hub of humanity

It’s 2013! Wait…what? Where did 2012 go? We went on our annual trip out to Breckenridge, Colorado in mid-December and braved the -11 degree weather. It was beautiful as always, and despite the cold, a fun time relaxing with my parents and brother. Christmas with the family has come and passed, as well. All the grandparents came over, we indulged in our traditional Christmas Eve BBQ dinner and opened family gifts. Santa came Christmas morning and we ate endless amounts of food/cookies. Twas perfect!

I worked a few days between Christmas and…

Ah, New Years Eve. The next and final stop in “The Holidays”. I spent mine in New York City and it was certainly one to remember. My best friend since high school’s cousin engineers the lighting set-up for a band called “Pretty Lights”, and he hooked her up with free tickets for her and friends to go to their NYE show in NYC. She invited me and four others (six total) and we road tripped up north. And yes, I said that right, we road tripped. 17 hours there, 16 hours back (we avoided the Hardee’s and throwing-up-at-the-gas-station-because-of-Hardee’s stops on the way back).

So we left at 10:30 pm on Saturday evening. We figured that driving through the night would entail less people on the roads, less traffic, avoiding getting all the way there and having to buy a night at the hotel without getting to do anything during the day, etc. I was illusioned that the drive would take 12 hours, which is a lot anyways. But because we took our sweet time and stopped every time anyone felt the slightest need to use the restroom, it took five extra. And I’ll be the first to say that the difference between 12 and 17 hours in the car may not seem like much, but quite frankly it’s a ton. I never wanted to be out of a car more than I did by the time we actually made it to New York.

We got to our hotel on Long Island and were pleasantly surprised by how nice it was. We snagged a deal that ended up coming out to $72 a person for two nights at a Hyatt, which is really an exceptional price. Especially for busy New Years Eve. We put our bags in our room strategically in groups of four at a time because that is the max amount of people allowed to stay in a room (sorry, Hyatt. We’re too broke to purchase two. You wouldn’t understand.). We took the Long Island Rail over to Manhattan, and after accidentally taking the north train instead of south, we DID in fact get there. Four members of the group went to night one of the two-night concert while Matt and I had dinner with my cousin and cousin-in-law at Dos Caminos in SoHo. I ate there for brunch in August and discovered that dinner was just as delicious. Tuna tacos, plantains, endless guacamole…my mouth is actually watering right now. After that, we checked out the Times Square scene. It was New Years Eve’s Eve at that point, but still pretty packed. The Nivea Stage was already set up and everything seemed ready to go for New Years Rockin’ Eve. By the time 11 pm rolled around, we were exhausted from the drive and exploring around, so we headed back to the room to get a good night’s rest.

Once we were all up and showered on New Years Eve, we miraculously got on the correct train to Manhattan and did some more walking around. By 5:30 pm, Times Square was already wreaking havoc. First of all, the heart of Times Square is barricaded off and you have to have some kind of ticket or reservation to get in, which I didn’t previously know. But if you could see over the mass amounts of people, it was already shoulder-to-shoulder packed at that point. I watched the ball go up (by chance, not planned) and saw some fireworks go off near it. That was a fun surprise. I couldn’t believe the number of people there—I’ve never seen that amount of people in my life. Even though we didn’t get through the blockades and I never saw the ball drop, I guess I can check Times Square on NYE off my bucket list. I wouldn’t actually want to be inside the crowd or any closer than I was. Observing from a few feet away was good enough for me.  

Shortly after that and before our concert, we needed to use the restroom. You wouldn’t think of that as a note-worthy event, but it really turned into quite the fiasco. We couldn’t get into the barricaded area to use hotels’ lobbies because there were “absolutely no exceptions” if you hadn’t prepared properly. We went into a few restaurants, and all of them were very clear that restrooms were for customers only. After a couple people from our group jokingly threatened to “s*** in the streets” (which really wasn’t a far cry from the chaos going on around us anyways), we stooped to buying a soda at the bar so that we could use their restrooms. Six of us split a glass of coke. Never in my life…

By 9 o clock, we were in line to enter the Roseland Ballroom where Pretty Lights was playing. We could hear the New Years Rockin’ Eve concert starting up from our line which was neat, but we got inside quickly. I’ve never considered myself a true concert-goer since I don’t get too hyped up about them, but this was the best show of my life. Everyone inside was so talkative before the show started; we made friends with anyone and everyone we talked to. Sam’s cousin got us four General Admission tickets and two VIP tickets that the six of us traded to each other throughout the night, which was perfect for escaping the miserable heat from the huge crowd on the main level. At midnight, tons of glitter and balloons dropped from the ceiling and cheering was coming from every direction. I felt like I could feel the energy from the entire world counting down at 11:59. No matter when or where I am in New York City, I can’t help but feel connected to the world. The energy is contagious. I really feel it’s the hub of humanity…19 million people/stories, half of them out on the streets walking around, over 800 languages spoken. It’s an amazing place. Anyways, after a few more hours at the concert, we made our way back outside and walked to the train station. The party was still going on in the city that never sleeps, but with our wake up call being at 7 am to make the drive back home, we needed our sleep. As promised, the next morning came quickly and we tackled the drive back.

It was the most spontaneous, fun and memorable New Years of my life. I’m welcoming 2013 with open arms…this year is going to be filled with travel, adventure and all kinds of new things! My New Years resolution is to blog more consistently and often.

Happy New Years, y’all.

Xo, Siren Lullabies