On Adding to My Bucket List

Happy New Year to one and all!  Last year, around this time, I made a New Year's Resolution to write more.  Like most resolutions it lasted at most, two months.  Well, it is again, time to make a resolution.  I think I will stick with a winner.  My goal is to write weekly.  Hopefully, there is enough going on to fill a few pages.

Since the 2007 movie starring Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson, it seems that a Bucket List has become something on everyone's mind.  I have a few things on my list, but now I have one more.  And it has been completed.  My friend of fifteen(!) years, Drew, his partner, Jonathan, and daughter Whitney have spent the last three weeks in a cross-country crusade that ended in New York City.  I haven't seen him for several years, so if he had asked me to carry him around Manhattan piggyback, I would have.  As it turns out, we did something far worse.  New Year's Eve in Times Square.  I have been here for six years now, and have successfully avoided the carnage that is Times Square.  Until last night.  Earlier in the month, when discussing what they wanted to do while they were here, this idea came up.  I thought it was a joke, but just to be sure, pounded a couple nails in the coffin by reminding him that this event was not for the faint of heart-a group of people to which I belong.

I met up with them around 3 PM, and he had done his research.  He had a list of entry points to Times Square; all I had to do was get us there.  We started at 49th St and Eighth Ave, but that entrance was already closed.  We then moved up to 52nd Street.  There was a group of people waiting to enter, but it seemed at first, that no one was getting in there either.  Eventually though, they began letting people into the pen one at a time.  Each person was frisked and wanded and we were all warned that no backpacks were allowed in.  The number of people who must have simply forgot they had a backpack with  them was astounding.  They were herded out immediately.  One man was being obstinate, and was escorted not through the "backpack exit," but instead to the other side of the pen and over the fence!  They told him to go and have a good evening.  His friends were left standing, wondering where he went.

All four of us made it through the first gate without incident.  I was a little bit concerned that my bag might be too big to enter, but there are almost 50,000 police officers, and that means almost 50,000 opinions on what is too big to enter.  We went through the first pen, and passed on to the second.  It was a bit of a disappointment, because after beginning our trek at 3:00, and getting in by 5, we were positioned just behind a large billboard that prevented us from seeing the ball.  But, in short order, the pen was opened and we filtered down Broadway, but first, a second search.  This time, I was stopped for my bag, but after opening it and showing it to the officer, he granted passage.  It was a good thing, too, because Drew, Jonathan, and Whitney were already moving into the next holding area.  This one filled up quickly and it was tight.  And cold.  I don't care what anyone says, one million people do not raise the temperature a bit.  Drew mentioned to me that he thought they raised the ball at 6 PM, but was not sure.  Interestingly, someone in front of us said, "Someone said they raise the ball at 6!"  I let Drew know that he should be careful what he says, as this is how rumors get started, and then riots.

At ten seconds until 6, a countdown began on the video screens, and at 6:00, the ball began to rise!  They also took that opportunity to let us know that there were Six Hours To Go!  That's not nearly as comforting as you might first think.  Drew and Jonathan went to the side to sit down.  We had noticed that most of the area behind us, yet still in the pen, was empty.  There was room to go, stretch out, do something away from the throng.  And there was pizza.  I first noticed the Domino's guy as Drew and Jonathan were walking away, but because I told Whitney I would stay with her, I didn't leave my post.

When Drew and Jonathan returned, I stepped away to smoke, and the pizza guy was still there.  I asked if he had a pizza and how much it was.  He said $20.  TWENTY DOLLARS!!!  I waited for the punchline.  There was none.  I quickly did some calculating.  I had $20 in my pocket, and still had six hours to go.  This may be my only chance to eat something until after midnight.  I jumped at the chance, and bought a cold cheese pizza.  I took it back over to the clan and no one else wanted any, nor would they later.  Lactose intolerance creates restroom issues, and the only way to use one was to leave the area.  If we left, we were not getting back in.  It was also for this reason, that I drank nothing while eating my two slices of pizza.  I then had a dilemma:  I was holding the most expensive pizza ever purchased, and could not eat any more.  About that time, a girl turned around and asked if I left to get the pizza, and I explained that I had not, but I was done with this one and she could have it if she wanted it.  She looked at me as if I was crazy, and declined.  I saw her talking to her friend and they turned toward the fence.  I caught them and told her it was a $20 pizza, and I really didn't want to throw it away, but that I didn't want to eat any more, and would she please take it.  She asked if I was sure, and then accepted.  Good deed for 2015.  Check.

At one point, Drew asked how I was handling the cold.  Aside from the fact that they are from California, so I already had a leg up on them, I explained it was mental.  I was merely thinking about how hot it was in June, and how much I missed June, and how long it would be until June got here.  Then I thought about how six hours was so much shorter than June, and I could do this!  Drew asked if we were gonna die on Broadway at 50th St, and I assured him we probably would not.  We watched the temperature drop from 32 to 28 degrees while we waited for midnight.  It was brutal.

From 6:00, there were periodic shows.  A Chinese dance, a Moet toast or two, a proposal (she said yes, despite my deepest wishes he would be humiliated in front of one million of his closest friends), a "judgement free" cheer courtesy of Planet Fitness, and several stars stopping by to read New Year's wishes written on the confetti that rains down on Times Square at midnight were some of the parts of the program.  Incidentally, on my way to work this morning, confetti still littered some streets, and I noticed writing on some.  I did not stop to read any, though the thought crossed my mind.

At three hours to go, the end became attainable.  At two hours, I was 98% certain we would see the ball drop.  At 11 pm, with minutes to go, the crowd began to come alive.  The holding pen tightened up, and people began to move a bit.  Suddenly, out of nowhere, two thugish guys appeared near us, and began yelling.  They chanted for a while, "Change the year!  Don't let the year change you!"  I'm not sure what it meant, and it didn't take long for the chant to die down.  One said, "I don't care if you're uncomfortable!  I'm gonna do what I have to do!"  He was speaking to no one in particular, but I felt as if he were speaking to me, because I was uncomfortable.  Drew mentioned that he was most concerned about Whitney, so Drew, Jonathan, and I sort of formed a triangle around her, and as the thugs moved forward, we moved around her to keep a space between her and them.  They got closer to the fence, and asked a police officer to take their picture.  It just felt like a TV show where you know something would happen because someone wasn't paying attention.  But I was watching this happen right in front of me.  After the officer snapped the picture, they saw something over there that they wanted to check out, so they went.  And people made way.  And that was the last we saw them.

Just as our friends left our immediate area, Taylor Swift took the stage, followed by O.A.R.  When they started singing John Lennon's "Imagine" at 11:57, elation overtook me.  Never have I been ready for a new year to arrive than this year.  Not for any bad thing that happened in 2014 or any good thing hoped for in 2015, but because standing in one area for seven hours in 27 degree temperatures with no restroom made me long for the new year so I could leave!

Going to Times Square for New Year's Eve has never been something I wanted to do.  I have never put it on my bucket list.  I was content with visiting Times Square any other day or night of the year. Last night, it was added to my bucket list and checked off. I was presented with the opportunity to do New Year's Eve with an old friend and I sure wasn't going to pass that up.  I am VERY glad I got to do the ball drop, and do it the plebeian way.  No parties, no reservations, no special treatment of any kind.  It was fun-so much fun I hope never to match it in the future.  However, if you want to come to New York and go to Times Square for New Year's Eve, I would go, too, I suppose.  Who gets to mark the same thing off their bucket list twice, but only the lucky few?