For 1999, some friends and I went to Toronto. Sure, going to Canada in December is not the ideal time and location, but it was more exciting than Lansing.

For New Years Eve, we went to Whiskey Saigon, a four-level club full of drinks, dancing, and fireworks. Yes, there were actually fireworks – and those sparks from them burned my bald head.

One of the friends had the idea to leave our coats in our room. After all, we didn’t want to wait in a coat-check line after are clubbing was done, and we didn’t want a coat mix-up incident.

So we had a fun time. At the end of the night, we went to catch a cab. And that was when we discovered the flaw in our coat-check plan. At 2:00 AM on New Years Eve, it was hard to find a cab. Thus began The Long Walk. While two of my friends went to find a cab, the other four of us started walking back to the hotel, about two miles away.

Normally, a two-mile walk would be no problem. But it was well below zero, and we were dressed for the club, not a frigid nighttime walk. We went from restaurant to hotel to ATM vestibule, warming up at each point.

We managed to get back to the hotel through the kindness of a paper deliveryman. We offered to pay him to take us, and he said no, but he would give us a ride to our hotel. So we survived the night, and so did our friends who went to find a cab. They never found one, but they did eventually run back to the hotel.