Open the gates and seize the day!

Here we go. New York.
Let's just say it's a lot different from DC. Here's how my Memorial Day weekend went down.

Friday, May 28
5:30a - alarm went off. Snoozed.
5:45a - dragged myself out of bed
6:10a - left the house to catch our bus
6:30a - we check in at the bus. Muy importante to be there a half hour early. But not really.
7:00a - ghetto bus, on which we were the only white people, leaves for NYC
Because I have a wicked (as in evil) sense of humor, as soon as Hannah and Becky leaned back in their chairs, I told them to watch out for the lice. HA. Funny, funny!

Many adventures were had on the bus. They mostly consisted of snacking, listening to music, sleeping, and being yelled at. Oh wait. That was just me.
Hannah had her seat leaned all the way back, which was totally fine, my legs were just a tad bit constricted--SO I crossed my legs and my foot was sticking out in the isle a little bit. Next thing I know, Becky is waking me up, saying my name over and over. "Mhm?" I say. She just looks over into the isle where this tiny, stout woman is glaring at me and my imposing foot. "You're IN my WAY," she snips. Haha okie dokie. At least we weren't in the bus where the guy decided to go to the bathroom and make the bus a reesty stink hole... Oh the charmed life I live!

11:15a - We pull up to the bus stop (aka the side of a ghetto road) in the Big Apple.
Becky's cute aunt risked the traffic to come pick us up and take us to her apartment on Central Park West. Amazing (photos in one of the slideshows down there..). The apartment was amazing, the view was amazing, and the food was amazing. It was a great way to start off our vaca - with lunch!

We changed and set off to go through Central Park toward the Met. Bree was finishing up with school, so I told her I'd meet her there. When she got there, I got to give my bestie a GIANT hug and I loved it! She ate her lunch on the steps of the Met and we just chatted, followed by getting a Mister Softee ice cream cone (twist! FINALLY) and walking back a ways through Central Park. While there we planned out our weekend, almost got killed by 11-year-olds playing soccer, and saw some pretty handsome gay couples. No wonder all the attractive men are MIA...

4:30p - Bree and I had an appointment at Vera Wang (for more details, see breelena.blogspot.com). We couldn't take a picture because Bree was supposed to be a legit customer looking for a wedding dress (she was really just doing spy work--I mean research). It would have looked super strange to shoot a photo. PLUS, the building is covered in a lovely coat of scaffolding. It reminded me of London.

That short stop was followed by a stop at J Crew (Bree's idea--shocking, haha) and finally a stop in at Serendipity. Where we put in our name. And waited for over an hour. The best part of that waiting was when I was trying to get a photo of the two of us standing in front of the restaurant while still being able to see the name "Serendipity" in the background, but my big head was always in the way! So finally, after we're giggling and making fools out of ourselves taking so many "almost good" pictures, Bree finally says, "Well try stepping down off of the curb!" I just looked at her. And busted up laughing. That's when she looked down and realized that I WAS off the curb, six inches lower than she was--HAHA. Dang. I'm taller than I thought!

Serendipity had good food, and the dessert was especially fabulous! However, I will never spend so much money on an ice cream dessert. haha EVER again. They have a special ice cream sundae that has to be ordered 48 hours in advance and SERIOUSLY costs one THOUSAND dollars. No lie. It's in the Guinness Book of World Records! Yeah...I am naive, apparently, because I thought it was a joke. Silly me!

By the time we were leaving the restaurant it was actually CHILLY outside. And getting dark. Bree was tired. I was tired. And New York creeps me out. During the day. The end.
SO we went back to Aunt Kristen's apartment, played Twister, and talked about boys (just the usual) until it was time for Bree Lena to head home.

