I've never felt so alive. Like most New Yorkers, I normally avoid Times Square at all costs on New Years Eve, but this year was different. Joe and I experienced something that would have been on our bucket list – had we known experiencing New Years Eve in this way was an option. Our night? As guests of Nivea, we were VIP's at a Great Gatsby themed party at the Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square. Only pictures can even begin to capture the feeling and energy of the evening...
Champagne was flowing, of course. The party was surreal, but the real magic was being escorted by Nivea through Times Square. I say it's the energy of New York, the vivacious, electric, optimistic energy that keeps me alive. Feeling this energy, in that moment was something different. People from all over the world, a million of them, standing behind barricades – cheering, freezing and even slapping us high five – all there, for a common reason, a new beginning in the best city in the world.
Walking hand in hand with Joe and my group of media friends up to the Nivea stage (where we watched Icona Pop preform) was, what I thought was the best experience I've ever had in NYC. (Except for the time I met the pigeon man in Washington Square Park who put the dirty birds all over me. Such a NY moment. Pic here.)
Of course I've always said you couldn't pay me to go anywhere near Times Square on New Year's Eve (or ever), but this night made gain appreciation for the cross roads of the world. Fast forward T-20 minutes until midnight. Our group moved back outside, again avoiding the hustle and bustle into a private area, and counted down into the new year. Now this was the real high. I'm still trying to figure out where the tons of confetti fell from, but it came down fast – as if Heaven exploded. Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York" was playing and in the middle of the million of us, it felt for a few seconds, maybe, that it was just Joe and I... looking up, laughing and dancing.
