new years in brooklyn

I spent New Years Eve in Brooklyn with the Nelsons, some of my favorite people ever. We ate delicious food (homemade tomato soup, bread, cheese, grapes, pie...the list goes on), played games, and basically partied. About ten minutes to midnight we all put on our coats and trooped up to the park for midnight fireworks. We made it right to the edge of the park when they started and proceeded to walk down the middle of the snow and ice covered road to the middle of the park while the fireworks continued to intermittently light up the path. Someone commented that it felt a little bit like it was the end of the world and all of us there walking in the park were the only survivors making our way toward the safe zone. And it did feel like that a little bit; the feelings of unity and triumph were in the air.

But the part I remember best was right as we were entering the park it struck midnight and we all pulled out little zip lock bags full of twelve grapes we'd packed at home and began to stuff them into our mouths. We finished, then began to chew them, almost choking on the juice as it ran down our throats, then waved our zip lock bags like flags triumphantly in the air as we walked in a line into the park.

Later we threw wax to tell the future for the next year. You melt down wax in a double boiler-type way, then take a ladle and pour it into a bowl full of ice water. The idea is that whatever shape the wax takes will in some way be connected to what will happen to you in the new year. I'm still not really sure what mine looks like. Any thoughts?

brooklyn!

On Saturday, June 13th at exactly 12:14 pm MST I received a text message that reads as follows:

From: Tess Nelson

Hey, are you in utah? Cuz i am.

I was so excited that I immediately texted her back to find out if she would be in Provo while she was here and finding out that she, her mom Janet, and her sister Emily would be in Provo that night I called them to invite them over for dinner and when they asked if one or all of them could also spend the night I said, "Of course! Yes! All of you!!!" in complete disregard of the fact that we don't really have enough sleeping facilities for everyone who would be staying; I knew that it would all work out and it did. While we have 3 couches in our living room (enough for the 3 visiting Nelsonians) one of them was presently being occupied by Stephanie who was visiting for the week from Nevada because it has been raining a ton there so they have to wait until next week to cut the alfalfa so it won't mold. Normal things. She, like I do, knows the Nelsons from when we all lived in Brooklyn when we were just jellybeans. (Janet told me that she and my mom have been friends now for 25 years. That is a quarter of a century for those of you who like fractions.) I called Stephanie to tell her the good news and her response was, "Cool." In Stephanie language this really means, "What?!? Awesome!!! I haven't seen the Nelsons in like 5 years and I just love them!!!" She was really almost as excited as I was.

I had been walking home from my friend Aleisha's apartment when I got the text so as soon as I got home Stephanie and I planned dinner (BBQ chicken with smashed potatoes, salad, fruit salad and chocolate zucchini cake for dessert), made a shopping list and went to the grocery store to purchase the necessary food items. All the while I kept turning to Stephanie with a big smile on my face and saying, "I am so excited!"

So, why was I so excited that three of my friends (four, if you count Stephanie) dropped by almost unannounced for food and shelter my last weekend in Provo, just days before finals when I had about a billion other things I should have been doing instead of entertaining them? Well, because I love them. I love everything about them. I love that every time I see Emily her hair is a different color (earning her the nickname "Hair" in high school) and that Tess always has a different purse that she has made herself that is awesome and that I can talk to Janet late into the night about anything and everything. And I love that they proved my linguistics professor right when he taught us that women speak slower than men but that women from New York speak faster than men from Texas (as illustrated when Nate White—from Texas—came over and occasionally interjected into our speedy after dinner banter) and that even though I haven't seen them in months we are so comfortable around each other that we pick up right where we left off and everything is the best.

Also, I love that we can illustrate AT&T's motto of "More bars in more places."