Thank you for coming to my 10th Annual Virtual NYE Party!
I want to thank everyone who attended my 10th Annual Virtual New Year’s Eve Party! I also want to thank SyFy for having another Twilight Zone marathon and switching up the order of this year’s episodes. And I especially want to thank Matt Vandermast and Mark Davitt for making this year’s party possible. I’m not sure where the time went. If you’re new here, I started the tradition of hosting this online party during SyFy’s iconic multi-day Twilight Zone marathon so no one–especially people with disabilities like chronic illness, pain, fatigue, and being immunocompromised–would not have to spend New Year’s Eve alone. For the past decade, people from all over the world have to come to my party to watch the Twilight Zone and be in community. This year, we had old and new faces. Many guests made me tear up when they said they had been coming the past 8, 9, or in some cases all 10 years! We also had new people come which made me happy. I usually post a recap after the NYE Party/marathon is over on this blog. THIS is a recap from the very first party–the 2013-2014 Virtual NYE Party. To be honest, it feels like it was written by a different person. (You can also revisit the other recaps from the past ten years here.) If you want to join next year’s Virtual NYE Party, join the Twilight Zone Group Posse here to stay in the loop.
Juggling Full-time job, Chronic Illnesses, and the Party
Four months ago, I started a new full-time job. (This is also why I didn’t update my blog as much as I would have liked last year.) Working a full-time job when you have over a handful of chronic illnesses is challenging. I can work with chronic pain and fatigue but it is not easy. This year, I needed everything to go just right for me to host the party. I needed to recoup my energy and rest before NYE. Unfortunately, a family member spilled water on my computer. There’s nothing quite like spending the day after Christmas at the Apple store. As my twin 5-year old niece and nephew said when we were at Apple, “This is boring.” I did not rest before NYE.
I felt bad about not being able to host because of my disability especially since I initially started the party with disabled people in mind. Last year, we had somewhere between 200-250 guests attend. Plus this year was a big anniversary year. Making things more challenging, this year, SyFy’s marathon was 68 hours long! Thankfully, Matt took initiative. He and Mark did the hard work of tracking down TZ episodes for those who don’t have SyFy. Because of them, the tradition was saved. We were able to do another NYE Party; the marathon and party ran from December 30, 2023 – January 2, 2024.
Bringing Katt’s Energy into the New Year
By the way, who here has watched the Katt Williams interview? Last week, Shannon Sharpe’s interview of Katt Williams broke the internet. As of this writing, Katt’s interview has over 34 million views. Katt damn near dragged everyone in the first 30 minutes. While there are too many great lines to count, my favorite is:
“You having an unnatural allegiance to losers is not like you.”
Happy 2024, everyone! Wishing for less pain for everyone who is in pain and a cures for everyone who needs them. And less ableism in the new year.
–Jessica
