A few weeks prior to New Year’s Eve, my boyfriend, Renato, and I we’re planning our Holidays. Since he lives in New York and I live in Montreal, we needed to decide where we would spend Christmas and New Year’s Day. In order to complicate things, we both have divorced parents, making our organization task much more difficult. I’ve been always hearing good and bad comments about spending New Year’s Eve into Time Square. This year, I wanted to experience it. No matter what my beloved would say, I decided that we were going and nothing could have come in my way, not even his saying. After a couple of arguments and disappointments from his family, we planned, just like I wanted, to go into the city. I started asking around and reading about tips in order to apprecite and survive this event in New York City. As the day came closer, the more excited I was. I had plan to get into Manhattan around dinner time, enjoy a nice meal with Renato, go out and shop on the streets, then head to Time Square and savor the ambiance and the live performances. Sounds nice, right? Yes, but mostly unrealistic because people were actually getting into place by 3:00pm to watch the ball drop when the clocks strike twelve. 

Yes. Starting around 3ish, people would get barricaded. Alone or not, you need to stay in between those barricades until, at least, midnight. Remember, once you are in the ball drop area, you can’t live it to go the bathroom and come back to you spot. Once you leave, you can’t go back in. Also, you don’t move, so your body gets as cold as the weather and you need to plan on eating as well. Still, I wanted to make it by the end of the night, even if that meant we would be standing completely to the back.

January 31st 2011. The day had finally arrived. We started our day by eating out for breakfast. Then, we took Renato’s two little brothers and his twin sisters to the movies, followed by shopping. The weather forecastwas announcing 10C but I didn’t want to take any chances so we went to buy a new warm winter coat. I absolutely did not want to be a living ice cube that night. We came back to his house around 6ish and looked at the online event programming. The only artist worth going for was Lady Gaga, who was performing at 11:15pm. After getting ourselves ready and watching a movie, we were smart enough to jump into a train, instead of driving his car into the mad city. Forty-five minutes later, we arrived at Grand Central. Looking for a shuttle to Time Square, we asked our way to one of the fifteens cops that we’re walking around and mostly answering questions. It’s now 11:00pm and we are finally out of the subway. The first things I saw were skyscrapers, fireworks and people shouting. I look into my boyfriends’ eyes and say “This is going to be awesome”, I thought at the time … I was so happy because we were going to make it on time for Lady Gaga. Where we were standing, we couldn’t see the ball or any of the performers, so we decide to walk a few blocks to see if we could have a better view. Anywhere we’d go, streets were close, cops were everywhere and they were so much people out there, it was unbelievable. At one point, Renato stops and ask a police officer : “Excuse me sir, where are we suppose to look if we want to see the ball drop?” The cop looks at his arms, like he is aiming to look at his watch and replies “You’re six hours too late. Thanks for coming. See you next year.” With that said, I just started to laugh out loud. He really made me laugh. The same officer looks at me and adds “You’re laughing, but I’m not joking.” Oh man, I was sad. Politely, my beloved says thank you and we start walking, thinking we might find a spot. Indeed, we did, but behind the skyscrapers. The blue light that you see between two buildings in my picture was the actual ball. 

When I tell this story, everybody asks me “What’s the ball like? Is it really a ball that drops on people?” No, it isn’t. Do you know how much damage it would make on thousands of people? A lot, let me tell you that. The ball is attached to a mechanic and this makes the ball slide down vertically and slowly.

Because we were not on Time Square, we didn’t really know what was going on. Everyone was just talking, smiling and looking at the ball up high. Every minute, we could hear drunken people passing by us and yelling “Happy New Year!” to everyone and shouting in their little flutes. Undeniably, it was a great ambiance. 

Midnight is here. The ball is finally going down, but we could only see the first seconds of it, then was hidden by the skyscrapers. We didn’t hear the countdown which made everyone confuse. Everybody looked around, trying to find an answer on when we were supposed to say “Happy New Year!” I guess everyone messed up because we all said it at different times, which made it incredible. Renato and I kissed. A lot. We didn’t know when the clock stroke midnight and we didn’t want to miss it so we just kept on going. 

Next morning, my boyfriend and I decided to do it again next year, but getting there earlier in order to see the show. This is a one life thing you got to do, especially if you live in Montréal or whereabouts. New York City is only a seven hours drive! 

To all, I wish you a wonderful year.