I left my parents’ house in Portland on December 31st at 5 am. I was on such an early flight, because my plan was to get back into Philly by 4:30 pm, take a nap and go out with my friends. Unfortunately, United Airlines threw a little wrench into my plan, and I spend three hours more in Chicago than I had intended. My flight was delayed, and then, once we were all boarded and tucked into our seats, the pilot made an announcement that there was something wrong with our plane, they were taking it out of service, and that we would all have to get off. I’m happy that they care enough about safety to throw the flight schedule to the wind, but I was so tired and just wanted to get to Philly, so despite my gratitude for not dying in a plane crash, I was still a little grumpy about the whole situation. Thankfully, they found another plane, and we were in the air by 4 pm, just three and a half hours later than the flight was originally supposed to leave. It did mean that I lost out on the possibility for a nap in my bed before going out that night. Remember that, it will become important later.

Andrea, my best friend from college, had been in Maryland visiting her parents for the holidays, and was driving up to go out with my crew of girls for the evening. She left home just as my flight was taking off from Chicago, hopped off I-95 at the airport, scooped me up and got me back to my apartment. When we arrived, Cindy, Ingrid and Una were already there, making dinner and watching reruns of Sex in the City.

We had dinner, got ourselves all cuted up and headed out. Our first stop was Bob and Barbara’s, where we had had so much fun the year before. Oddly, it was pretty empty and not hopping. The best thing was the house band, they were in their drinkin’ music groove and they were the only thing that made it hard to leave. From there we headed to Ellen’s boyfriend, Ajayi, 10th annual Mummers party. I had had a beer at the bar, as well as some wine and a shot before we left my apartment (an objective observer could have seen that I was headed for trouble, but unfortunately none of us were all that objective that night).

About an hour into the party, things start to get fuzzy for me. I remember eating two disgusting jello shots, lighting a random guy’s joint, taking lots of pictures, kissing Seth and then telling him he was like a brother to me, dancing with Ingrid, licking Una, grabbing Seth’s ass (in a sisterly sort of way), talking to a random guy named Steve on the street, shouting happily at Ajayi after he told me that I write one of his favorite blogs and crawling out of the cab in front of my apartment building on my hands and knees (I have the bruises to prove it).

Of course, we got up to my apartment, and the puking ensued. I can honestly say that I have never been that drunk in my life. I don’t think I drank all that much, but the jet lag and lack of sleep definitely wrecked havoc with both my judgement and tolerance.

All the girls stayed over, and we (except Andrea, she had to head home) hung out all day in our pajamas, watching movies. There was a run for Wawa hoagies and egg drop soup (for me) at about 5 pm, that was the only time we moved. It was a pretty fun way to welcome 2006. Check out the full set of pictures here.