NYE

NYE was definitely fun and I am blessed to be able to say that I got to spend time with the people I love most on the last day of 2010 and on the first day of 2011.
I'm also blessed to say that I had Friday free from work. What a glorious way to start the weekend. I slept in (as per usual) and took my time rolling out of bed and into the shower. You know why I take my time? Because my bathroom is an ice box. Fer realsies. You open the door and get smacked in the face with a cold breeze. Yes. Really. No joke. I have to turn the heater on in there and close the door for 5 minutes before I can actually go in to take a shower. You'd think the extreme cold would wake me up. Instead, it drives me straight into the loving embrace of my cozy bed.
L and I had plans to check out the happenings in Pioneer Square for New Years, but we had plenty of time to hang out before we headed down there, so when A sent an invite to her place that night, of course we agreed to go.
I knew we'd be out in the cold later that night but still wanted to look cute so I bundled up with all the cuteness I could and headed out to pick up L (aka my date). L decided we needed dipped cones because it had been so long since the last time we had them, so we stopped at Dairy Queen on the way to A's. Turns out, the distance from the Dairy Queen by my place to A's is exactly perfect for consuming a dipped cone.
It was the usual scene at A's, only with more children than usual. Uh...oh boy....
Apparently they were watching R's brothers little girls. And one of them had some serious attitude going on. Like hand on the hip, side eye, death stare giving kind of attitude.
L, A and I were sitting at the table when the 2 girls walked by. The youngest of the two didn't even look at us. Meanwhile, 'Tude sister stared L down the whole time as she walked past the table. And when she got closer to L she muttered under her breath "DON'T. Look at me."
I don't know if I would have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. We all know that's not true. If a child does something with a touch of evil in it, I totally know it's a fact.
Later on in the night, I had to pee (like a racehorse I tell you!) but the bathroom was occupado. As soon as I saw my opportunity I ran for the bathroom...and was thwarted! Thwarted I say! 'Tude sis somehow beat me there! And she sure took her time...the whole time I stood at the end of the hall, containing myself with the always trusty pee-pee dance, the younger sister just stood in the hall, in front of the open bathroom door where her sister was (deliberately) taking forever to pee. Staring at me. Just....staring. In to my soooooouuuuuullll! Everyone laughed at me. Except the stare sister and 'Tude sis. They hate me. Which is fine by me.
While K and I talked accessories and cute things, A mocked us. And made up her own words for headbands. We played Mario on the Wii (which is totally addicting btw) way too much and basically just had a good time. Like we always do. Because we all rock.
Before I knew it, it was around 10 and L and I were ready to head downtown. I always forget that I really hate driving downtown. Even when there is no traffic at all, I hate it. Stupid one way (going the wrong way of course) streets all over the place, crazy pedestrians, and no parking anywhere. Ugh.
We managed to find a parking garage not too far from the square and headed on over. It was pretty empty. L had been down to the square for past NYE, and said that there was usually a band and a ball to watch drop and tons of people. Not this year. Apparently people got a little freaked out with the tree lighting bomb scare...So this year there wasn't much going on. What a good year for us to choose to go down there. Can you sense my sarcasm?
While standing in the middle of the square, pondering what to do next, 2 guys walked up to us. They asked us if there was anything fun going on for New Years. Can't they see that's exactly what we're trying to figure out? One guy uses the "I'm not from around here" line and the other stays pretty quiet. They both look (at least in my opinion) young, and aren't exactly the best looking guys around (might be mean, but hey, you can't change what you're attracted to naturally. And this guys face was not on my natural attraction list.). L some how talks us away from them and we go on the hunt for a bathroom. At least we know we look good enough to get hit on.
We walk a few blocks, wondering what could possibly be open this late on a holiday for us to use a bathroom. Inspiration! Mcdonalds! It's not even that far from where we are and L remembers seeing it on our drive to the parking garage and it was definitely open.
Walk walk walk walk walk turn the corner...and there are those boys. We slow down a bit. They keep walking and disappear around a building. Unfortunately, it's the same way we're going. We make it around the corner just in time to see the boys walk in to Mcdonalds.
Crap.
Good news! Subway is directly next door and still open! L hesitates because she thinks you have to buy something to use their bathroom. No problemo! I have a couple bucks, and a sweet tooth that won't die, so we decide I will buy cookies while she takes care of business. It almost didn't work because they only had a few cookies left. Luckily 3 of them were double chocolate chip. Mmmmmm tasty.
We finally made it back to the square, now sugared up and bladders emptied. I made L check out the echo chamber near the chess blocks. Have you ever checked it out? You definitely should! I've lived here forever and only just found out about it a few years ago. L has lived here forever and has never heard about it.
We had to wait for some other people to get done playing around there, and then I made L try it. First I had to show her that she wouldn't be embarrassed in any way by trying it. She stood on the circle and said a couple words and started laughing. It's the weirdest thing!
You want to know what I'm talking about don't you? (Of course, I mean if you don't already know) Click here and check out number 3. If you go to the square, and stand on that circle and speak, the sound of your voice is amplified and it sounds like you're using a microphone in a big, huge, echo-y hall. To everyone around you, you sound totally normal. But to your ears, in that one spot, the sound is amplified, for your ears alone. Trippy.
Which is why when I saw a couple walk by and hesitate to try it out, I egged them on. The girl was totally scared, thinking it was something Portlanders make tourists do to have a laugh (I don't even know if she was a tourist. Where do my thoughts even come from?) but once L showed her there was no danger she tried it out. And then almost ran away when she heard herself. And then made her boyfriend (husband? cousin? roommate? How do I know. Stop asking.) try it to. They asked how it worked. Pah! Like I know the mechanics of these things.
They were a fun distraction for a minute. We noticed the square starting to fill up as midnight drew closer. More and more people finally started showing up, but there was still no ball in sight for us to watch drop, no band playing us into the new year, not even an accurate clock to tell when midnight really struck. So, for about 20 minutes the square was just a place where people went to scream. Lots of hootin n hollerin and screaming and laughing. I watched the time on my phone and then all of a sudden it was midnight. People were screaming, but I saw nothing exciting. I wonder if we're missing something...
L tells me the girl behind us just got proposed to and that's why there is so much commotion.
"Oh. Well that's nice."
"Wanna go?" She asks.
"Yea. Car's that way" I turn and point in the direction of the parking garage and we both start walking.
Proposals are exciting and all but I already missed the best part where the asking happens and there's all the suspense of wondering what she'll say because we all know she'll say yes but what if...just what if she doesn't (just like that one girl in that youtube video I saw one time)? Since I tend to be bitter about love and men and such, it wasn't very exciting to watch this girl and her friends jump for joy on this exciting moment in her life.
So we walked back to the car and headed home for the night. Looks like my New Years Eve tradition is no midnight kiss. At least this time I didn't get rained on, or locked out of my own car, and I didn't lose anybody this year. I'd say that's a success!