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Thing to Do #97: Participate in…New Year’s Eve in NYC

December 11, 2012 by Jessica 0 Comments

This is an oldie but a goodie. If you are thinking about going to NYC for NYE, do your research.

I’d love to tell you that this one ends well, but it doesn’t. I wish I could “Tarantino” it and start from the end, but I don’t have the writing chops to do that effectively. Instead I’ll start where all great adventures of young 20 somethings start: “My girlfriend and I started talking and had a great idea…”

On December 30, 2001, a close friend from High School, Amy, and I started talking about how cool it would be to go to Times Square for New Year’s Eve. Talking led to looking online for airline tickets. Looking online led to finding tickets, roundtrip from Raleigh-Durham to La Guardia for about $100. More talking about the relative inexpensiveness of traveling to New York City for one night led to purchasing the tickets.

Thing #1 that we did wrong: thinking that getting to NYC around 7pm on New Year’s Eve would give us plenty of time to get to Times Square

Thing #2 that we did wrong: continuing to think that we had plenty of time and getting a couple of drinks in the hotel bar before heading out

Thing #3 that we did wrong: choosing to try to do this the New Year’s Eve after September 11th.

I’ve never tried to do this since so I don’t know how security normally is, but when we began making our way to Times Square, we found ourselves hitting a security line pretty early on. After standing in THAT line for about an hour, we passed through, only to hit ANOTHER security line, both complete with barriers. Perhaps they do that ever year and maybe its what they do later in the evening for “crowd control” but I suspect strongly that it had to do with the fact that roughly four months earlier a horrific event had occurred in NYC and security was extra tight all over.

After we cleared the second security line, we met up with another set of barriers. However, this was no line; this was “Do not pass go.” The mob of people were slowly trickling into essentially a holding pen. New York City cops lined the barriers, announcing on a bull horn that no more people would be allowed into Times Square. Regardless of what was being announced, people continued to stream into the holding pen and more and more people were crushing against me and Amy. Someone in the back began yelling “PUSH! They can’t stop all of us!” Like lemmings, the mob began pushing towards the barricade, me and Amy being pushed along with the rest of the crowd. Amy and I quickly realized that things were getting out of control and we clasped hands so not to be seperated. With one last push, the barricades came tumbling down and the mob came flowing through. To escape being trampled (which I can only assume happened to the people in the very front) me and Amy began running, too. Out of sheer nervousness and fear, all I can remember is me and Amy laughing hysterically, running down the middle of a New York City street with hundreds of other people running around us. I looked up once to notice that we were running by the Ed Sullivan Theater.

Unfortunately, the mob didn’t consider the intelligence and organization of the New York City police. We run up against another barricade, this time with police in mob gear. Again, it was announced that we should all turn around and go back and again, the same idiots began yelling to push. This set of barricades also gave through and again we were running with the crowd until BAM!, the police managed to put the barricades back up just as me and Amy got near the front. This last push, Amy and I had gotten seperated, and I was directly up against a barricade-Amy was a few people behind me. We could still see one another.

The mob began pushing again, and this time the barricades did not give. The cops kept telling people to back up, that the only way out was the way they came, but they kept pushing. Mob mentality is the scariest thing on Earth.

I felt like I was going to pass out, the crush of people was cutting off my air supply. At this point, it was about 11:40pm. The cop nearest to me could see I was in pain, so to get my mind off of the situation, he began talking to me, just small talk stuff but it did make me feel better. As I was at a juncture in the barricade, he said, quietly, “You know, you could probably fit through this crack.” I told him I was with a friend and I couldn’t leave her and he told me he’d look after her. So I squeezed through the barricade and of course, people saw and began pushing and yelling. Amy started freaking out that I was going to leave her (unfortunately, this was her first time to New York City and it was not going well), so I stood near the outside of the barricade to show her that I wasn’t going anywhere. Unfortunately, my presence was continuing to rile those still on the other side and the policeman made me stand further away down the sidewalk.

At midnight we could hear the cheers from Times Square a couple of blocks away. Twenty feet away from one another Amy and I waved at each other and yelled “Happy New Year!” but obviously without much cheer. As soon as the New Year had arrived, the policeman vacated their barricade and those within immediately began dispersing. Amy and I decided to go to Times Square anyway, at least to just see the aftermath, but we were turned away a block further down by a lone cop telling us that everyone was being made to leave the area.

