New Year's Eve (Aka the Search for Free Coffee)

My normal New Year's Eve companion, Danielle, as in California for the Rose Bowl, and so Amanda T. filled in. First we went out for Chinese food, which of course was yummy. Then we went back to my apartment and exchanged Christmas gifts. Amanda then realized that she had a coupon for free coffee at McDonald's that expire New Year's Eve. I realized that I had three coupons for free coffee at McDonald's that expire New Year's Eve. (People realize that I drink coffee from McDonald's and everyone gives me their coupons). So at 7:10pm, we decided to go on a search for coffee. The first McDonald's that we went to had just closed. But we were really jonesing for some coffee, so we decided to go to Sheetz and just buy some. On the way to Sheetz, we realized that we were near another McDonald's so we decided to try that one. BINGO!! Open till 8pm.

We got our free lattes and went back to my house to watch the Notre Dame basketball game. We had planned to go to the Hummelstown Lollipop Drop for our New Year's activity. The wind was blowing ferociously, and it was crazy cold, but we went anyway. On the way there, we decided to try a third McDonald's on the way for free coffee, but it was closed. We stopped at the Sheetz nearby for a hot chocolate and to our surprise it was free for New Year's. YEAH!!

We parked in the my eye doctor's parking lot and sat in the warm car, sipping hot chocolate until 11:30. We then braved the cold. Took a brief tour of the New Year's activities on the square, paused at the fire twirlers, and then found a cozy spot up against a building under an awning and sheltered somewhat from the wind. At midnight the lollipop dropped (only approximately 5 feet, because of the wind), and then fireworks went off. The fireworks were slightly frightening because rather than go up, they blew directly sideways and went off about 5 stories up above the crowd. They also looked like they might ignite the houses nearby, but there was a fireman on a ladder in the middle of the fireworks making sure that there were no fire hazards.

The one things that really disapointed me is that there were no lollipops either for free or for sale. We went to the goat drop and they had goat juice. We went to the pickle drop and they had many pickle foods (pickle soup, fried pickles, and chocolate covered pickles). We went to the bologna drop and they had bologna (fried bologna sandwiches and free bologna samples...as disturbing as that was.) So what's the deal Hummelstown? Where's the lollipops? Are you cheap?