New Year's

For those of you who know the wide-open-spaces person that I am, you must have pondered: what was I thinking? A million people is a freakin’ lot of humanity. And you were right.

After a delightful Christmas with my girls at the cabin we decided to take Laura Jean and Mr Playdeaux back to Brooklyn. New Year’s Eve in Times Square was on Greg’s bucket list so I sucked it up, put a grin on my face, and said let’s go.

1:30 p.m. left Madison, NJ on train
2:30 p.m. arrived Penn Station, hiked to Times Square
3:00 p.m. (note: 9 hours before midnight) arrive at 42nd & 7th where the infamous ball drops; redirected to 49th because it is “full” to there already
sidebar—New York’s finest have barricaded every block and are out in force. You go where they tell you. You mass together with about 10,000 other crazy people in a holding area until they allow you into a pen for the rest of the night.
4:00 p.m. squished, shoved, squeezed into holding area
5:00 p.m. informed that 49th is full and 52nd is filling; wave of folks move together
5:15 p.m. arrive at holding area for 52nd
6:00 p.m. allowed into pen after full body search, one at a time
7:00 p.m. “entertainment” begins with dignitaries from China inviting everyone to visit Beijing…which begs the question, who was paying for this extravagant party?

We still have 5 hours to go. The night is unseasonably warm which means we are holding our coats. Directly in front of me is a 7 foot tall, 4 foot wide giant of a man in a parka. If I stand on my tippy toes and strain to the right I can glimpse a sliver of the ball 10 blocks away. On Greg’s left side are three large, obnoxious women chain smoking cigars. He asks for Advil. I take this as a good sign.

He turns to me and says, if I’m good, he’s good. He wanted to be in Times Square on New Year’s Eve and he can check it off. Yay! We inch our way across the crowd to the barricades. A cop tells us that we can’t get back in if we leave. We are done.

Walk over to 49th and 9th and get a brick oven pizza and regroup. There are crowds in Times Square but there are crowds milling the streets as well. People watching is at a premium. Tuxes and itty bitty mini skirts. More sparkling stilettos than you could find in a single mall. And here I am in my cords, flannel, and hiking boots.

We decide to see if we could get closer to the ball. Imagine it at the center of a spoked wheel. We attacked the 180 degrees by walking three blocks on the outside and then in (and out again) the five blocks. By the end of the night we walked about 5 miles and saw it as close as 2 blocks away—from a couple of angles. For anyone intrepid enough to undertake this adventure, my suggestion is to head to the library on 41st and 5th with a picnic. Right around the corner is a decent shot at the ball and the crowds are milling as opposed to throngs.

Decided to beat the crowds on the train and headed back to my cousin’s in NJ around 10:30 p.m. Were snuggling into bed at midnight. Welcome 2012!

New Year’s Day we spent with my mom’s first cousin, Linda, and Laura Jean. Another good visit. Greg realized his boys in blue were playing just a couple of train stops away so bundled up and headed out. Too bad the cowboys didn’t show up…but he enjoyed going to a play-off game.

On the way home we took a tiny detour through Philadelphia (because we could) and toured Independence Hall and saw the liberty bell. Home again, home again, jiggity jig.

Here are a few pictures from the holidays…