We went back to the hotel room, discouraged and forlorn at the dissapointing outcome of the night. We got up early the next morning to see a little bit of the city before heading back to NC. I took Amy to Chinatown, SoHo, and some other favorite spots, and I think Amy began changing her opinion of the city.

So that’s my big story of the time I went to Times Square for New Year’s Eve. Although I never officially made it, I think this is a better story!

Have you ever been caught up in a crowd or in a mob? Ever had a crazy experience like this?

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Excitement, Recklessness, Travel

adventure, completed, drinking, flying, New Year's Eve, New York City, school, Times Square, Travel, youth

Thing to Do #2: Swim with…Sharks

August 15, 2012 by Jessica 4 Comments

This is a re-post but in honor of Shark Week, thought it was timely. Plus, I love telling people about this experience; of all the things I’ve done on my list this is definitely one of my favorites.

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Although I had already completed #2 by swimming with Dolphins in January 2007, when Alex and I were planning our vacation to the Mexico in August 2008, I was especially intrigued by one excursion that detailed a swim with Whale Sharks.

Apparently, there are only two places on Earth that whale sharks congregate for any significant amount of time; one is off the coast of Australia and the other is off the coast of Cancun, with the “season” lasting from about July to September. And, just in case you don’t know, Whale Sharks do have tiny little teeth, but eat plankton through a filtering system, and are not aggressive at all, but are large, docile creatures. In fact, the only aggression on record was a few that had butted sports boats, but only after having been provoked.

On vacation, the last thing I want to do is to wake at 5:00am, but we did, as we were staying in Playa del Carmen, and had an hour’s ride to Cancun. Once in Cancun, we boarded a boat with 10 others and began another hour’s ride into open water off the coast of Cancun. Once out, we began seeing fins all around, which immediately conjure up the worst scenes of Jaws. Everything you’ve been taught says NOT to get into the water!

We were to go in two at a time wearing a life jacket and snorkel gear, accompanied by a guide. Each couple got three chances to go in to swim with the whale sharks. We were instructed not to touch the whale sharks and while some of the sharks seemed to be curious, most slowly swam away from our boat, or began to dive deeper when we began to swim in their direction.

I had never snorkeled before so I unfortunately wasted my first trip into the water coughing and choking while trying to get a hang of the snorkel gear. However, that first trip into the water, our shark hung around for awhile and we got a few good looks at him/her under water.

Our second shark (we had to keep chasing sharks around with the boat as they swam away) was not as interested in us and began swimming away pretty quickly. We began swimming after it and as we did, Alex, who was behind me, grabbed my foot. I ignored him, thinking he was fooling around or trying to scare me. A moment later, a fin was next to me in the water! Alex had been trying to warn me that another whale shark had come up behind us. I yelped, which was echoed and amplified by the snorkel gear, and the guide laughed at me and began making fun of me to the others in the boat (I THINK he was anyway, he kept pointing at me. Thing to Do #51: Learn Spanish). I swam out of the way because, while I wasn’t afraid of the shark trying to eat me, his tail was sizable and a thwack! from something roughly the size of a Buick can still be considerable!

On our third and final go, we again set off after a fast-swimming whale shark when this time the guide saw that another had joined us from behind. He yelled for us to put our faces in the water and just below us, within arms length, a whale shark slowly glided by. We followed this one for awhile as he dove deeper and deeper, until we could no longer see him.

Of the 10 or so others on the boat, Alex and I were only one of two couples that took all three swims with the sharks. The others had grown seasick, which I had also been fighting off (we were mostly floating on the open sea and between the waves and the fumes from the gas, it WAS a bit much). Once we set off on our way again, I felt better and we soon arrived at a reef where I was able to employ my new found snorkel skills.

Many excursions like these that are sold in tourist-centric areas can fall short of expectations, but swimming with whale sharks 100% met my expectations. What was especially awesome was that it was in open water-these were not trained animals, they weren’t even being fed!

Anyone else swam with whale sharks? Seen a shark in the wild? I’d really love to find someone that has gone down in the cage with dangerous sharks…

Excitement, Nature, Sport and Activity, Travel

adventure, caribbean, completed, Nature, Travel, water

Thing to Do #93.5: Get Your Name in the Ring of Honor at Flying Saucer

March 21, 2012 by Jessica 16 Comments

SUPER COMPLETED!

