NEW YEAR’S IN ASPEN WAS DA’ BOMB!

Every year, I head to Aspen over the holidays for a little snowy fun. This year was no different. My brother Evan, some friends and I headed to the mountains to ring in the New Year surrounded by snow and good cheer, but what we encountered this year was something very different.

Well, not really… We still had a great time skiing and playing in the snow. The weather was warm, sunny and FABULOUS and the nightlife is always fun in the glitzy town, BUT on New Year’s Eve a mad man tried to ruin our festivities!

The Aspen bombing incident surprisingly didn’t get that much media attention, so if you haven’t heard about it yet, here is what happened:

It was mid-afternoon and I was heading to Wells Fargo (my bank) to get money out of the ATM for the night’s festivities. As I got closer, I saw that the blocks surrounding the bank had been blocked off by police and fire trucks. I later found out that a man had walked into two local banks and left packages wrapped in holiday paper along with notes saying the boxes contained bombs. The notes threatened "mass death" and demanded $60,000 cash. He claimed he was targeting four banks, but only two (Wells Fargo Bank and Vectra Bank) found packages. Later, police found two similar packages in a black sled behind the Gap.

Aspen police are not equipped to deal with such an ordeal, so they were forced to shut down all of the town till the bomb squad and FBI could make their way from near by Grand Junction (an hour and a half away). A total of 16 blocks were cleared, basically shutting down all of Aspen and putting a stop to almost all New Year's celebrations.

It was surreal, but I wasn’t scared at all. There were moments, I guess, that we all had fear as the story morphed and changed as it traveled by word of mouth. At one point the story was that a man was running around town with bombs strapped to his chest, so we were preparing to flee town in my car. I called the police station and fond out the story was false. The bombs had been contained, so we decided to hit the town (me dressed in a hot red mini dress) to try our best to make the most of New Year's that for the most part had been shut down (all the restaurants and bars were closed, no fireworks, etc.)

We went to one of the only two parties still happening in town. It was at The Sky Hotel and it was mellow to say the least. There was a weird vibe in the air and not many people had ventured out (Maybe the right choice when there is a crazy, bomb setting man still on the loose and four REAL bombs that had still not detonated in the vicinity), but whatever. NOTHING was gonna stop our party.

The night ended up being OK. I was with my friends and my brother. We danced and sipped champagne, but nothing FABULOUS happened. The party didn’t even do a midnight countdown (what the hell?). We did our own by the clock on my cell phone and hugged and high-fived when the clock struck twelve (sadly no kisses)!

The next morning, the police found the bomber, dead in his car with a rifle, which they believe he had used to kill himself. He was also had a note containing his "last will and testament.” He gave no motive, but wrote, "I was and am a good man." The one time Aspen resident was known for being bitter over Aspen’s transformation into a playground for the rich.

New Years Day, Aspen tried it’s darndest to recreate New Year’s for all who had missed out (and for all the businesses that lost thousands of dollars on the busiest night of the year in Aspen). They set off fireworks, had New Year’s party favors (crowns and noise blowers) for everyone and even remembered to do a count down this time.

We went to Caribou club, the high-end nightclub in Aspen for some dancing and New Year’s good cheer, but mostly what we encountered was people who were so determined to have a good time and make up for the New Year’s Eve lost that they became crabby and bitter drunks seeking fights. We escaped by the skin of our teeth (I was pushing Evan and his friends out the door and into a cab before blows were thrown).

New Year’s is one of those holidays that you put so much emphasis on having a FABULOUS night that it never meets your high expectations. No worries though, because so far my new year has been FABULOUS and I continue to look forward to more FABULOUSITY in 2009!!