I always have these good intentions of taking photos when I go out and do things. Alas, yet another evening and only one photograph. It is better than the usual none. I should add that to my new year’s resolutions.
At my friend Caitlin's apartment. That is her on the left and me on the right.
My lovely friend Caitlin hosted an apartment party in her exquisite Upper West Side apartment. Do to being paupers, most of New York city’s extravagance was out of our budget. A great gathering of people arrived to a huge bowl of sangria loaded with cabernet sauvignon, a whole bottle of cointreau, some fruit juices, and bag of frozen whole strawberries. Delicious and deadly. Dubbed the Sweet Death by the guests due to its inherent potency hidden behind sweet strawberry goodness. There were also about ten different types of chips, all deliciously salty and artificial. People from my undergraduate attended as well as a couple from Burlington, Vermont who had met Caitlin while studying abroad in Australia, Caitlin’s boyfriend and his Yonkers friends, and two of my best friends from downtown.
Party began around 9PM with the arrival of guests and started with a kick-back of Pinnacle shots. Conversation ensued, chatting about a Mount Washington adventure, checking out Burlington, lots of outdoor adventure, and plans for the remainder of the evening. At one point myself and the downtown couple were out on the balcony, admiring the view, and the neighbor’s dog began to bark. All three of us began to howl along with him. All of us like wolves, beckoning the new year. Around midnight, we pulled up a live feed of the ball drop before heading out to the balcony to observe the fireworks over the river. Spectacular sight, bursts of red, blues, greens and golds lit up the sky and glistened off the surface of the water.
By this point, the apartment half of the evening was winding down, cute little Caitlin dropped her snazzy new smart phone down 9 floors, and most of the attendants were pretty intoxicated and ready to call it a night. My two downtown friends and I were not yet finished. In fact, we were quite disappointed with the languid attitude of most of the guests who were all ready to just hang out at home and go to sleep. How old are we? Though I can’t be too upset, they threw a wonderful party and I love them all. We decided to head downtown to their neighborhood, East Village, and hit up the bars.
The neighborhood was alive with glitter, music, and people milling about looking for their next New Year’s fix. We headed out to a bar nearby for some drinks, dancing and fun. My girlfriend and I were dancing, getting really into the music while her boyfriend hung out at the bar simply enjoying the show and the company of a friendly barkeep. Both her and I were decked out in our sequins. The barkeep eyed us, eyed her boyfriend, and gave him the classic thumbs up and a big grin.
After the bar there was another bar or two before we headed out to one of their local friend’s apartment party. Had a few more drinks, went up to the roof for a smoke (tsk tsk, never again) and to check out the view. At this point the sun began to rise and we decided to head back home, but we first made a pit stop for pizza. Delicious, hot and fresh Manhattan pizza. Nothing beats it.
Kyle and I talked on and off throughout the night. Probably not the best idea as I was intoxicated and entertaining the attention of quite a few single men looking for a good time knowing full well they would not get it, but relentless and hopeful nonetheless. We mainly chatted over Facebook messages, him desperate to make sure I was okay, me taking 30 minutes to respond to him as I bounced between the bar and various conversations. It was stressful for him knowing that I was out, having fun, pretty tipsy and getting a fair amount of attention from the opposite sex. He called me once at midnight to wish me a happy New Year and about three more times throughout the evening. Most of these conversation I only vaguely recall. Between the constant, noise, being distracted by the events around me, and being a little drunk, they are in scattered bits and pieces. During one of them, there was another guy casually hitting on me while my boyfriend listened on the other line. This was at the apartment party downtown while we were up on the roof. He was telling me how old my hands were and offering to warm them up. Simple enough, but all it took to enrage Kyle. I was pretty much unaware of it, but it made Kyle anxious about the evening.
We did chat right before I went to bed and he seemed to be more comfortable about the events that transpired. New Year’s is something that is special to us. Him being deployed and unable to spend it with me this year was hard. We also got a chance to skype the other night. The video finally worked and he got to see my face. Crazy how much something so simple can impact someone. The man is crazy in love with me and insanely devoted to me. I know part of it is being so far away from home and me being his main connection to his old life. But it was intense. Really intense.
Avventura 