Saturday, May 29

I slept in. Becky came into the room that Hannah and I were sharing (GO BUNK BEDS!), leaned over the top bunk where Hannah was sleeping, and said, "Hey, it's 845. I just wanted to make sure you wouldn't sleep until 1:30p again." Haha but sure enough, Hannah hopped out of bed and she, Becky, and Mandi proceeded to get ready while I ate breakfast and lazied around until a shower was open. After they headed off to hit the big city, I had a while to chill before I met up with Bree. SO, I decided to stick it to the man. I took a NAP. Not exactly on purpose, but I wasn't opposed to it either. Boy, did it feel nice!

After I met up with Bree, we were traveling through the metro when I saw this work of ART:
Photoshop was utilized to emphasize the intense feelings and emotions being portrayed in this advertisement for...the zoo? An online dating service? Not quite sure..but it speaks to me.

Next we went to Ground Zero and the new 9/11 Memorial Preview Site. It was really amazing to remember what happened on 9/11. Not that I'd forgotten, just that the details had gotten fuzzy, and it's crazy remembering how quickly chaos took over the nation. There was a timeline along the wall and videos playing--it was heartbreaking. But then we saw the model for the new memorial and it is going to be absolutely incredible (pictures below). I'd love to go back and see it when it's done.

Then, since Bree had forced me (because torture is like love) to carry my large duffel bag (she claimed it would be more "convenient." haha) across town, we went back to the apartment where she was staying to drop it off. Strategically it was WAY easier for me to stay with her, so we went with it. As soon as that was done, we headed off to Magnolia Bakery and got, yes, banana pudding. THE best banana pudding of all TIME. Oh my goodness! We cradled our pudding and headed to take the Staten Island ferry, which Bree hadn't even done (too touristy, but I made her take me).

It was awesome to see the Statue of Liberty from far away in a moving boat! Haha and things got especially exciting when we ran into a crazy woman. More like she ran into us. We have featured her in the "funny, funny" slide show below. As soon as Bree started trying to take pictures of me by the statue, this woman stood RIGHT next to her and leaned her face DIRECTLY, and I mean directly, in front of the camera. HA. The look on Bree's face was priceless--and the look on my face had to have been about the same. We were SO confused. Then she basically knocked Bree over trying to move "around" her--which apparently was a foreign maneuver. Goodness! If there was one place to be in the way, she found it. Uncanny! Finally, Bree and I just sat down and watched her get in everybody's way. Turns out it was extremely entertaining...until we got to Staten Island. Late.

We missed the soonest boat back to Manhattan. It left just before we pulled into the dock/port thingy. And the next one didn't leave for, yup, an hour. There is a serious strategic flaw with the whole boat schedule. For the next hour, Bree and I sat in a freezing cold waiting area, practically rubbing ourselves down to create enough friction to equal heat. After a while, my body just went numb. No idea what happened to Bree, but eventually her teeth stopped chattering. Haha, I'm kidding. They weren't even chattering...that I could hear, anyway.

When we finally headed back, an hour later, it was dark and the city looked super pretty. But oh yeah, it was dark. And after 10:00p. So it was time to head home. Turns out we hadn't eaten dinner though. Whoops? So we stopped at an Italian place right by the place she was staying. We shared spinach ravioli and Italian doughnuts and they were AMAZING.

When we got home--late--we kind of wanted to watch a movie, but we ditched that idea when we totally zonked out on the air mattress.

Speaking of zonking, I am SUPER tired at the moment. The weekends just aren't long enough. So I have a proposition for you, and you can't fight with me because this is my blog and I am far away from just about every one of you...

Here it is. I will give you all of my pictures (excluding a few I definitely need to explain) so you have something to munch on and hold you over until I manage to finish writing about the last half of my NYC vaca. Eh? I won't forget to write. Promise. And I'll be sure to explain all of the pictures, so if you have no idea what half of them are of, use your imagination. I'll clarify later.

Enjoy the pictures! I shall update soon.

-T


The Basics of asics. Whatever that means.

Food, glorious food!

Places to go, people to see.

Funny, funny, funny (imagine Meryl Streep singing that)