NYE Flashbacks

In honor of today being New Years Eve, I started to think about NYE's in past. Today marks two years since Brian Y was hit by a car, 3 years since I spent my NYE with a parrot, and 5 years since Angela hit someone's little dog.

I have never done anything crazy exciting for New Years Eve. Going to Charleston to kick off 2012 was probably the most exciting thing I've ever done. When I was younger, we used to go to the neighbors house around the corner and watch them set off fire works while everyone ate, drank and watched the ball drop. There was one year specifically that I can remember when Jennifer went with my family. Mom, Jen and I were sitting beside the fire on a little bench when all of a sudden the fire popped and something came flying towards us. Mom jumped off and ran one way, I the other, and poor Jennifer just fell backwards off the bench!! Lucas has thrown some trash in the fire, not realizing that one of the fireworks was still in the box!

I just called Angela because I am sitting here almost in tears laughing so hard thinking about NYE 2009. She was dating Josh at that time and we were all freshman in college at USC Aiken. Josh's friends were all getting together to celebrate at one of their houses in Irmo, and he and Ang decided to hook me up on a blind date. Josh's friend, Danny, was single and was a freshman at USC. We were driving back to my house after leaving the party in two separate cars. I was in my own, and Ang was following me in hers. We were on the road that runs beside Publix in Irmo when all of a sudden a little Chihuahua ran in front of my car. I quickly swerved and missed him, but Angela who was a good 100 feet behind me didn't :( I turned around when I realized that Ang wasn't behind me anymore and ended up pulling over on the side of the road where she was. She said she thought it was a squirrel or something and didn't mean to hit it.  I remember us now calling for that little dog and Josh saying that poor little guy was probably someone Christmas present... This was so not funny while it was happening, but 5 years later, I am getting a little chuckle out of it.
















Next came New Years 2010. LC's birthday is January 31st, so we usually celebrate one way or the other. She is in Orlando with some friends, probably having a blast at Harry Potter World today. On this particular NYE, we had a party at Paul's house downtown Columbia. I was still dating Danny at that time, and we surprised LC with a doughnut instead of a cake for her 20th birthday. It was just your typical party at Paul's with a big group of Chapin/ Irmo people!

 

New Years Eve 2011 was nothing special. Jacob and I went to Joey's house for dinner with the family and then watched the ball drop there with everyone. Kristen and Rocky were going out downtown, so they came by and ate with us before they went out. I spent most of the night playing with Zazu, Joey's parrot!

And then there is NYE 2012!!! Jacob and I went to Charleston with some friends of ours on a party bus owned by one of the guys parents. When I say party bus, it is literally that! There was a group of us going down together, but it was all random people that didn't know each other for the most part. Jacob had invited a friend of his named Justin, and then Justin brought two girls with him. Brian was roommates with Robert, so him and his gf Amy (graduated from Chapin with me) joined in too. There was 3 other guys and 2 other girls. Thinking back now, it was really really random how we all ended up on that bus together!

 We all met at Brian's apt that morning and headed down to Charleston. The plan was to go to Justin's house that we were all staying at and get changed before we headed to Red's for dinner and the party. After the party, the bus was taking us back to Justin's house to stay the night, and then we were getting up early and headed back to Cola. Seems simple right...
On the way down, everyone started talking about friends they had in Charleston and we ended up picking a few more people up at different apartment complexes on the way to Red's. The only two couples that were on the bus were Jacob & myself and Amy & Robert. Problem #1. Everyone else was basically free meat. Problem #2. Boys had been drinking all day.  Problem #3. All girls are not sluts.

The night was coming to an end... blah blah blah and everyone was getting back on the bus. There was a few randos that we didn't know who they were, but hey, the more the merrier right?! It was around 3am and we were headed back to the house. The bus driver turned down a different road and pulled up to an apartment complex to drop a girl off at the end of the road. The random blonde girl who I didn't know (who is also in the picture to the right in the blue dress with a stain) got off and right behind her followed one of the guys that was with us. Brian was in the back of the bus and didn't seem to know what was going on, but as we started going again, he suddenly jumped up from his seat, grabbed the door opening gadget thing, and jumped off the bus. It was all kind of a 30 sec blur because no one really knew what was going on. Next thing I know is that we look over and Brian was running across oncoming traffic and suddenly was hit by a car. (he is still alive today, don't worry) Other guys ran off the bus to go help him and get him back on the bus with us. Our night that seemed to be coming to an end, was now just starting as we headed to the emergency room.

We pulled up to the ER and Justin jumped off quickly and ran inside to get help. He came back to the bus with a wheelchair and was very unhappy with the nurses inside who had just ignored him when he asked for help and were too busy asking if there was someone famous on our bus. By 4:30am we were leaving Brian there, and headed to the house to try to get some sleep.
 I am honestly not sure what happened after that. We got to the house safely and all went to sleep for like a total of 3 hours. I remember one girl called and got someone to come pick her and a friend up so they wouldn't have to deal with the craziness that the next day would bring. When we got up that morning, we got all of our stuff together and had to be in the driveway at 8 am to get on the bus. Needless to say, the bus didn't get there till almost 10 and we didn't have everyone going home with us that we started with. Brian had a couple of his friend pick him up from the hospital and take him home so we never even saw him after the accident. The picture below is us waiting for the bus to come get all everyone. I have no idea who the girls are beside me....

New Years Eve 2013

This was my first NYE with Stu. We met in January of 2012, so New Years was the last of all the holidays that we got to celebrate together. We didn't plan anything big. Just went to dinner with my girls and then to Brian and Ivey's house to watch the Clemson game.

 

Now to New Years 2014...

To Be Determined.... TONIGHT