Walking around out there in the aftermath I started to wish I had been there all day, and that I had stood there for 10 hours after wandering through at 2:00 in the afternoon yesterday. I started to wish I'd been there from 6:30 in the morning. But I can not imagine standing among those crowds for that long.

I guess I regret having not made more of this day. Or yesterday's day. Or any other day.

Walking through the Square this afternoon I picked up a handful of genuine Times Square 2000 confetti and overheard a woman say "I'll get some of this confetti, so I can tell my grandkids I was there the day after."

And everyone laughed.

Everyone.

I guess I am hung over, depressed, unbelievably tired, and full of tired excuses:

I had to work last night. Well, I did have to work last night. This is true.

I could not stand in one place for 10 hours. True true true.

I got there too late, anyway. True enough.

So I missed being at the party of the century, but was there before it started, and after it ended, and I savored the TV coverage on NY1. I videotaped it and watched it thrice tonight.

All day long on CNN everyone was happy. Frank Sesno, usually the most sedate and boring newscaster on the job, looked like he might jump out of his chair. All the countries got their turn to be a part of something that was not a war or a rally against a dictator. It was like the Olympics but without the politics and without the Nike commercials and without all the jumping and running.

I think that, like all things, it would have been different were I not sitting here on this spot gaping into this computer. It would have been different had I anything else to do besides sit here and gape into this computer. In a different life I might have made plans for others as well as myself.

I did enjoy seeing "January 1, 2000" all over the place today, though.

Such a relief.