Bubbly Put On Hold For The Eve

The Joaquin family’s New Year’s Eve supplies TANNYA JOAQUIN PHOTO

Man, where did the first two weeks of 2015 go?

It’s like I’ve been walking around with a holiday hangover. Not the kind caused by overindulging in cocktails or champagne either.

In fact, our chilled champagne did not see action until several days into the new year. We totally missed the count-down to midnight.

Yes, the only counting down my family did had to do with timing when we should take medicine and our temperatures. We got hit by a nasty virus. It was a boomerang bug that started early in December and came around again before the new year.

Yes, we were in bad shape. I could feel the cashier’s sympathy when she rang up my purchase on New Year’s Eve — all kinds of cold and cough medicine, champagne and a pack of poppers for the kids.

It was a snapshot of what our end of 2014/start of 2015 would be like.

I think the cashier even remarked something to the effect of, “Wow, looks like you’re going to have quite the party!”

More like party pooper.

We at least managed to muster the strength to set off the poppers with our kids and neighbors. That took us from about 8 to 8:15 p.m. After that, we went inside to put our children to sleep and relax, seemingly, until midnight.

Wishful thinking!

I remember it was super cold, so we bundled up under the blankets. Game over.

Long story short, the potent combo of NyQuil and other over-the-counter meds kicked in and we passed out. Didn’t have a chance to crack open the champagne. I did wake up briefly, glance at my watch and see it was 12:10 a.m. Oh well, I thought. We missed it anyway. Better just go back to bed. So I did.

We were down for the count throughout the holidays. We “quarantined” ourselves at home for 48 hours to try to beat the bug once and for all.

Our kitchen counter turned into a makeshift drugstore/pharmacy. Instead of toasting with champagne, we were doling out nasty-tasting medicine to each other. What a depressing sight! Not to mention the horrible sound of coughing at all hours.

Time to get healthy! A happy new year is nice. A healthy one is even better.

Now, that’s something we can all drink to in 2015 … even if it is a mimosa a couple of weeks late.

tjoaquin@hawaiinewsnow.com