NYE in NYC: the first six hours

So, after breakfast on New Year's Eve, we took the Subway over to 42nd St. and walked north a few blocks to Times Square to claim our spot in the madness!  (By the way, Molly's Droid phone was a ROCK STAR during this trip... it would have been so hard to navigate the subway and the streets themselves without it!  Or without Molly.)  We got a fantastic spot right in between the two performance stages, and some of us were pretty stoked about getting to see Ke$ha so close.  And by "some of us", I mean I'm pretty sure I forgot anyone else was going to perform.  Except the Backstreet Boys.  I was also ready to rock my little sixth grade heart out.

All the girls already getting pumped!

Then some people came by and asked us to sign their NYE posters.  Being famous is so exhausting.

The main attraction!

My Mol Mol storing up her foot energy...

I call this series, "Grant really likes my new camera and we found some fun ways to use it."

He's single, ladies.  Get on that.

Aaaaand, then I bought a rap CD for $5 from a random guy selling them in Times Square.  Turns out it was worth about that much.  But he did freestyle for me, so... bonus points.

And then a gorilla got interviewed by CNN...

And Molly was in love with the scrumptious reporter...

And Grant just really wanted his glasses, but Molly's were the closest he would get.

I feel like I have to put a disclaimer on this:  THEY ARE NOT DATING.  Don't start rumors.

Molly was a little bit kiss-happy that day, I guess... no one complained!

I love these girls a little bit.

Katy and Grantasaurus.

And Katy and Baxter doing what they do best... singin' and sweatin' to the oldies.

I just adore my Sarah!

Katie was the only one awesome enough to bring 2011 glasses.  DBJ.  I was.

Grant needed a few "power shots" for his next student body president campaign, and we had some time to kill.

And then the unthinkable happened!  It turns out that the section of the street we had been standing in needed to be opened up for emergency vehicle access, and the police needed to scan everyone's belongings for safety reasons.  So, they told us we had to go allllll the way back to 52nd St. and wait to be scanned and placed in a "pen" with other revelers.  Well, we had been there since 11 AM and people who had just gotten there at 3 were ahead of us in line and we were just having none of that.  So, we tried to squeeze into the line ahead of almost everyone, but the police tried again to make us move to the back of the line.  Bummer.  But then!  Our sweet Molly got ahold of a police officer (not literally, that could have gotten ugly) and told him how long we had been waiting and how badly we wanted to be close to the ball drop and the stages and how we were basically willing to fall on the mercy of the NYPD and give them our firstborns.  And shazam!  We got our own "police escort" to a closer pen, skipped the scanning, and made a few friends in the stragglers that tagged onto our party train for the sweet fruits of Molly's labor.

Here, I'll let Grant explain it, too.

So, here was our new view!  Not what we had, but not too shabby.

Sean and Katie practicing their midnight kiss. (These two actually are dating.  FYI.)

Katy practiced her "neglected friend" speech and Grant practiced his caring face...

But some people were practicing harder than others.

My sweet Sarah and me again!

Student Body President and Vice President of Cedarville!  And dear friends!

Molly decided there weren't enough pictures of me, so...

A couple of my sister's favorite things... Corona and M'n'Ms.  I'm real proud to share her blood.

Cuties!

I took a tiny break on the pavement, but the camera got no such thing.

And then we made (real) new friends!  Their names were Hannah, Erica, and Zach, and they just happened to be in our same pen.  Once they saw us and our visibly sweet dance moves and generally attractive behavior, they asked if we "wanted to be their New Year's Eve friends", and of course we said yes!  (Like I said.  Being famous is just a daily grind.)  Turns out, Zach had just moved to White Plains to plant a church called Authentic Church, and Hannah and Erica, whom he had grown up with in Arkansas, came to visit for NYE!  They were just an amazing, super genuine group of Christians, and we all became fast friends!  We had so much in common.  It didn't take long before we were making plans with them for the rest of the weekend!

Then Katy taught Zach to ballroom dance.

Look at all the people behind us!  Does that guy in the center look like Conan to anyone but me?

And then this happened...

I think every single performer did a couple of sound checks, so we actually got to see everyone perform three times!  (Translation:  Ke$ha rocked my party socks on three separate occasions, and the Backstreet Boys turned the clock back ten years in four hours.  Magic.)

Check back in 24 hours for the main event!  Complete with fireworks and singing and enough confetti to clog your bath drain.