Brian Swartz Sextet.
We've never been to a non-roaring '20s to-do, by the by, and we hope we never will.
"(L)ive cigar rolling and a hand-shucked oyster bar" lend the festive proceedings atmosphere. Oh, as will the 30-foot ball drop.
Ball drops are so festive. Why do we only allow them on New Year's Eve? June 11, Aug. 20, you both need a ball drop, wethinks, to liven up the holiday-less times of the year.
The best bit? This all goes down in the station's Fred Harvey room. Surely you've seen it: It's the diner-like, spacious-elegant, tile-riffic Union Station space that's typically closed off to general foot traffic. Call it a rare chance to make merry in a place few people wander.
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And, look, spoiler alert and so forth: 2014 is the next year on the calendar. No matter how much fringe you wear or how vintage you go with your dress, and you should definitely go the decadent distance in the sartorial department, it won't be 1924 when the clock strikes twelve on the final day of 2013.
But, can you pretend?
You can, and maybe even should, given that you'll be in the Fred Harvey Room at Union Station at a theme party. Why waste the chance to assure your companions, over and over, that 1924 will be the best year yet?
