New York City!

It actually happened! After much speculative conversation with Debs, an abort, and a re-bort (what's the opposite of abort?), I finally en verdad found myself in the car with Debs and her freshman year roommate Lydia, driving away from the Hetricks and headed east to the big city. I was pretty awake despite working that night, and only dozed for a couple hours through the middle of PA (Don't worry, Debs was driving). We arrive on the isle of Manhattan early in the afternoon, dropped off our baggage at her apartment, and took the car to Brooklyn to park it for the weekend. I shan't tell you where, so that I may keep that little nook as my own personal free parking spot. I'm a fan. Then it was the first of many subway rides.. back into the city, to Debs' apartment: 3C5. The four roommates of 3C5 are a fixture at Kings College, and that was sort of our home base for the tumultuous days we were there. I stayed at Matt, Kyle and John's apartment a few blocks away, pretty much drifting in and out like a phantom, and only seeing them once or twice.

I'll try to recap succinctly our varied adventures. After getting settled Friday we toured The King's College, which is located in the basement of the Empire State Building. Adventures getting through security. Ask me about it :-P
At first we were going to attend a TKC event that included dinner, but we ended up bailing and finding a pub to watch the Penguins game. Really really good coconut shrimp, Bushmills, and hockey game. By the end of the night most of the 3C5 girls and some other folks had congregated at our table, listening to Debs tell stories from work. I split at 12:30, when my lack of sleep finally caught up with me. Of course, I stayed up another 2 hours having a quiet time and soaking in the city from the 17th-floor apartment. So cool!

Saturday was crazy. I got up of my own accord at 7:30, and decided to go for a walk instead of sleeping more. So I forayed out with only a hoodie, seeking the edge of the island, not realizing it was actually 35 degrees out, despite being sunny. I never quite turned around, but I got really stinking cold. Worth it, though. I saw a helipad, a ConEd utility vehicle base, some crazy trucking center, a subway utility yard, and this random dock with boats and stuff that you could just walk on. It was sunny, fresh, blue skies and wonderful. Got back around 10:30, met up with Debs, and headed out with her and her friend Angie. We got frozen yogurt at Pinkberry (yogurt that's frozen. Not "less-fatty-ice-cream" that most of us call frozen yogurt), and darted into a pub to watch some rugby. Never mind the details, we ended up at The Frick, a sweet art museum, with Johanna, one of Debs' roommates. From there we killed some time at 3C5 playing risk, and headed to brgr for dinner with a big group of people. Best hamburger I've ever eaten, bar none. Then we all took a walk to this bakery, the cupcakes of which are the rave of everybody at Kings. Not life-changing, but the red velvet one was pretty good.
Our next activity, after some more chilling at the apartment, was Debs' hockey game. She plays with a league when she lives there, and her coach let her play this weekend, which she was stoked about. That game was one of my favorite parts of the trip - it was a lot of fun to watch, Debs' team played well, and it really made me appreciate the quality of hockey at the pro level, 'cause I'd never had anything to compare it to before. The game was from 11:30pm to 12:30am. At 2 Debs and I headed out from 3C5 to meet up with her friend Kyle at "Fat Baby," a club. Yes, we went clubbing! It was just like a movie - line out the front of the building, bouncer talking smack on everybody, dark inside with flashing lights, DJ boppin' and spinnin' records, everybody drinking and dancing.. the whole deal. Neither of us were at home in that scene, but it was still interesting to have done, and Kyle is a cool guy. We ended up going back to his apartment and watching Ferris Bueler's Day off, finally catching a cab back home at 5:30 :-) So that was Saturday - 22 straight hours of New Yorkinating, starting with a bagel sandwich at Pax and ending with the morning light creeping up the sides of the buildings as the cab threaded it's way through the still-busy streets.

Sunday we met up around 9:30 and rode into Brooklyn for church. We had enough time to stop at Blue Sky Bakery, whose muffins Debs had been talking up for a long time. Turns out, Blue Sky is pretty much the coolest bakery in the universe, and you have not even conceived of the possibility for deliciousness in a muffin until you've had one of theirs! Their coffee is incredible, too. I got a T-shirt, which is also bangin, and the whole place was much cheaper and friendlier than the Manhattan places we'd been the previous days. I like Brooklyn.
Church was awesome, and was perhaps the highlight of the trip, just for the happiness of being near God. We hooked up with another Kings College girl who goes to City Church, got some chinese for lunch, and picked up my car, which was still safe and sound thank you Lord. Drive into the city, waited by the curb for people to bring all the bags down, packed up the Mazda, said our good-byes, and headed out into the rest of the world.

The drive home was the low point of the trip. I had the post-trip heartache pretty bad, plus I had been around tons of very driven, accomplished people in a moving-and-shaking city, and was feeling pretty frustrated with my life. More on that later. By the time I dropped the girls off and got back to the people-less, dog-less house, I was as low as I could be. AND I had to get up at 4:15 and go to work. Dark times. So after 0 hours of sleep, 5 hours of sleep and 3 hours of sleep, I hit the sack at 2am for a brief nap, and then on with the next day. A sour taste in my mouth after a trip that was packed with a lot of cool things and experiences. I'm glad it worked out, and I still love New York City and want to go back whenever I can.