Good Riddance!
“Dot.calm” by Jane Silverman
As we close the door on the second decade of the second millennium, we can only hope for brighter days in 2021. While it is difficult to fathom the numbers of lives lost and families and businesses impacted, we can do our best to support each other and celebrate the end of 2020!
It occurs to me that perhaps this chapter in American history will serve as a reset button, pausing the trajectory of our modern fastpaced, often self-centered culture to create a more thoughtful, kinder, and gentler nation with a greater appreciation for family and the role healthcare, essential workers, and most especially teachers, play in the fabric of our lives.
This year, technology became our best friend breaking up often solitary days. While we were missing in-person experiences with family and friends, Zoom calls brought us closer; but we also had free cooking classes on YouTube www.youtube.com, online movies we found on the JustWatch app streaming guide www.justwatch.com, sports on Yahoo Sports www.sports.yahoo.com (with cheering soundtracks added for the missing fans), virtual Town Halls, Bingo, Art Classes, and more – all which helped to bring the world into our homes.
Counting Down…
The 14th Annual Good Riddance Day on December 28 is the perfect opportunity to vent about a year gone horribly wrong. It is inspired by a Latin American New Year’s tradition to fill dolls with tokens representing bad memories and setting them on fire. Visit www.TSQ.org/GoodRiddanceDay before the 28th to fill out your own 2020 “I want to say Good Riddance to…” form and watch it shredded live in Times Square from Noon-1pm on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/timessquarenyc.
Make a Wish
The Times Square Wishing Wall is an inspiration! Submit your 2021 wish online before December 29th and it will be printed to become part of the 3,000 pounds of confetti released in Times Square at midnight on New Year’s Eve. Love this! It’s so poetic: a blizzard of confetti blanketing the sky with the hopes and dreams of people from around the world. Visit the virtual Wishing Wall www.TSq.org/Wish or use #ConfettiWish on Twitter and Instagram to share your suggestions for a better year ahead.
The Ball Drops Here:
The NYE Augmented Reality (NYE Celebrate New Year’s Eve Live) app and the New York Times Square website www.timessquarenyc.org puts New York’s New Year’s Eve in the palm of your hand. Watch the virtual evening’s concerts and interviews live with multiple camera angles of an empty but beautifully lit Times Square and ball drop. The app also has a cool Augmented Reality feature to place a virtual image of Times Square anywhere you are whether at your home or the ORC NYE Gala.
Make Some Noise!
The Airhorn Multi app is a cool noisemaker with 27 sounds to choose from to ring in the New Year. Try the party horn, train whistle, police siren, or chainsaw — just for the fun of it. Press down on the image and hold for long or short bursts of sound.
Great Minds Think Alike:
Download the Zoom app on your phone to celebrate New Year’s with your friends and family wherever you are. Since we all pretty much ran out of things to talk about somewhere around the third month of the lockdown, the Random Trivia Generator app www.randomtriviagenerator.com is a great conversation starter “to productively kill time learning new facts…”
Fingerworks:
While waiting for your dinner’s next course or the clock to strike midnight, you can pass the time creating your own dazzling fireworks with the Fireworks Arcade app right on your smartphone. There is something so satisfying as you tap tap tap and drag and slide your finger on the screen to doodle animated and colorful fireworks shapes and effects; shake your phone to watch the grand finale.
Entering the third decade of the 2000s, I wish you all a bright, hopeful, happy, and healthy New Year.