January 4, 2007

  • The Times Square Fiasco

    Utter Chaos. That is what Times Square is during New Years is.

    The Beginning

    It was 3ish when we made our way through the streets of 46th and up. Many of the people were battling to get into the side street that led the way to the pens. It wasn't too crowded but you could tell that once everyone made it to the pen, you'd be neck and neck with everyone else.

    We had 11 people in all and were constantly battling to stick together. We made it at 47th street I believe, and ran into the side street. We were finally able to walk a bit and take our time to reach the pen, however just when we reached the end and the police allowed people through the barrier, we were fighting just to stand! We were getting shoved against the people ahead of us by people in the back who were leaning forward so far that they were at a 45 degree angle on people's back. Somehow I was shoved through the police barrier after 5 minutes of getting crunched. Susie has a nice butt by the way. I was being shoved against her with Teresa on my back. Best 5 minutes of that whole entire 2006. Rawr.

    The Pig Pen

    We were finally in the pen. It really was like a pen for pigs. Both ends were seperated by Police barriers for that entire large block. We gradually made our way past the halfway mark of that pen. We were once again neck and neck with people. The group of us had managed to stick together despite the craziness. It was so crowded that while I was at first with Cindy and Susie, we had weaved so that they were at the front of our 11 person line and I was in the back. For about an hour I couldn't talk to them. We managed to get close to the side pen which allowed people to leave the pen but would have to stay gone if they had left. We formed a little circle and played taboo. P.O.D. and My Chemical Romance played above us.

    To my left were people from Pittsburgh who were commenting on the Steelers game. For the first hour, they were talking about how a friend told them the Steelers had lost their game. Then the two old women decided to smoke for a bit. Fun.. I get to breathe it in. They were an interesting outspoken group. The two women who were smoking started to complain about being thirsty and not being able to get water. I gave them the water bottle I had in my pocket that I didn't feel like drinking anytime soon.

    Lost and Found

    As we pushed our way to the front, I lost track of my umbrella. I turned around and yelled out, "Hey, I lost an umbrella back there. It's small and has a crooked handle!" Some white guy with a pierced eyebrow found it and handed it over to me through the crowd. Haha Could not believe it was so close yet so far away.

    Emo Taboo

    Before we went to Times Square we bought Taboo. We ended up playing Taboo. Taboo is funny since it brings out the perversion of the guys. "Dick! Penis! Vagina!" while we're surrounded by strangers. It's funny that a few people around us said "Oh, they're playing taboo". We stopped a few times to listen to Christina Aguilera, P.O.D., and My Chemical Romance as they prepared for their shows later in the day. It was so Emo, Kiet started to cut himself. Haha no, but it was way too emo standing there listening to emo music. Even the crowd felt emo and wanted to cut themselves. Either it was the song or having to listen to it 4 times each song that night.

    Hourly Countdowns

    Starting at 8, we started doing countdowns for all the areas that were reaching the midnight mark in different time zones. Small fireworks would light up the night and people would give out a little hurrah.  Christina and Tony told me, Teresa and Jimmy that the small disco ball under the Target sign was the actual ball that drops at NY. I thought they were lying. I thought it was on the other building where it looked like a ball was caged. Not to mention it was larger.

    The Human Traffic Cone

    There was this guy dressed up in orange and looked like a giant traffic cone. He was about 6 foot 5 and had a big beer gut. As we made our way to the front, I made my way to the left of him. He was damned annoying. There was a group of people who wanted to leave the pen. As they made their way past him, he totally blocked their way and told them to stop shoving him. What a dick. So there I was, standing next to him. He kept shifting his weight and bumping me to the left for about a half hour. I decided to turn myself sideways so my back was to him. He decided to turn sideways as well so that his gut was right against my back. God damn guy continued to keep bumping me another half hour. He decided to shove me by rotating a bit and then grabbed my shoulders and told me to stop sleeping in a friendly way but I could totally see through it. He was getting annoyed by me leaning back and pushing him back so he'd stop shoving me. After that little scene, the bumping stopped.

    City Chinese (pronounced Shitty Chinee)

    Around 10, this group of three chinese people started to cut between the group. I don't know how they did it but it was my and kiet separated from the rest of the group. Two were guys who wore blue puffy jackets. The girl was at the front making her way across. I got annoyed by this so  I decided to pretend I was dancing to the music. I cut one of the guys in blue off from the other two by wiggling my shoulders through and gradually stepping into the gap. For a full half hour this guy was totally cut off. Damn right. Back at you, you damned asians.

    Boy in Blue, Bag on Butt

    I gave up on it later on when I decided to regroup with the group and cutting across them to Zon and the rest. Somehow the girl and the guy in blue managed to once again get between me and the group. The girl pressed against Zon's back. From what he told me later, he was leaning back and had farted with her on his back. Haha. The other guy in blue that I had cut off had managed to get behind me. I guess as revenge, he pressed a bag against my ass the whole time. It annoyed me so much I turned to my left and saw some russian guy who I thought owned the bag. I told him to stop pressing the bag against my ass. He said, "I don't own a bag". I replied, "No really, stop that". I grabbed the bag and turned to my right to see the jackass in blue. I told him to stop that and apologized to the guy on my left twice. Fucking asian guy in blue. He didn't listen to what i said so I grabbed the bag again and moved it away from my ass. He stopped there after.

    Umbrella-owned

    The girl and guy were still ahead of me oblivious to their friend being cut off from them. I decided to use the umbrella's handle which had a curve at the end and poking her really hard right between the ass cheeks. Yes, that's right. She gave a startled jerk and a few minutes later, moved further left away from our group. Success! In the end we were 4 people back from the police barrier. Oh well.

    Safety

    We all huddled back together. A few times, Zon would sit down on the ground. I thought it was because he was tired of standing but in actuality he was farting. Haha.

    At 11ish a little boy several people away from me on my left decided to take a piss on the ground. The parents took a bunch of the scarves that was thrown into the crowd and the kid peed on it. Ew. Glad it was further away but I rethought tying my shoes.

    Do you know what time it is?

    When it was finally the final countdown for the New Year, I totally didn't realize what time it was. Since we were doing countdowns every hour on the hour, I thought it was 11 and we were counting down for the people who lived an hour ahead of NY. So as the tiny ball that I thought Christina and Tony were lying about, disappeared from view and the song New York, New York by Frank Sinatra played throughout the square, I wondered why everyone was celebrating so hardcore about it. Confetti rained from the sky and I sat there wondering if it was 11PM or midnight.

    God... what a way to ring in the New Year

    The end