New Years [times four]

I feel like a zombie. This has been an insane week! What an amazing end to 2008 and start to 2009. To begin my three favorite people in the world surprised me and showed up in Binghamton on Monday evening. I was overjoyed to see them all as I thought I'd have to wait at least another month before we'd all be together again. We spent Monday night and Tuesday [until about 3] together. Tuesday evening my family and I ventured down to Jersey to my aunt and uncle's house where we spent the remainder of the week.

New York City is amazing. I can't wait to be living there! I've been attempting a visit for a while and finally made it in on Thursday. We [my family and I] try to go into the city every New Years Eve - or have been since 2001. Normally we go check out Times Square and Rockefeller Center. This year I went in with my mom, sister, and two of my cousins. We all had different agendas to attend to but we started off together in Times Square so we could check out the snazzy new numbers for the ball drop that would, of course, be taking place later that day. As it was about 9:30 in the morning there weren't that many people accumulating yet. We all headed on up 6th ave towards the MoMA where I left the party.

I'm surprised that I've never been to the MoMA before Thursday. I have no idea why I hadn't gone before. It was fantastic. So many pieces that I love and have wanted to see and so many that I remember from my Issues in Contemporary Art class. I was so excited to see so many pieces by Henri Matisse - I absolutely love him. Also, I was thrilled to see that one of my all time favorite paintings by Matisse was there: Dance (I). I almost cried. I am such a dork when it comes to stuff like this. Sadly I kind of hurried myself through the general collections and didn't get to see everything as I was in a hurry to meet up with everyone I had gone into the city with and also I had a ticket to see the Van Gogh exhibit and my entrance time was 11:30am. The exhibit, Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night was absolutely insane and, again, I wanted to cry. Actually, I am surprised that I didn't. So many amazing works by Van Gogh were there and, as the title of the exhibit suggests, they were centered upon his works dealing with the twilight and nigtime hours. It was divided into five sections: Early Landscapes, Peasant Life, Sowers and Wheatfields, Poetry of the Night: the Town, and Poetry of the Night: the country. Some of the works [and probably better known by many people] on display were: The Potato Eaters c 1885, the Cottage c 1885, two versions of the Sower from 1888, Landscape with Wheat Sheaves and Rising Moon from 1889, The Dance Hall in Arles c1889, Starry Night in Arles and the Night Cafe both 1889, Starry Night c 1889 which is probably the most well known work of Van Gogh which is also on permanant display at the MoMA. I was also very excited to see Gauguin's Chair c1889 as it was part of an essay I wrote on the psychoanalysis of Van Gogh and his relationship with Gauguin. There were a number of other paintings, letters written by Van Gogh and some sketches. Over all it was fantastic! I am so glad I got to see it!

After that amazing experience I met up with the rest of my family that joined me in the city at Rockefeller Center where we took some pictures, admired the tree, and got some delicious chocolates at Teuscher - my favorite Chocolatier ever. By then the wind had begun to pick up and it was flurrying. We were all pretty tired and ready to head back to start our New Years festivities. On our way to Penn Station we admired the windows at Lord and Taylor as well as Macy's.

My uncle's house was a flurry of activity as we arrived. Everyone was excited for New Years and preparing the evenings festivites. We ended up staying awake until 4am - celebrating New Years for every time zone in the Continental United States. There was plenty of food and drink and we danced until our legs hurt. Too much of the night was spent out back in the frigid weather. My feet and the rest of my body for that matter, were completely numb by time I finally plopped myself down on my air mattress to get some much needed shut-eye. Two of my uncles convinced me and my cousins to eat the pickeled/creamed herring that my aunt's brother-in-law brings every year. He eats it at New Years for good luck. It was after we celebrated the New Year for the Mountain time zone and had decided to take a break from the frigid weather and warm up with some beers in the kitchen that we had agreed to partake in the disgusting tradition. Thank god there was another bottle of champagne to wash down the horrible taste. I think I can deal with "bad luck" from now on. I am never going to eat that stuff again!