Not sure what it is about the 80′s but the music, the clothes, the TV shows, all winners. I definitely would have fit in with that crowd rocking out to Guns N’ Roses, Scorpions, Foreigner, and Poison. All the while wearing bright neon colors that keep joggers safe from being hit by cars when they’re out running at night. It’s true, that’s why neon was invented. I’m not sure if that’s true.

The party was at a bar in NYC when at the time the temperature was in the low 20′s and the winds were in the high 40′s (or so it felt like). For the Hawaii folks who don’t know its an incredible feeling and I highly recommend it to all of you *evil grin*. The bar was hooked up 80′s style with music, decorations, and constant 80′s movies playing all over the walls (that last part may have been a figment of my imagination, I can’t be completely sure).

In the interest of remaining ridiculous, I asked the 80′s group to pose in one of my favorite poses, the “Lion Face.” If you have no clue what I’m talking about please check out the quick clip below where Matt Damon and Ben Affleck prepare for a movie scene by practicing both extremes, “Lemon Face,” and my favorite, “Lion Face.”

The move is a way to clear your face of all expressions so that the actor is ready for the scene. For those of you doubting my “industry knowledge” you can recive your confirmation from my 0:02 shot from my scene as an extra in last week’s episode of Lost.

OK 80′s party, everyone at once now, LION FACE!

About my college buddies… well it’s complicated. I don’t really like them but they have too much dirt on me for me to tell them that in person. Just kidding! There is nothing like getting back together with the people you laughed, cried, and lets face it… drank with for those four amazing years. It was a great turnout with over a dozen folks coming in from Boston, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland.

It really is funny how the years go by and the details change a bit but the people always stay the same. We all let loose, forgot about life for a while, and pretended we were back in college with some classic games of cards, baseball, and of course the feared “drink card.” Some people danced when they probably shouldn’t have, some wished they weren’t smokers because they had to go outside and freeze for 3-5 minutes, and others just focused on breathing from there absurd allergies to Kip’s cat. Yes, that included me.

Both times were super fun and it was hard knowing I wouldn’t be able to repeat them for a while. What was reassuring was knowing that all those amazing people are always there when we come home. Cheers everyone!

There were a bunch of families enjoying the festivities which included some giant Christmas figurines, an assortment of Christmas tree designs, some loud buses filled with singing tourists, a bag pipes concert, and some great Christmas lights. They had a few dozen Christmas trees that were decorated by different schools and city organizations, a favorite of mine had some Batman ornaments. Even in the warm Hawaii weather surrounded by palm trees, Hawaii has a great way of spreading the Aloha through some Christmas cheer.

Our Christmas festivities continued in Times Square in New York. I took my Mom and Kimmy into the city for a day of eating, shopping, and a Broadway show. Living in Waikiki for the past year I grew accustom to the tourists walking about but somehow I completely forgot about the intense crowds in New York during the Holidays, nuts! I honestly felt like cattle walking about, so much so that I cranked a few “Mooooo’s” while passing an unsuspecting passerby. It was fun being back in the city, especially now as a visitor and not a resident. It was one of the first times I pulled out my camera and took some shots. I don’t know, I guess sometimes we have to embrace the stereotype tourist in all of us.

We didn’t get any snow that day like I hoped, but almost everything else went perfectly. I got to eat breakfast at a typical New York diner where you get served and billed in about sixty seconds, yum! We window shopped at all the Christmas window displays and imitated the ridiculous poses that the mannequins were performing. I don’t mean to pat my own back, but I think I have a career in mannequin modeling if I lose my interactive marketing touch.

Considering it was the holidays, we had to stop by Rockefeller Center and see the largest Christmas tree on the planet. It was a lot of fun seeing all my usual holiday spots again, especially since I wasn’t able to in the Christmas of 2007. We watched some folks skate and watched a whole lot more folks that were waiting in a long line to skate. Then like other typical Rockefeller on-goers, we took one too many photos of us and the tree!

After that we tried standing in line at a TKTS (a booth where you can buy Broadway tickets for almost half the price) but decided to ditch that idea when we realized the line wrapped around a few buildings and ended somewhere in Wyoming. Instead, we called Ticketmaster and got last minute tickets to Avenue Q, a play made up of puppets living life and tackling issues like making money, dating, racism, and homosexuality. Basically it was a hilarious grown up version of Sesame Street that had some major inappropriate scenes. I definitely recommend it if you are in New York and itching for a show. It was a great day in the city, Kimmy and Mom were both stoked so mission accomplished.

Otherwise, in terms of Christmas on the East, everything was great. Hopped around a lot between Jersey, New York, and Maryland. For whatever reason I don’t have too many pics from Maryland from when we visited Kimmy’s family, we’ll have to remedy that for next year. In MD we ate a lot (big surprise) played and watched some football, and finally gave Rock Band a try which Kimmy became borderline addicted too. In Jersey we ate a lot too, and somehow got addicted to a fun little board game called Apples to Apples.

All in all great times! Its amazing how a little family and friends can defrost you after stepping out in the miserable winter chill!