2011?! When Did This Happen?!

I said good-bye to 2010 and hello to 2011 in Pennsylvania this year. One of my friends from high school youth group studies and works there, so three of us piled into a car and went up north to celebrate with her. The city has an annual "Strawberry Drop" and I couldn't wait to see it. On the way north, and then over dinner, we speculated as to what a "Strawberry Drop" might look like. We assumed that it would mean more than simply dropping a strawberry onto the ground (or, I hoped, into a bowl of chocolate). Probably, a giant light-up strawberry would mimic the Times Square ball.

We decided against driving into town because no one wanted to navigate the traffic or the parking. Thinking ahead, we called a cab company, asking them to send someone to pick us up in almost an hour, around 10:30. That would get us to town around 10:50, give us time to grab something warm to drink, and find a place to watch the strawberry.

At 10:45, we called again and were told they were "on their way." At 11:00 we called again and were advised to call someone else. But really, who can send you a cab at 11 to drive you into the city by midnight on New Year's Eve? No one, that's who. After calling five or six companies, we gave up. We had a choice : have our own strawberry drop, involving strawberries, chocolate, and a balcony; or go out the a nearby sports bar. We decided that we had no need to choose -- we could do both!

We greeted 2011 with free champagne in plastic glasses with 20 other people who hadn't made it downtown. Much to my chagrin, Fox News brought in the new year for us.

Then we rose to our next challenge : Where do you find strawberries at midnight-thirty at New Year's? Not at the 24-7 Weis -- it's closed. Not at the Giant -- it's closed. However, at the repeated insistence of one member of the group, we at last tried Sheetz -- where we discovered strawberries and chocolate. We brought them home and melted the chocolate.

We kicked off our strawberry drop with Shakespeare : "But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!" -- and proceeded to drop strawberries into the bowl of chocolate, with varying degrees of success. We may have missed the real one, but I am fairly certain we had the best strawberry drop in all of Pennsylvania.