I officially completed this goal back in August; that was when I actually drank my 200th beer (<— click on this link to see the entire list of 200 beers I drank). However, since the goal is “Getting my name in the Ring of Honor” I guess I couldn’t count this as completely completed until I actually got my plate unveiled (for information about the “rules” of getting in the Ring of Honor, click here).

This past Sunday was my long awaited plate party. For spending upwards of $2,500 on beer, food, and tips, Flying Saucer will host your “unveiling” with a $100 bar tab on them. And by holding it on Sunday, we could take advantage of the NC beer special ($3 NC drafts), meaning the $100 goes further!

I could tell you all about it but this is probably a story best told through photographs…

Plate Party!

My plate right before the "unveiling" (with the red arrow)

My "quote" is "Yep...Tastes Like Beer" because those are the words I uttered most during my 3 year challenge

Bar tab!

People keep asking me if I plan on doing another plate and the answer is an emphatic “NO!” I’m really glad I did it because it did help me understand and appreciate beer; I actually now voluntarily drink beer even when I’m not getting credit for it. But to do 200 beers again just doesn’t appeal to me.

I still have other beer goals that I’m working on – I’m trying to visit all of the breweries in North Carolina and I’m working on the top beers on the GQ list.

So what beer/drinking goals do you have? Anyone have a goal to STOP drinking?

101 Things before you die, 40 Before I'm 40, Achievement, bucket list, Entertainment, Excitement, life list, Recklessness, things before you die

beer, completed, drinking, Flying Saucer, Ring of Honor

Thing to Do #88: Get Married Unusually

June 6, 2011 by Jessica 19 Comments

On June 6, 2009 at 3:30pm Pacific/6:30pm Eastern, yours truly went where so many have gone before her: down the aisle in a Vegas Chapel. Now, I realize that the Thing to Do is get married unusually but for me, getting married in Vegas IS unusual. So what if over 100,000 weddings take place there a year (the second largest destination after Istanbul, Turkey)? For a gal raised in a Southern Baptist church where they don’t believe in drinking OR dancing at weddings (or any other time for that matter), doing Vegas is wild and crazy for me.

Another thing that made this wedding unusual was that while we had 25 friends and family with us for the ceremony in Vegas, friends and family back home in North Carolina (and elsewhere along the East Coast) were able to view the wedding via webcam. When I returned, I realized Richard Horne, the author of the list, had posted the ceremony video link on his blog as well, sharing my “unusual” wedding with all of his contacts as well. He joined the club a week later, getting married unusually himself! http://design-monkey.blogspot.com/2009/06/1011-ttd-no-88-get-married-unusually.html

So how did everything go?

It started on the plane on the way out there. We left Raleigh at 9:00am and although it was WAY before any time I have ever started drinking, most of our friends were buzzed by the time we landed. The drinking continued as we made our way to the hotel, Bud Light being available in the limo ride to Mandalay Bay. We stopped off quickly to have a group shot in front of the Vegas Welcome sign.

Alex and I had to run “errands” upon arriving in Vegas – getting the Marriage License and picking up his tux. Just in case you were wondering, the Las Vegas Marriage License Bureau is open from 8:00am-Midnight. I think it would be fun to go by at 11:30pm and see who have decided in their drunken haze to get married to the guy/girl they just met a couple of hours ago. By the time we completed our errands, it was time to freshen up and meet the group to go see the Cirque de Soleil show Ka. It should be noted now that while Alex and I were running around, the group continued to drink and some were having difficulty standing.

After the show, we moved on to Old Vegas and I got to gamble a little bit. I like Roulette. I quicky doubled my money and should have walked away, but I was still in the mood to play. When I returned to the amount I started with, I cashed out. So they let me play for free for an hour and half.

Although having gone to bed well past midnight Vegas time, Alex and I both woke up the next morning at 6:30am (9:30am EST). He went to the gym and I started preparing for the Pool Day. We had a Cabana reserved by the pool and I wanted to get there early. It was actually quite windy, which I had not prepared for, and apparently Vegas was having a “cold snap” while we were there; the weather was pleasant and in the low-80s.

I set about trying to reserve lounge chairs near the cabana and was successful in throwing towels on 14 chairs, but soon found this was more trouble than it was worth. Although we had the cabana as early as 9am, most people were sleeping in, getting breakfast, and doing their own thing. In the meantime, I was having to increasingly fight for the chairs as the pool got more and more crowded. After having a slight run in with some very unpleasant BEE-OTCHES, I gave up trying to reserve the chairs. Eventually most of our friends showed up around 1pm; by that time there being only 5 of the original 14 left.

