New Years...uh...Event

Oh, hey, I forgot about you....again....

New Years was a semi-disaster. My friends and I have gotten together every year for the past...I don't even remember..I just know I was living in town the first time I spent New Years at Justin's so it was at least 14 years ago that we first started getting together for possibly my favorite holiday of the year. Last year was also a semi-disaster but this year takes the cake.

My friends and I couldn't get together.

I spent New Years Eve alone in my apartment sitting on my sofa drinking my prematurely-purchased champagne by myself. I passed out 15 minutes before midnight and woke up at 12:30 a.m. It was bad.

So that was Friday night and Sunday night my friends eventually did come up for a late celebration. 3 of my best friends from high school, the people I usually do hang out with on December 31, came up to complete our annual tradition. One of those traditions is the sparkling cider chugging contest between me and Justin. For as long as we have done this I have lost, but this year I felt something would be different.

And, shit, it sure was different.

We postponed the contest until Monday afternoon/evening because we both weren't feeling up to it on Sunday. Monday morning came and we set the bottles outside so they would be chilled and around 4 p.m. we stepped out onto my balcony to commence the contest. That's when we saw her.

My friend Paul was actually the first to see her and his EMT training kind of kicked in and as I was the next to come out he quickly got my attention and said "Something doesn't look right." Down in the hill-side parking lot of my apartment complex was a car stopped awkwardly in a spot, partially on the sidewalk, with a girl inside completely slumped backwards in the car between the driver and passenger seats. The car was still running and she was buckled in.

To be honest we didn't expect what we found when we went to check on her. We thought she was sleeping awkwardly. She was dead.

We immediately called the police who responded so quickly to the report of a dead body being found that I only had time to go up to my apartment, almost in tears trying to call my mom as I ripped the blinds in my living room shut before they had arrived. My mom didn't answer and I went back down to the scene where my friends and I were detained inside the caution tape that was being put up as the police took down our information. We weren't suspects, it was just protocol.

Someone there must have known the girl because her husband soon showed up. I have never seen such grief before. The emotions of pure shock, dismay, and what must have been a feeling of complete devastation tore through this man so fiercely that I had to turn away before I started crying.

The police let us go back to my apartment and I just stood outside my door. I felt so bad. I felt guilt that maybe there was something that I could have done earlier. Like..had I gone out on my balcony when she first got into her situation maybe there was something I could have done. My friends tried to console me and I eventually went back into my apartment but forbade anybody from opening the blinds until the next day.

The girl's identity was released the next day. She was 27.

My blinds have since been opened but the parking spot where we found the car was spraypainted by the police as the scene of the incident so I can clearly see it every time I look out on my balcony. I just have to tell myself that there was nothing different that I could have done and that we did the responsible thing through all of this.

On a lighter note we did the contest before everybody left. I won for once, but it just didn't feel right this year. I'm going to say that it was because it wasn't on New Years Eve rather than because of anything else.