This was such an interesting experience to me – to be so close and yet so far.
I don’t want to give my exact address (’cause you know, safety and stuff), but as I’ve mentioned, I live here in the Theater District proper (in the 40s between 6th and 8th avenues) – and I live closer in to the center than I do to 6th.
In the 3 o’clock (pm) hour – so like almost 9 hours before the ball drops, we already were not allowed to walk into a ball-viewing area of Times Square. As far as I could tell, there were at least 3 stops of barricades on my street – the two others coming from 6th were behind me… But I was stopped at the last one of getting into ball-drop view. I was like literally a 20 – 30-second walk to the corner, but alas, was not allowed to walk there…
The police officer was asking people where they were going, and if they had room keys to a hotel past him, they could go. Otherwise, no.
To anyone who didn’t have a room key, he said we could walk up to 59th. And then, I guess they were gonna let people file on down into Times Square from there…
I didn’t do that. I went back to my apartment.
Then a friend of mine called, and as we talked about this, she said to go check it out from my roof – which I did. Again, so very close and yet so far.
I could *almost* see the ball.
I found a ladder, set it up and walked on it. Nothing.
So, I went back to my apartment.
I could hear the festivities throughout the day. There were things I didn’t know about Times Square before – so many things, really.
And that’s what I’ll tell you all about tomorrow!