New Beginnings: Times Square
Monday, December 26, 2005
Well, it’s Christmas. I’m a little drunk. I don’t feel like writing a story but with almost a month to go in my iron man writing experiment I sure as fuck ain’t going to let it die now. So, I have no idea how this is going to come out but either way, Merry Christmas ya’ll.
_________
The themes for the last five weeks are going to be pretty vague so I can wrap up storylines before I’m done with The Moose. Just letting you know – it’ll likely have a different feel everyday. Today, however, is “an easy” story that does nothing for the big picture but instead keeps me writing like I said I would.
No New Yorker goes to Times Square for New Years Eve – no respectable one, at least. It’s the kind of thing the tourists do – they all go out in the freezing cold and stand on a crowded block half of a mile away from a stage where the flavor of the month sings some pop-song with the flavor of last year – no bathroom to piss in and no booze to drink unless you had the foresight to sneak some along.
Having said that, me and some friends broke the rule once and went to Times Square on New Year’s1998.
I don’t know whose idea it was to go but we got quite the little crew. Bundled up for the cold, forties in hand, it was Jackie, her cousin, Mary, Ron, Matt, Jerome and I. G, Max and some other people were supposed to meet us out there. This was before we had cellphones – it’s impossible to meet in Times Square without cellphones.
The crew of us gets to Time Square at like 8PM, thinking we’re going to get a spot a couple of blocks from the stage.
The stage is on 42nd ST. We were on 53rd. Four hours early, eleven blocks away. I don’t know how early people get there to get closer to the stage but they’re fucking nuts.
Fucking. Nuts.
But we have our forties, we’re all bundled up, and in four hours we will celebrate 1998 with millions of people. We were having a good time – until we had to pee.
Once you got admitted onto a block, after the weapon checks and dogs sniffing you, you weren’t allowed to leave. The one Korean store on our block took crazy advantage of the situation. As in five bucks to use the bathroom advantage. Whereas there may be some legal diction that explains how fucked the situation was doesn’t matter – the fact is if you’re drunk and putting down forties and there’s one bathroom you can use – there’s no amount of money that you would consider “too much”.
I waited online for about ten minutes. Finally I get in, taking the john while someone else was still pissing in the toilet, and the guy behind me said, “Fuck this” and followed me in – the guy behind him followed him in, too. Two toilets – four guys – what do you do? Well, one of them pisses in the sink. That’s fair.
The other one – breaks THE FUCKING WINDOW and pisses out onto the street.
I’m standing there, taking a leak, and thinking I’m going to be associated with this fucking idiot. The glass breaking was loud, you know? No-one comes in while I’m there, though, I finish up and shake and get the fuck out of there – tell everyone outside what just happened. Jackie swears she heard the glass break and laughs.
It’s getting closer to midnight now, we’re out of forties but it doesn’t matter, the guys next to us brought some dope and had no problems with sharing with us. We smoke some dope, have a good fucking time, and eventually cut down to midnight.
The street explodes at midnight – everyone cheering, ticker tape and toilet paper dropping from the windows. We all start hugging everyone – strangers, friends, doesn’t matter – everyone screaming “Happy New Year”, kissing, hugging, passing joints and spraying 40s into the air.
Within ten minutes the streets cleared out. It was fucking weird – ghost town just sprung up in no times. New Year party favors on the floor, empty glasses – streets lined with colored paper, soaked in beer and piss. Everyone must have ran back to their hotel or afterparties – we had nowhere to go so we just hopped the train and went home.
_________
The themes for the last five weeks are going to be pretty vague so I can wrap up storylines before I’m done with The Moose. Just letting you know – it’ll likely have a different feel everyday. Today, however, is “an easy” story that does nothing for the big picture but instead keeps me writing like I said I would.
No New Yorker goes to Times Square for New Years Eve – no respectable one, at least. It’s the kind of thing the tourists do – they all go out in the freezing cold and stand on a crowded block half of a mile away from a stage where the flavor of the month sings some pop-song with the flavor of last year – no bathroom to piss in and no booze to drink unless you had the foresight to sneak some along.
Having said that, me and some friends broke the rule once and went to Times Square on New Year’s1998.
I don’t know whose idea it was to go but we got quite the little crew. Bundled up for the cold, forties in hand, it was Jackie, her cousin, Mary, Ron, Matt, Jerome and I. G, Max and some other people were supposed to meet us out there. This was before we had cellphones – it’s impossible to meet in Times Square without cellphones.
The crew of us gets to Time Square at like 8PM, thinking we’re going to get a spot a couple of blocks from the stage.
The stage is on 42nd ST. We were on 53rd. Four hours early, eleven blocks away. I don’t know how early people get there to get closer to the stage but they’re fucking nuts.
Fucking. Nuts.
But we have our forties, we’re all bundled up, and in four hours we will celebrate 1998 with millions of people. We were having a good time – until we had to pee.
Once you got admitted onto a block, after the weapon checks and dogs sniffing you, you weren’t allowed to leave. The one Korean store on our block took crazy advantage of the situation. As in five bucks to use the bathroom advantage. Whereas there may be some legal diction that explains how fucked the situation was doesn’t matter – the fact is if you’re drunk and putting down forties and there’s one bathroom you can use – there’s no amount of money that you would consider “too much”.
I waited online for about ten minutes. Finally I get in, taking the john while someone else was still pissing in the toilet, and the guy behind me said, “Fuck this” and followed me in – the guy behind him followed him in, too. Two toilets – four guys – what do you do? Well, one of them pisses in the sink. That’s fair.
The other one – breaks THE FUCKING WINDOW and pisses out onto the street.
I’m standing there, taking a leak, and thinking I’m going to be associated with this fucking idiot. The glass breaking was loud, you know? No-one comes in while I’m there, though, I finish up and shake and get the fuck out of there – tell everyone outside what just happened. Jackie swears she heard the glass break and laughs.
It’s getting closer to midnight now, we’re out of forties but it doesn’t matter, the guys next to us brought some dope and had no problems with sharing with us. We smoke some dope, have a good fucking time, and eventually cut down to midnight.
The street explodes at midnight – everyone cheering, ticker tape and toilet paper dropping from the windows. We all start hugging everyone – strangers, friends, doesn’t matter – everyone screaming “Happy New Year”, kissing, hugging, passing joints and spraying 40s into the air.
Within ten minutes the streets cleared out. It was fucking weird – ghost town just sprung up in no times. New Year party favors on the floor, empty glasses – streets lined with colored paper, soaked in beer and piss. Everyone must have ran back to their hotel or afterparties – we had nowhere to go so we just hopped the train and went home.
Labels: mitc
posted by Jason at
12:42 AM
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