Kind of on a whim, I decided to come to New York City for New Year’s since I’d never been before. I stayed with Travis at his place in Brooklyn. I spent my first afternoon wandering around SoHo, checking out the shops (and crazy packs of shoppers) while waiting for Travis to get off work. We went back to his place, changed, and headed back into the city to the Village. We ate at a great Thai place called Cafetasia and walked to Kate’s birthday party at Fat Cat Billiards. Fat Cat is in a big basement and has billiards, ping pong, tabletop shuffleboard, chess, scrabble, and who knows what else. Mike and Jon and Riana were there too! Eventually we had to leave because it was insanely hot and stuffy down there.
On New Year’s Eve, Travis and I made an obligatory trip to Times Square – we got there, I took two photos, and I said, "Ok. Let’s go." It was really cold and windy and snowing but already at NOON there were people lining the street, holding a place for the big celebration. These people had blankets (well, some of them did) and snow was slowly building up and drifting around them. CRAZY.
We walked down to Bryant Park to see the tree and ice skaters, then took the subway back down to SoHo for lunch. We met up with Travis’s coworker, Ed, and ate at The Cupping Room Café, where we saw a girl that totally looked like Nako.
Travis and I went back to his place and watched ‘Snatch’ then bought champagne, liquor and snacks and started getting ready for people to come over. By this time it was seriously windy and cold outside, so we weren’t sure how many people would actually venture out. We killed a good hour and a half with some Family Guy before Will stopped by. Then Kathleen, Tony, Nicole and Ed arrived. It was a really good time – very laid back. A good group of people. Kathleen brought party favors – the usual fare plus moustaches and glow bracelets. We watched the ball drop via Hulu and spent the rest of the night listening to the weird noises outside (maybe whales?), watching videos on YouTube and texting and receiving texts. Which I know doesn’t sound that thrilling, but was pretty damn fun.