We were going to make restaurant reservations, but then decided just to skip that. We were going to book two hotel rooms so we could each legally have a bed, but we decided to forego comfort to save money. When I found out that clubs require tickets for their New Year's Eve parties, we were going to get tickets, but we decided to just go to bars instead of clubs so we could talk more with the locals and grind less with them.
David and Kristine picked me up at 9:15 am. We sang, we danced, we discussed, we drove our way to Toronto. It was a great road trip! At the border, David was sketchy and forgot to take off his sunglasses but once we moved past that, the patroller was really nice and suggested we go see the celebration outside City Hall in Toronto with bands and stuff. We arrived in Toronto, parked in a parking lot outside our hotel, and began to explore.
There was a homeless man in the parking lot so when I saw a friendly looking local, I asked him if we were in a good neighborhood. He had an earring and an attitude. He asked me what I meant by a good neighborhood and then he said that to our left was great and two blocks to our right was "Cracktown." Ok, thanks.
We made our way leftward. The city was vibrant, pretty, clean, and the people were nice! We were standing outside a restaurant, wondering about it, and a girl came up to us and gave it a great recommendation. Then we were outside a jewelry store and started talking about blood diamonds, and a real live African man gave us his take. By the time we had scoped out the area a bit, the next car was at the hotel. We all got lunch together at Daybreak Restaurant, per the recommendation of Pretty Nice Girl. The lunch was delicious and we all got so much food! We were brimming with hope for the future.
After lunch, the seven of us shopped around. No one was buying anything though, so then we just got down to business; Jonathan asked an employee in Urban how to get to the nearest liquor store, and we were outta there. The liquor store was INSANELY PACKED. There were many disagreements about our purchases. Finally we settled on something and waited in line for many many minutes. It was hard to find each other afterward, but we did it. And then, Starbucks + Baileys in hand, we made our way back to the hotel.
Jonathan and Chelsea checked into the hotel. David, Kristine, and I went to our parking lot to get our things, RAN into the parking garage as a car was pulling out of it (there was a door that couldn't be opened by something that was not a car looking to park), met Julia and Emily there, and finally we went in the elevator to our room.
Room 301 was spacious. It truly was the Best of Westerns. There was a full bed and a pull out couch and floor space. We had champagne and celebrated our victory. Then we headed out for dinner at a pub. It was a good pub with great music and food. My friends ordered drinks and it was very exciting to show their real ID and get served alcohol. Woo!
We went back to the hotel. The girls started getting ready, and I went with David and Jonathan to try out the sauna on our floor! The saunas were not co-ed. Oops. Jonathan checked to make sure it was clear and then we all sauna-ed together in the men's bathroom-sauna thing. We chanted. It was so hot. I didn't hold out for very long. I returned to the room and began the primping process. We all looked wonderful! Time for another round of champagne! And pictures galore.
Around 9:30pm, we decided to go out. We staggered our exit from the elevator so the hotel wouldn't think we were all in one room. Ten feet out the door, we had a man down, let's call her Ally. Ally got right back up and we kept walking. We made our way to the main street with only a few more falls. Then we simply spent two hours wandering around downtown Toronto trying to a) find a place to go for New Year's Eve, b) get Ally to sober up, c) keep the whole group together without having to use our roaming cell phones, d) get pictures of the fun, e) maintain friendships during a time of stress. These were all difficult tasks. We failed on every account, although we did get some priceless pictures.
Finally, we came to the conclusion that walking home was not a possibility. I ran into the street and begged several taxi drivers to bring us back to the hotel. Finally one agreed and I brought Ally back to the hotel with another friend. We were in the room by 11:30. The others had to walk back and it was difficult to get everyone into the hotel. Jonathan was legal to come in because he had checked in with Chelsea, but there was a bouncer at the elevators checking IDs to make sure illegals didn't get into the hotel rooms! There was a complicated plan that involved exiting and reentering the parking garage in the car to pick up the remaining people in our group, because the elevators led directly from the garage to the rooms without having to go through the lobby and get IDs checked.
Finally, we were all together. Emotions ran high. Ally was being difficult and people were angry that we hadn't found a bar. We weren't even all together at midnight. There were tears. Finally we settled on a sleeping arrangement: three in the bed, three on the pullout, and Ally on the floor. When we were being too loud for her to go to sleep, she VOLUNTARILY assumed the fetal position in the bathtub. She stayed there, sound asleep, for about four hours.
A full bed does not easily accommodate three people, but we did our best. We were wired, so no one got a lot of sleep. Finally, it was morning. We dressed, we debriefed, we cleaned, we tried to make sense of our lives. Chelsea and Jonathan checked out of the hotel. David, Kristine and I found the car we left in the parking lot with the homeless man completely intact and not broken into at all, so we were happy about that. We left Toronto without even eating breakfast there, and did not stop for sustenance until the Pembroke rest stop on the Thruway. My car took a scenic detour through Niagra Falls, which was nice, but I daresay that arriving somewhere after Chelsea was a blow to David's ego, because he likes to think that he drives fast and she drives slow. We had a nice lunch at the Pembroke Rest Stop, although there was still lingering tension from the night before. Operation iROCi Freedom had failed.
PS. I had a great time. All that really matters to me is that I was with my friends that I love and we were together in Toronto which is a cool city, and I'm glad we didn't get booted from a hotel. A lot of good things happened, but the trip was just so not what we expected that people were disappointed. Also, to explain the title of this post: it's pronounced "Iraqi Freedom," because ROC is a name for Rochester so we just sandwiched it with i's to make it a joke. Get it?
Happy New Year!
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