Ghostbar at The Palms

That night it was the plan to have bachelor/bachelorette parties. The girls were going to N9Ne Steakhouse at the Palms, to be followed by drinks and dancing at the clubs of the Palms. Not only did friends attend, but also Alex’s mother, two aunts, and two sisters joined in – 12 of us in all. Dinner was fabulous and afterwards, we made our way to the Ghostbar. The Ghostbaris high atop one of the two towers of the Palms hotel and the view was spectacular. I could have stayed here all night but the girls were in the mood to dance and the Ghostbar wasn’t really a dancing kind of club. We moved the festivities to Moon which was interesting, but soon became so crowded, dancing consisted of bobbing your head.

My feet were tired, I was getting crushed by people, and I was getting married the next day. I called it a night around 12:30am. Alex came in around 4:00am and proceeded to tell me all about his night (seemingly unaware that I had been in the middle of doing something else – sleeping).

We both awoke again the next morning at 6:30am, although I managed to roll over and sleep a bit longer. I had a hair appointment at 12 noon and Lydia, my maid of honor, met me there. I had had my hairdresser here in North Carolina write down exactly what we had done in our “dry run” and even took photos. I showed the Vegas hairdressers and they did a good job. One thing I had not counted on, though, was the fact that I was in the land of dry air where curls stay intact. Here in North Carolina’s humidity, I can put all the product in my hair that I want to; the curls fall out in 30 minutes. So my hair stayed in little ringlets, all the way through till the next day.

I returned to the room to find Alex back in bed. Alex is 7 years my senior and in his “old age,” he seems to have lost his ability to bounce back after a hard night of drinking. I had underlined to both him and his friends that I truly did not care what he did during his bachelor party, only that he not drink too much to warrant the guaranteed hangover the next day. Alas, here he was, 2 hours before his wedding, and he was trying to sleep off a hangover.

I was to report to the Chapel 45 minutes prior to the service; he was supposed to be there at 3:00. Our wedding package included a bottle of champagne, which Lydia and I were able to almost consume in our time waiting in the dressing room. The time leading up to the wedding was filled with wedding people flitting in and out with flowers, papers to sign, tying bows, etc. When they came to get Lydia, that was the first, and only, time I freaked a bit. It had not occurred to me that I would be left alone at any point, so when they said, “Lydia, its time.” I yelled out, “NO! Lydia! Don’t leave!” They let her stay another minute, but then they took her, leaving me in the room with only my thoughts. Tears lept to my eyes and I quickly willed them away (I couldn’t mess up my makeup!) and got myself together.

They came to get me and sure enough, just like in the Wedding Planner with J-Lo, all the wedding people had little bugs in their ears. When they placed me in front of the doors, just-so, they announced to the someone “We have the bride.” It would have been awesome if she had said “The bride has landed.”

The doors open and I almost burst into tears again (this time because of happiness, not because of freaking out) but I again will them away, this time by laughing. Its my coping mechanism-laughing or making jokes. I remembered just in time to wave at the camera since I know people, especially my parents, were watching back home.

The wedding ceremony was up for a couple of months after the wedding. I will add this commentary. When it got to the part in the vows where Alex says “and all my worldly possessions,” the camera is on his face. If you could see my face, you’d see me make a face like “Oh Yeah!”-the people that could see me started laughing, which you can hear in the video. You can also hear Lydia say “Sweet!”

Also, Alex looks super serious the whole time; most people just thought he was nervous. The truth is, he was concentrating on not throwing up on me. He commented afterwards that he was surprised by how jovial I seemed to be-again, just my coping mechanism.

Afterwards, we took a bizillion photos. And then we met the group at RM Moonen’s Seafood at Mandalay Bay. Everyone seemed to be impressed by the food, commenting that the steaks were even better than the ones we had had the night before at N9ne Steakhouse (I wouldn’t know; I had the crab cakes, which were the best I’ve ever had). The server dude was awesome, bringing me champagne (even though it wasn’t “included” in our dinner plan). As we were leaving, he even gave me a glass “to go”-upon seeing it, the bartender took it and poured it out, saying that as it was my special day, I deserved better than that, and proceeded to pour me a better champagne. I was impressed and grateful but there was no reason to pour out the first glass; I had a perfectly good stomach he could have poured it out in.

