The Lighting at Rockefeller Center

Insane doesn't even begin to describe the night. I am glad I did it, to say that I have done it, but I plan to never do it again unless I am a performer in the program or a VIP! (Let's face it unless they want someone to perform as a teacher...I doubt I'll be a performer!) My friend Stephanie and I went to Rockefeller Center at 3:30, which is what time we were told to get there by. Now I know some of you are saying, but it didn't start until 7 p.m. and the lightening wasn't until 8:55. Well, believe it or not there were people that had been there since noon. When we got there at 3:30, there were three or four rows ahead of us. We were smart and brought camping chairs to sit on for the 4+ hours of waiting! Luckily it wasn't cold until about 8. There were 1000's of people by the end of the night and at about 5:30, they stopped letting people into the area. Stephanie and I tried to save spaces for other people in our ward, but by 4:45, that thought was thrown out. We were corraled in like cattle and it truly was tight! We made friends with some girls behind us who took our picture, but it was so tight we could hardly move. All around us weird things were happening. On our left side there were about 12 teenage girls that were sitting in a circle on the ground. These three ladies pushed right behind them with a little girl (who was about 9ish). At one point one of the ladies (who looked really hard) lifted up the little girl and in the process hit me in the head, hit the lady behind her, and kicked one of the teenage girl's in the head. Neither myself or the lady said anything (I didn't because the lady looked really hard and I was slightly afraid.), but the teenager just said "Be careful, you kicked me in the head." Well, all hell broke out from there. The language that came out of that women's mouth was worse than R-rated. THen the teenagers started cussing back at her. It was like a sceen out of a bad movie. The hard-looking women said, "You don't know who you are messing with" and then pulled open her purse and reached in. At that point Stephanie and I looked at each other, realizing that she might be pulling out a gun and this could be our last moment...if we got caught in the crossfire. Lucky for us she didn't pull out a gun, but she did pull out a badge. No she was not a police officer, she was a prison guard! At that moment she said, "I will beat you prison style!" My thought was...who is the adult here and why would you speak that way in front of your child? One of the ladies behind went to tell the police. Basically they didn't do squat...they were too busy with their hands inthe pockets, telling people to keep walking. Meanwhile in the background playing is "Tis the season"! After the situation was calmer...because the girls were mature enough to just start ignoring her...it was actually kind of funny! The tree was beautiful and what we could see of the performers was fun too. On our right side there were 4 totally drunk kids...the 4 police on the otherside of the corral didn't seem to notice that either! At one point the camera came over and one of the kids shouted out "Merry __________ Christmas!" The police just stood there with hands in their pockets...NYC finest!