Best/Worst NYE Experiences

[DegenerateDish]

Interested in how people feel about NYE, and your best/worst experiences.

Worst: '92, I'm a freshman in high school, babysitting at a neighbor's house down the street. Had never had a family member die before, and around 9pm, the phone rang, not sure to pick it up or not, my dad was on the other line to tell me my grandpa (mom's dad) suddenly died.

Best: Any year at home or walking distance friend's house. I'm overjoyed that the absolute train wreck event that is "Chi-Town Rising" is back again. I'm genuinely excited to see how terrible it is produced again this year.

[Dr. Blackheart]

Al McGuire:  "New Years Eve is for ameauters, the professionals stay at home".

[HouWarrior]

My birthday falls on January 1 .....so I am lucky to have had many great NYE nites. .....Most (Best) involve some very wild partying and sexy fun that a gentlemen shouldnt share on the internet (wink), so instead .....I will share a favorite PG NYE story from my youth.

I was going to the Univ. of Madrid, and my brother came over to visit Spain through the holidays. NYeve we celebrated to the wee hours with the fun loving Madrilenos, many tapas and mucho booze. We awoke a few hours later, on New years Day,  to my 21st birthday and hopped a plane to London....celebrating a special 21st birthday in two countries on the same day. On the flight up I met Carmina, a spanish blonde (very rare- lol) and she and I dated over the next 6 months, often on travels through Spain. A two country birthday and a great girlfriend as my present (also my bro paid for this trip as my Bday present!). 21 NYE was awesome

On a note more similar to the OP, (Worst) my 78 yr old grandpa (dads side) came home after NYE partying, and fell down the very steep basement stairs in his home. He lingered in the hospital, asking about scores of the 1971 OSU/Stanford Rose Bowl with Jim Plunkett...then he passed on Jan 3. 

Also...On Jan 3 ...14 years later, my younger daughter was born here in Houston. It snowed that morning...only one of four times it ever has snowed here during the last 37 years...surely a sign from above....for her and grandpa. lol

So..... NYE is about beginnings and endings, I guess

[DegenerateDish]

My birthday falls on January 1 .....so I am lucky to have had many great NYE nites. .....Most (Best) involve some very wild partying and sexy fun that a gentlemen shouldnt share on the internet (wink), so instead .....I will share a favorite PG NYE story from my youth.

I was going to the Univ. of Madrid, and my brother came over to visit Spain through the holidays. NYeve we celebrated to the wee hours with the fun loving Madrilenos, many tapas and mucho booze. We awoke a few hours later, on New years Day,  to my 21st birthday and hopped a plane to London....celebrating a special 21st birthday in two countries on the same day. On the flight up I met Carmina, a spanish blonde (very rare- lol) and she and I dated over the next 6 months, often on travels through Spain. A two country birthday and a great girlfriend as my present (also my bro paid for this trip as my Bday present!). 21 NYE was awesome

On a note more similar to the OP, (Worst) my 78 yr old grandpa (dads side) came home after NYE partying, and fell down the very steep basement stairs in his home. He lingered in the hospital, asking about scores of the 1971 OSU/Stanford Rose Bowl with Jim Plunkett...then he passed on Jan 3. 

Also...On Jan 3 ...14 years later, my younger daughter was born here in Houston. It snowed that morning...only one of four times it ever has snowed here during the last 37 years...surely a sign from above....for her and grandpa. lol

So..... NYE is about beginnings and endings, I guess

Early Happy B-Day Hou, well put at the end there.

[tower912]

Best:   A long time ago, a lovely young lady who lived in downtown Chicago at the time. 
Worst:  A messy fatal shooting.   

[drewm88]

Happy birthday Hou, hope it can match that 21st.

NYE has usually been a dud for me. Too much hype. The best ones usually end up being the ones that had the more low key plans.

Last year my wife and I decided we wanted to try a new restaurant for dinner, but on only a few hours notice, couldn't get a reservation later than 6:00. Did that, then bar hopped our way home, beating the crowds to just about every place since we started so early. Drank and danced with the bars' little hats and noisemakers on each stop. Ended up getting home and passing out drunk on our couch around 11:30. It was great.

[GGGG]

Last year my wife and I decided we wanted to try a new restaurant for dinner, but on only a few hours notice, couldn't get a reservation later than 6:00. Did that, then bar hopped our way home, beating the crowds to just about every place since we started so early. Drank and danced with the bars' little hats and noisemakers on each stop. Ended up getting home and passing out drunk on our couch around 11:30. It was great.