View from MIX Lounge

Alex and I returned briefly to the room so that he could change into more comfortable shoes (I had already changed into flip flops, which garnered some odd looks, but I didn’t care. My feet hurt.) We were tempted to just stay in the room-we were exhausted, but made our way to the MIX lounge. We had a large area all to ourselves and the view from the balcony was awesome (although I may say that the Ghostbar’s view was even better). Even the toilet in the ladies room had a view.

Because everyone had been drinking since early Thursday morning, I think most of our friends had had about enough by Saturday night. However, we had 6 bottles of liquor we had to drink and we were not making much of a dent. So what is the classy thing to do? Pour the liquor into water bottles and smuggle them back home in our luggage. (Two years later we still have the bottle of Bombay Sapphire). Not to worry, we took care of the two bottles of Vodka and the one bottle of Crown.

Minus 5 Ice Bar

The next day, Sunday, was my first day I felt free enough to truly enjoy myself and explore Vegas. Most of our friends were leaving that day and so Alex and I walked the strip. We rode the roller coaster at New York, New York (didn’t get a chance to do the one at the Stratosphere), saw the Bellagio fountains and the interior “gardens” of the Bellagio. We also went to this bar at Mandalay Bay called Minus 5 Ice Bar. The gimmick is that everything in the lounge is made entirely from ice; the walls, the seats, the tables, ice sculptures (including ice chandeliers), and best of all, the glasses! We upgraded to the fur coats and had to carefully hold our ice glasses with both hands and place them on coasters, lest they slip off of the ice tables. The drinks were yummy and Alex and I both thought the experience was one of the highlights of the trip (you know, other than the whole getting married thing). Afterwards, we finally got to gamble a bit. I didn’t win on Sunday, and after I lost $100, I quit. We ended up going to bed at 3am, which sucked because we had to get up at 6:30am for our flight.

So. The wedding went smoothly, no SNAFUs or crises. I think all of our friends enjoyed themselves. I had not considered the fact that once I arrived in Vegas I would go into “super special event planner mode” which shouldn’t be a surprise as that’s my nature and MO. So I think I’d like to go back one day, just to enjoy Vegas and see the rest of the city.

154.2/9.2

101 Things before you die, Entertainment, Excitement, Life Management, Relationships

completed, drinking, gambling, vegas, wedding

Thing to Do #94: Get Something Named After You

February 12, 2011 by Jessica 26 Comments

Number 94 on the 101 Things to Do Before You Die list is “Get Something Named After You.” I had actually been thinking about getting a star named after me for awhile. I had even already written this draft post. But then Living Social offered to purchase a star registry for $20 this past Thursday (normally $65) so I felt it was a sign (pun intended).

I chose the name WolfRam because that’s mine and Alex’s little nickname we created for ourselves (he’s a North Carolina State fan, who’s mascot is the wolfpack and it’s well documented that I’m a UNC fan, which, of course, are the rams). The star date I chose was June 6, 2009, which is our anniversary. And I chose the star to appear in the constellation Taurus, as that is my astrological sign and my tattoo.

I guess technically, it’s not really named after ME, but I didn’t think naming a star with just my name was very creative. And since I’m about the least romantic girl in the world, sometimes it’s nice to do something with a little bit of romance. (I can’t take that much credit; I had to look at my calendar to confirm the date of our wedding anniversary.)

I’ll get my official certificate in the mail next week, which will include a map of stars with mine circled. Now I’ll have to try to complete #77: Learn Astronomy and Read the Night Sky.

Ok, so what do you think of these “Get a Star Named After You” thingees? Like, who put these companies in charge of the Universe? And do you think this really counts as completing this thing to do? Like, I feel like I need to EARN it. And by earn it, I mean do like all the other big shots and make lots of money and give it to a school so they can name a building after me.

Either way, a building or a star, this is better than having something bad named after me. Like if you cope with feeling out of control by cleaning, you call it pulling a “Jessica.”

What would you like to have named after you?

Life Management, Miscellaneous, Nature

completed, naming a star, star registry

Thing to Do #97: Participate in…New Year’s Eve in NYC

December 28, 2010 by Jessica 15 Comments

I’d love to tell you that this one ends well, but it doesn’t. I wish I could “Tarantino” it and start from the end, but I don’t have the writing chops to do that effectively. Instead I’ll start where all great adventures of young 20 somethings start: “My girlfriend and I started talking and had a great idea…”