They had me at “largest balloon drop in the free world.” NYE 09 @ Webster Hall promised good music, all night dancing, open bar, Lady Gaga, and champagne, but that was merely icing. After all, it’s no secret I’m sucker for a good balloon free fall. Ask pretty much anyone and they’ll tell you me and balloon drops belong together like all great duos before us; hummus and pita, Serena and Dan, sangria and brunch. I think you get the picture.
Earlier in the evening of that fateful night Nate and Cait had treated me to an incredible mini drop at our NYE09 pre-party. I was literally itching for the big one to begin. Inside Webster Hall, the countdown started: 10, 9, 8… it was like christmas morning when I was 7 seeing the doll I wanted waiting under the tree, 7, 6, 5…. like I was reading each Jane Austen book for the first time.. 4, 3, 2…. like I’d won the lottery and got to spend my days bumming around Europe… 1. Bliss.
I wouldn’t say I was ecstatic or frenzied or even giddy with happiness. During the five minutes that my vision was filled with 100,000 slowly falling balloons and extremely loud House music I was definitively content. I was 22, living in New York, dancing around a bazillion balloons, celebrating a new year with friends and everything was oh-so-absolutely right.
Two hours into 2009 we were still going strong to Lady Gaga’s electrop-pop. “Just Dance, gonna be ok… Just dance, spin that record babe….Just Dance. Dance. Dance…..”
1 hour later my bliss, my feeling of contentment, vanished. I found myself frenzied, upset, frustrated and confused. My purse was under my arm, and then, suddenly, it wasn’t. All of its inhabitants were irrevocably mia; new camera, old phone, cards, ID, keys…. “Just Dance, gonna be ok…..” began to pick up a very sour taste in my mouth.
One week later and all is clear, if not totally well. “How was your New Year?” people ask. “Really really really incredible, and then really really really not so great,” I always reply. As dependent as I am on many people, belongings, and technology, there are few situations I can’t solve. I have a new phone, new keys, and nearly new cards. I’ll never, however, be able to exactly recreate the range of emotion I felt that night. They say you have to hit bottom to bounce to new heights. As a girl who needs to laugh AND cry in every good movie, I’ve come to appreciate the extreme.
If I had to give up those five minutes of balloon bliss to get my belongings back I’m honestly not sure I’d do it. I wish I saw it that clearly on NYE 09. All the signs were there, I just wasn’t listening: “Just dance, it’s gonna be ok…. Just Dance. Dance. Dance.”
insightful.
favorite part? you guessed it: “like i was reading Jane Austen for the first time”
mu-wah!
-sk
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