I have never really had a "great" NYE experience, but that story is very similar to my best.

Most of mine are similar to two years ago.  Marquette lost at DePaul.  I was exhausted by 9:00 and asleep by 10:00.  Felt great the next morning.

[HouWarrior]

Thanks for the topic as it has spurred many memories, Here is another.

Back in Milw for senior year at MU, 2 buddies and I drove through a deep NYE snowstorm to a party with mostly UWers. Two attractive UW coeds thought it was cool I was having a birthday and...well...a great present ensued (wink). We 3 guys were pretty wasted, so the most sober of us got behind the wheel, ...Half passed out we 2 were roused by our buddy who had parked at 3am on a road in Thiensville directly across from a raging 3 alarm fire. A shopping center was in flames and actually it was an interesting watch for the 3 of us.

Then a cop walks up, taps the flashlight on the drivers window, asking what are we doing there. My driver buddy explains we have just been sitting here enjoying watching the fire adding "You need to understand officer, I am a really big fan of watching fires".....holy cow the wrong thing to say...hauled out of the car, (likely suspected of arson, too-lol) he was given an alcohol sobriety test. Luckily he passed (they didnt test back then for our preferred smoky intake-lol), and we were told to go home.

I can fondly remember the three of us talking and laughing until 6 am over our near scrape with arson charges...oh yeah ..thanks too to the coeds. Happy Birthday to me.

Happy New Years, to y'all

[4everwarriors]

Happy endin', hey?

[real chili 83]

New Orleans, 1981. Sugar Bowl.

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

Tonight maybe my favorite, 23 years old but the first time celebrating New Years minus the parentals.

Just chilled at a nice pub in London with my best friend.

I hope  every single scooper, (yes even CBB, rocket surgeon, and Heisenberg) have a wonderful and healthy 2017.

[wadesworld]

My best childhood friend's birthday is 12/31. The Globetrotters played in MKE every year on NYE so we'd always go see them and then have a sleepover at his house, complete with the DQ ice cream cake with the chocolate fudge in the middle and playing basketball in his basement. Good times.

[4everwarriors]

Did he get a happy endin' like houwarrior, hey?

[wadesworld]

Did he get a happy endin' like houwarrior, hey?

Hah. I'm sure at some point in his life he has. Back then, as far as I know, he did not.

[warriorchick]

Best NYE: Glow and I were living on the East Coast in the late 80's, and were invited to accompany a friend of ours to a party in the New York area.  It was at one of the nicest homes I had ever been to.  There were rumors that the owner was involved in organized crime.  We played pool on a billiard table that had a little plaque on it that said it had been used as a prop in the movie "The Hustler".  So, yeah, I spent NYE at the real life equivalent of Tony Soprano's house.

Worst NYE:  A number of years ago, we thought it would be fun to take the family to Las Vegas for New Years.  They close off the strip to vehicle traffic and shoot fireworks off the roofs of the casinos.  What a mistake. We got there early (parking at Orleans and walking to the strip). It was freezing cold, super crowded, and the casinos would were not letting in under-age kids (which ours were at the time), not even to go to the bathroom.  There was literally nothing to do while waiting for the fireworks to start.  The only entertainment we encountered was a bunch of drunks arguing with some people carrying big signs  that said we were all going to Hell.

Eventually chick jr. and I gave up and went back to our condo, which has a great view of the strip, and watched the fireworks from there.  We drove back to pick up glow and glow jr. afterwards.

[Dr. Blackheart]

How I am ending 2016

[warriorchick]

How I am ending 2016

Did you take this picture while you were lying on your side?

[Dr. Blackheart]

Did you take this picture while you were lying on your side?

Yep. Getting a hot stone massage as I scan Scoop

[4everwarriors]

Hopefully a happy endin', hey?

[rocket surgeon]

Tonight maybe my favorite, 23 years old but the first time celebrating New Years minus the parentals.

Just chilled at a nice pub in London with my best friend.

I hope  every single scooper, (yes even CBB, rocket surgeon, and Heisenberg) have a wonderful and healthy 2017.

thank you my good man-and right back attcha!  let's all have a good, safe, healthy and prosperous year.  even if something bad is going to happen-all have the strength to persevere

[real chili 83]

thank you my good man-and right back attcha!  let's all have a good, safe, healthy and prosperous year.  even if something bad is going to happen-all have the strength to persevere

You made the "list" 

Happy New Year!

