New York, New York

I know that all my faithful, devoted readers (read: all 7 of you, who I truly do appreciate) have been DYING to hear about my trip to New York last week.

Well. I survived.

I survived on about 4-5 hours of sleep per night. I survived on minimal caffeine. I survived 10 hours in Times Square with about a million other people (and yes, that did mean I also survived not using the bathroom for 10 hours - it can be done!). I survived a night sharing a bed with 3 other girls. I survived walking from the Upper West Side of Central Park all the way down to Times Square and beyond, after a night of standing for 10 hours.

Basically, my friends and I rock.

After the aforementioned freak Portland snowstorm, it took me a full two hours to get home on the bus. Which of course caused a dangerous spike in my blood pressure, as I was imagining all kinds of horrible scenarios where I didn't get home in time, forgot to pack something, got in a car crash on my way to the airport, and, worst of all, miss my flight. I hadn't seen my best friends in over 6 months, so the idea of looking forward to something for 4 months to only have it yanked out from under my feet due to snow was unacceptable. Fortunately, all the really bad traffic was heading south, and I was heading north - with snowtires and snow-driving experience to boot. I made it to my sister's house with enough time to down some yummy Yakisoba noodles that Generic made, have a swig of Bailey's, and have them drive me to the airport.

Anyways. I was able to sleep on the flight, ("Thank you, Tylenol PM!") for a few hours, so when I got to Philly, I took a shower and was ready to go sightseeing. We saw the Comcast Center (what kind of kick-a$$ place has a 3-story TV screen in their lobby?!), Independence Hall, and the Liberty Bell.

*Please note the beautiful Bill O'Reilly/O'Reilly Factor shirt that I got for Christmas

The next day, we got up at the plumber's-crack of dawn and got on the train to Trenton, NJ, where we then switched trains to go to New York. Once we emerged from the station under Madison Square Garden and I got over my initial shock as to how many people there are in New York, we went to our postage-stamp of a hotel room to change before heading over to the Square.

Horrible picture (it was COLD), but I was pretty excited to be in New York

We secured our spot in the Square, and settled in for a loooooooooong wait before the Big Ball Drop. During that time, the people watching was FABULOUS (especially the guy who was badly break-dancing without a shirt on in the 20-degree cold), we heard Jennifer Lopez rehearse her set about 54,480 times before my ears started to bleed, watched Nick and Vanessa awkward kiss on the Nivea Kiss stage, saw a proposal, and saw Carson Daly. THEN. it was. THE MOMENT.

Watching that Ball drop made the past 10 hours seem like 10 minutes. Hearing everyone singing 'Imagine' and dance around to 'I Got a Feeling' got the blood and adrenaline pumping, and made us forget how cold, tired, sore, and hungry we were (surprisingly, none of us had to use the bathroom, which goes to show that if you don't drink fluids for 24 hours and eat lots of salt, you too can go 10 hours without using the bathroom!), and made it all worth it.

After getting out of the Square and finding some street vendor food, we finally made it back to our hotel room and fell asleep around 3am. We woke up at 9, showered, checked out, and made our way uptown to our next hotel. After dropping off our stuff, we ate, went to Central Park, FAO Schwartz, 5th Avenue, Rockefeller Center, and a ton of other places. We didn't get to the southern part of the island, simply because we didn't have enough time. Which just means that I'll have to go back someday in order to see Ground Zero, the Statue of Liberty, and Wall Street/Trinity Church.

The whole group in Central Park - I love this picture

A week later, I'm still recovering - but it was all worth it, every last second. The experience and weekend I spent with my friends will always be a treasure for me, and I definitely want to go back someday.

But if you think I'm leaving my beautiful mountains, lakes, and beach for the concrete of New York, you got another thing comin'.