The New Millenium: Alone Again, Naturally

This post is part of the Carnival of Genealogy - 38th Edition hosted by Jasia at Creative Gene.The topic: The New Millennium. Where were you when the year 2000 came around? How did you celebrate the New Year 2000... with friends? family? at a party? in a bunker? What were your thoughts, fears, and feelings about the new millennium? Can you believe it's been 8 years since then?

I remember distinctly where I was and what I was doing during the "New Millenium," meaning December 31, 1999 to January 1, 2000. I was alone, I lived in San Francisco, and I couldn't have been happier.

I had just broken up with my partner with whom I had been for close to nine years. Understand that in the world of same-sex relationships, there is a factor of 5 involved - so it was more like 45 years. It is a running joke among LGBT people, but the fact that long lasting relationships are a rarity isn't really funny. It was an amicable ending to a good relationship. I stayed in the apartment we rented and I had both dogs with me (Minyo and Princess). And I was happy.

The happiness was more than just convincing myself that this was a good thing. I was happy and had a positive outlook towards a new beginning - that is why I think it was a sign that the end of the relationship took place at the end of the millenium. And the promise of new beginnings in the new millenium.

One complication though, during this period was Y2K. See, as an Information Technology professional (aka Computer Guy), the period from June 1999 to January 2000 was an absolute nightmare. As you may remember, there was a world-wide panic concerning obsolete date coding in computer programs where using a two-digit date (99, 98, 97) would cause problems since it would now be 00. Fixing the code was not easy - if you have ever programmed or developed software applications like I have, it is the equivalent of looking for a needle in a haystack. There were fantastic predictions of death, destruction, and the like. Some people even had bunkers filled with food and supplies.

I was on-call and New Year's Eve was a Friday, so tecnically I had the day off. But I woke up and at around 2:00 am on Friday, I watched on television to see if Sydney and the rest of Australia had problems. I think we all collectively held our breath. But at the stroke of midnight there were beautiful fireworks, and the Sydney Opera House and the rest of the city did not go dark. This was a good omen. As the day progressed, once it was New Year's in Moscow, I knew that at least I wouldn't have to go into work and fix servers and desktops all night.

So, I just stayed home - me and the dogs. We watched television, called my mother at 9:00 pm my time (12:00 am in New York) and celebrated alone.

The year 2000 would bring many new changes into my life - some for the good and some unbelievably difficult. I would have to put one of my dogs down by the end of January and by March my mother would be diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease. But I also met George, my current partner. And all of those things started me on an eight year journey to where I am and who I am today. I learned along time ago that you need to be alone in order to appreciate being with someone. That was so true on the New Millenium.