[rocket surgeon]

You made the "list" 

Happy New Year!

probably the akahall talkin, e'yner?  that, or he just had a really happy ending   not to worry chili, someday even you will get mentioned in the same sentence with us cool guys. 

  still appreciate chitown putting da hatchet aside for the momentous day  

[Boone]

New Year's Eve '84. I'm a soph at MU, home -- in northern NJ -- for break. Two high school friends and I take the train into NYC to spend NYE in Times Square. We arrive around 6:00 and eat at a cheap steak place near Times Square. None of us can get served either there or at the few bars we visit. Stone sober, we return to Times Square. Gradually, a crowd surrounds us. By 10:00, we're so penned in that moving is no longer an option -- much to the dismay of one of my companions, who is unable to move away from the large, drunken gay guy, who repeatedly kept hitting on him. It was cold and every but us, it seems, was hammered. It was miserable. Finally, the ball drops. The crowd starts to celebrate and break up a bit, so we take the opportunity to make a run for it. A phalanx of drunkards lead us out of Times Square by smashing bottles at our feet (flying, broken glass hits me below the eye, drawing blood). We run to Port Authority to catch a bus home (think it was too late to take the train). It's a madhouse of people. In the rush of people, we get on the wrong bus. We realize it as the bus pulls out of PA, but the driver won't let us out. There's no seats left, so we have to stand the whole way.  Right in front of us, someone throws up, so now we're hit with the sweet smell of vomit. We ride the bus as close as it will take us to our town -- the down-and-out city of Clifton. It's past 2:00 a.m. now. None of us have ever been to this slum before. The streets are dark and empty. We find a greasy chicken shack to camp out in to plot our next move. From a payphone there we call the only one of our dad's (not mine) who'd be the most likely to drive the 45 minutes into Clifton to pick us up. As we're waiting for our ride, the chicken place closes and we're turned out into the street, where we wait on the curb. Until then, our night had been one misadventure after another. Now, we're really scared. Pre-cellphones, there's no way to  contact my friend's dad. We cross our fingers he doesn't get lost, as we wait in the cold and dark of an inner city that's seen better days. An hour later, headlights pierce the blackness. Thankfully, it was my friend's dad's old station wagon. Safely inside, we arrive back home about 5:00 a.m. One long nite

[Dr. Blackheart]

New Year's Eve '84. I'm a soph at MU, home -- in northern NJ -- for break. Two high school friends and I take the train into NYC to spend NYE in Times Square. We arrive around 6:00 and eat at a cheap steak place near Times Square. None of us can get served either there or at the few bars we visit. Stone sober, we return to Times Square. Gradually, a crowd surrounds us. By 10:00, we're so penned in that moving is no longer an option -- much to the dismay of one of my companions, who is unable to move away from the large, drunken gay guy, who repeatedly kept hitting on him. It was cold and every but us, it seems, was hammered. It was miserable. Finally, the ball drops. The crowd starts to celebrate and break up a bit, so we take the opportunity to make a run for it. A phalanx of drunkards lead us out of Times Square by smashing bottles at our feet (flying, broken glass hits me below the eye, drawing blood). We run to Port Authority to catch a bus home (think it was too late to take the train). It's a madhouse of people. In the rush of people, we get on the wrong bus. We realize it as the bus pulls out of PA, but the driver won't let us out. There's no seats left, so we have to stand the whole way.  Right in front of us, someone throws up, so now we're hit with the sweet smell of vomit. We ride the bus as close as it will take us to our town -- the down-and-out city of Clifton. It's past 2:00 a.m. now. None of us have ever been to this slum before. The streets are dark and empty. We find a greasy chicken shack to camp out in to plot our next move. From a payphone there we call the only one of our dad's (not mine) who'd be the most likely to drive the 45 minutes into Clifton to pick us up. As we're waiting for our ride, the chicken place closes and we're turned out into the street, where we wait on the curb. Until then, our night had been one misadventure after another. Now, we're really scared. Pre-cellphones, there's no way to  contact my friend's dad. We cross our fingers he doesn't get lost, as we wait in the cold and dark of an inner city that's seen better days. An hour later, headlights pierce the blackness. Thankfully, it was my friend's dad's old station wagon. Safely inside, we arrive back home about 5:00 a.m. One long nite

Sounds like the 'Lanche on a good night, ex the Dad.

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

Makes you appreciate Uber, huh?