ooops, I thought you were my friends...

Happy New Year!

I'll just go ahead and say it - we may have a new baseline for welcoming in the New Year. If our celebration was any indication, 2009 is going to be a fantastic year.

Chris and Schal came up for the party last year and I was disappointed that I couldn't get us in for dinner at what I found to be one of Chris' favorite places... Sushi Rock. Well, they could have sat us around 10pm - that interfered with our celebrating!

This year, I managed to secure a reservation for 9 at a decent time. Despite work departures and lengthy drives through the snow, everyone managed to converge at Sushi Rock just in time. Here's the crew... clockwise from the left: the infamous Aaron, Chris, moi, Clay and Julie, Garrett and Thais, Todd and finally Schal.

I really don't have much of a defense for what you're about to see... I'll simply say the booth side of our gigantic table was extremely bouncy. I love us. Oh, and that is Todd "raising the roof" from the non-bouncy side.

I was very happy with Christopher for choosing Sushi Rock - he wasn't kidding when he said that they have the best calamari he's ever had. I am not a fan of any form of squid (ask my father-in-law), but this was delectable. Chris told our server that God speaks to him when he eats the calamari...

Chris and I had a nice view from the other side of the table. These two are maybe a bit too cute together. Man, I have good taste! :)

After dinner, we all divided up to ensure that everyone had someone in the car that knew the way back to 237. While we were waiting for Schal, Thais wanted to take a photo in the lobby - she claimed she was skilled at the art of self-portraits... she kept saying "see it? see it?"... she was referring to our tiny reflection on the viewfinder of the camera. I was concentrating on trying see whatever it was she was referring to and then it happened - we were attacked! I kid you not, I had no idea what had just happened, but I swear I can still feel it. A girl ran up behind us, squeezed us together and screamed (yes, screamed - AGHHHHHHHHH) and then bolted out the door. I can only imagine the look she got from the two of us, well me at least - I was in shock. I still had no idea what had happened and my head was vibrating. We walked out towards the car and she was standing with another person looking pretty embarrassed... she said, "Oops, I thought you were my friends" - I simply said "we are now" and got in the car. I think I really was relieved that she just embarrassed herself instead of my initial thought of her just being a jerk to two chicks trying to take a photo on NYE. I would offer to take the photo - not initiate a heart-attack. I love how we look relatively unphased.


While giving Julie the tour, Thais made me pose with my new masterpiece for the spare bedroom. I'm quite obsessed with my creation and was happy to oblige. It was finished just in time - Aaron arrived as I was hanging it up before we left for dinner.


Chris captured the shoe line-up... in for the night!


... and Julie's handy-work with the limes!


Cheers!


Thais had never tried DDR so the group fixed that just after the ball dropped and they could pull themselves away from the champagne and chocolate fondue. I love how Clay is trying to escape the photo...


We decided the word was ambivalent- Schal was totally ambivalent as to what drink she would have and this is apparently the look I was giving her as she decided. Cracks me up... thanks Thais! The guys, in all of their brilliance, moved the outside table just underneath the window, removed the screen and gave me easy access to our stash of beer, mixers and champagne for the night. I can't lie - I thought it really was brilliant.


Here is our well-behaved group within the first 10 minutes of 2009... thanks, Chris!


... and a bit less behaved. I'm trying to play guitar on Schal's leg, I have no ideas what those guys are doing and Julie looks scared of us all!


My dearest Schal is "not a good stayer-upper", as she would say; however, this year, she actually managed to see the new year and didn't retreat to her corner of the sofa until almost 2:30am. We were proud.


Thanks to everyone for coming to celebrate the new year with us! I don't think it could have been better... I'm hoping we have a tradition. I know vacation/holiday time is limited and I'm so thankful that most of you stuck around for all of New Year's Day too. You honestly couldn't have made me happier.

Schal and Chris had to leave before the rest of us got up the next day. Schal, of course, picked up a bit and left a very sweet note - Chris caught her in the act.


Again, it couldn't have been a better way to spend the holiday. We love you all!


Don't worry, the mullets came out for one song...

jamie.