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.
Al McGuire: "New Years Eve is for ameauters, the professionals stay at home".
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
Quote from: houwarrior on December 31, 2016, 12:05:56 AM
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.
Best: A long time ago, a lovely young lady who lived in downtown Chicago at the time.
Worst: A messy fatal shooting.
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.
Quote from: drewm88 on December 31, 2016, 10:32:41 AM
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.
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
Happy endin', hey?
New Orleans, 1981. Sugar Bowl.
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.
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.
Did he get a happy endin' like houwarrior, hey?
Quote from: 4everwarriors on December 31, 2016, 08:36:22 PM
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.
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.
How I am ending 2016
Quote from: Dr. Blackheart on December 31, 2016, 09:51:42 PM
How I am ending 2016
Did you take this picture while you were lying on your side?
Quote from: warriorchick on December 31, 2016, 10:02:01 PM
Did you take this picture while you were lying on your side?
Yep. Getting a hot stone massage as I scan Scoop
Hopefully a happy endin', hey?
Quote from: ChitownSpaceForRent on December 31, 2016, 08:32:16 PM
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
Quote from: rocket surgeon on January 01, 2017, 05:32:26 AM
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" :o
Happy New Year!
Quote from: real chili 83 on January 01, 2017, 06:51:45 AM
You made the "list" :o
Happy New Year!
probably the akahall talkin, e'yner? that, or he just had a really happy ending :D 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 8-)
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
Quote from: Boone on January 01, 2017, 09:21:28 PM
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.
Makes you appreciate Uber, huh?
Best: Two years ago when we were at our Florida home. We went to dinner at a bistro and wine bar where we began to (and still ) frequent. The owner invited us to an impromptu party on the terrace with about 30 people from the area, most of whom were fairly prominent locally. It was an absolute hoot and we never had felt so welcome. We spent our time with the publisher of the local newspaper, a reporter who was embedded in Afghanistan and Iraq with the Army and a former NYC cop. My wife got me to dance, something I almost never do. It was a wonderful night in a new community where the bistro owner went out of her way to get us introduced and settled.
Worst: Not long after we were graduated Marquette, my wife and I went to a friend's NYE party in Milwaukee. We stayed at a hotel in Wauwatosa with thin walls and an old-folks-on-the-loose party next door. Our party was great and we went home about 1:30 a.m. Unfortunately, the party next door went all night and had way too much alcohol. They were from rural Wisconsin and from the sounds of things, didn't get out much. One of the revelers spent his evening snapping the bras of the female party guests. Geez, 70-year-old adolescents I could do with out. By the time the night was over, someone's wife was swearing out a divorce petition. We heard the WHOLE thing! Yikes!
Al was right, New Year's Eve is for amateurs!
Quote from: tower912 on December 31, 2016, 07:23:56 AM
Best: A long time ago, a lovely young lady who lived in downtown Chicago at the time.
Worst: A messy fatal shooting.
Are the two related???
No. About 15 years apart.
Better late than never.
I've had such diverse experiences on NYE with no real bad experiences. Some less interesting than others.
- The first big NYE plans that I recall were freshman year at Marquette. I was back home in Connecticut on break and went to a NYE party at our fellow Jesuit institution of Fairfield University, hanging with some friends from high school who went there. I found out a what high level of partying went on at Marquette as I treated it like it was a normal weekend back on campus and everyone was like holy cow!
- I've been to a formal NYE dance at the Polish Club.
- I've had plenty of quiet nights which consisted of going to an early family dinner, followed by just watching movies at home with the family and taking a break at 11:30 for the ramp-up through the Times Square ball drop.
- I've been to parties at friend's houses that ended up being lame.
- I've been to Times Square three times. All three have been interesting and I did not end up in Pennsylvania like Boone. I distinctly remember being herded into barricades as Boone indicated and being told if you leave you cannot return.
*We were starving and the cop stationed at the barricade would not allow us to simply walk to the Popeye's in eyeshot across the sidewalk.
*Every public place and fast food restaurant in Manhattan mysteriously has their bathrooms Closed for maintenance. on NYE.
*Despite large TV screens, mostly everyone has no visibility at all of the TV shows and live performances (or lip syncing) going on.
*One year my very drunk friend grabbed a New York pretzel out of a 10 year old kids hand as he walked past him, and the kids dad came back and slapped the pretzel out of his hand and his face in one hard swoop.
*The millions of people in the streets around Times Square are almost entirely all gone by 12:15pm.
*The Metro-North train ride back to Connecticut is a free-for-all and you usually get stuck standing until Stamford. And one just hopes you don't end up in a rail car with a puker.
MU Fan:
Hopefully, for spectators' sake, NYE in TS has changed for the better in recent years, but I doubt it. If only the TV cameras panned to the interior of the crowd and not those on the perimeter, so viewers at home could get a real taste of how miserable that experience is for most people.
Quote from: Dr. Blackheart on December 30, 2016, 07:18:10 PM
Al McGuire: "New Years Eve is for ameauters, the professionals stay at home".
Al McGuire: "The only people you find in bars are losers". I should have listened.
Quote from: Boone on January 04, 2017, 03:02:40 PM
MU Fan:
Hopefully, for spectators' sake, NYE in TS has changed for the better in recent years, but I doubt it. If only the TV cameras panned to the interior of the crowd and not those on the perimeter, so viewers at home could get a real taste of how miserable that experience is for most people.
I have not done in time but would definitely do again. Just pick a relatively warm NYE like this past one, and know what you are getting into being stuck in the barricade until midnight.