Our New Year's Eve Conclusion - Market Square - Harrisburg, PA - Martini Bros - 12/31/00

Shannon found Melanie and gave her a New Year's Eve hug and we bopped around to the Martini Bros. They played a lot of older songs from Portable and some covers. The audience was craaaaaaaaaazy. There were some - hmm - odd people by us and some of their outfits scared Shannon. We were grinning our heads off because we were having a really fun night and we kept giving Deuce cheesy grins (oh, we enjoy embarrassing ourselves so much - eek!). Deuce announced that they would be playing a few more songs and then they wanted to watch the strawberry drop.

After they were done, everyone was cheering them on and a few teenage girls called Deuce over by saying something like, "HEY GUY! HEY!" He came over and the one girl was like, "Oh my god! What do you sing!?" *This whole time, we can't move because people are being very pushy and they were all in our bubbles! Luckily, Shannon's parents were behind us trying to protect us wee gals from being squished too much* Anyway, Deuce said, "songs." And she asked, "I mean, what type of music do you sing!?" and he answered with, "All kinds." She asked him what his name was and he said, "Deuce," and she was like, "OH MY GOD!? DEUCE BIGALO!? AH! " The whole time, we were muttering under our breath, "no, Deuce is not a gigolo," to each other. Then Deuce was talking to some other audience members and one of the girls shouted, "HEY GUY!" again. Melanie thought, "Okay, did you not just attempt at getting his name? Why not try using it?" Shannon's dad was saying, "Deuce! Hey man! Hey Deuce!" Shannon rolled her eyes wondering how he'd embarrass her next. Shannon's dad said "Hey, Deuce! Shannon's too scared to say hi to you!" and Shannon said something like, "What? No I'm not! I am just about to go insane because these people around us are crazy. Hi!" and her shook her glove-wearing hand. Then, Deuce told my dad, "It's okay, I say hi to her on stage by our eye contact," or something like that. We didn't hear him say that, but Shannon's parents did - we suppose we went back to muttering to each other at that point.

We then wandered our way over to the side, more towards the merchandise. Shannon's parents started getting all chatty with Mike, and we didn't even see them talking until we were like "Hey, where'd they go? Where are they?" and then we realized they were right in front of us, talking to him. Another dork moment.

Soon the strawberry started to drop and everyone was blowing the little noise maker things, and being jolly. Deuce and Mike were being greeted by friends and Deuce ended up being tossed into the air by a couple of people there were large amounts of picking up people, hugging, and being silly going on. "TEN! NINE! EIGHT! SEVEN! SIX! FIVE! *increase loudness* FOUR! THREE! TWO! ONE!" was shouted all across Harrisburg and then followed by a lit up strawberry and lots o' love. We were watching the fireworks and Shannon was doing the fake "ooooo!" and "aaaaaah!" thing, and then we started to analyze the fireworks and what their shapes were. A little bit later, Mike turned around and saw us and he said, "Hey!" and he did a fake little punch to Shannon's arm and her (being the dork she is) said, "Hey!!!" and hit him back. Then Shannon was like, "Ooo! Sorry! I'm getting all violent on you!" Melanie said, "Ooh, yes, Shannon and all of her muscles." Shannon stood there with her hands on her hips all proud, saying, "Oh, you'd better believe it!" Shannon wanted to go hide, but Mike seemed quite amused or scared haha nah, he was amused erm we hope.

Melanie's friends popped up out of no where then. She had lost them in the crowd during the second set. Finally, Melanie, Shannon's parents and Shannon all had another wee exchange of New Year's hugs (actually, Shannon's Dad ended up picking Melanie up with a big hug). Then Shannon and her parents headed for their car and Melanie and her friends headed off to their car. It was the best New Year's Eve that either of us had ever had, and we both plan on making local music a part of our New Year from now on!