New York City

Hey girls!!

Here it is, all about my trip to NYC! I had the best weekend ever!

The first night we were there, we came in after mimosas, and talked Ken and Greg (the extremely patient doormen's) ears off! They loved it, well...i'm gonna say they did anyways because after that afternoon, they gave us high fives every time we came in, and went out of the hotel. They took us up to the rooftop bar which was this AMAZING place. It would be so perfect for like a rehearsal dinner! It overlooks the entire city, and there is a pool! Seriously, these guys made our stay so much more fun! They told us to come visit this summer, and we certainly will!! Miss you guys!














Here is the place that I will possibly be working this summer! 1020 Madison Avenue! I got to interview with the assistant manager, because the manager had to go to South Hampton for the weekend, but I think it went really well, and they were all amazing! I cannot wait to hear from them this week, and hopefully spend my summer at 1020 Madison Avenue, aka Heaven!













Enough said, I had to get a picture! I absolutely love the New York Times, and I am so looking forward to reading it each day this summer!













Here we were near Macys! I was so so so excited to get to walk around, and then see the big red MACYS sign!

Okay, so I am going to start from the beginning! It was one of the absolute best weekends of my life, because I needed to get out of Raleigh so bad! It has been such a stressful few weeks with more schoolwork then I can handle, and so I was ready for a get away! Also, I hadn't seen my mother or sister in a whole month because I have been in Raleigh so a reunion was much needed! I love seeing big cities, and New York City is such a wonderful place to be! I feel so trapped in Raleigh at times because everyone at my little school knows everything about everybody, and I cant hide anything! Not that I don't love it, I love my school, its just time to get away from the little world I live in. I also have already established my goals here, so there is nothing else that I want to do, accept get out and get to New York where I can meet new people, and have new experiences!! I definitely love Raleigh, it was so much fun after leaving Salisbury, but now I am so ready to go somewhere bigger where I can just live my life and chase my dreams! I will love every minute of it! I am so excited, and I am so happy that God has given me this opportunity to be a part of such a fun program for the summer!

Our trip was filled with hilarious situations that I will share with you! I laughed the whole entire time. I haven't laughed until I cried (or got a 6 pack of abs) in years! So many funny random things happened...but its me...so its expected!

So, on Friday, my roommate, her mother, and I left the Raleigh house and got to the airport around 10:00.

My mother and sister would fly up Friday night from Charlotte!

Anyways, so we are in route, and we get to the parking deck at RDU, it just spins and spins, it feels like a maze in there! Finally, after seeing no parking on any of the rows, we get to level 3 and are desperately looking for a parking spot because I had a lot of bags, and we didnt wanna walk a mile! Finally...I SAW A SPOT, so I screamed out with joy and...we didnt think twice!

All of the sudden, our wheels start spinning and we are burning rubber to get that spot!! HAHA! We were really proud, until once we got there, we saw 8 other empty spots in the same row, and not a car in site but people were starin', and starin' hard! HILARIOUS! Somebody got a little excited about parking and skidded into winners row!

After that, we got inside, and went through security. Luckily, that went smoothly! I wasn't in the mood for a strip search that day!
Although, Randy, the security officer, was a rather large man, and he was looking at my license.

Now y'all its 10am and i'm going through airport security...even a southern girl can only be so happy about that!

After I witnessed Randy act like a saint to Ida, the 75 year old in front of me, he looks at me, and says "somebody looks like they are taking a trip to hell, smile once in a while, pleasant travels!"

RUDE! I would have "pleasant travels" if I could get through security! Oh well, I didn't say anything, I just kept walking as Randy stuffed his rent a cop face with that big mac, and I knew that I was going to be in NYC and more woken up in just 2 short hours! Life was good!

So, about an hour passes and we boarded the plane. We flew Jet Blue and ever since my beloved Skybus went under, I havent favored any airways...well Jet Blue has taken the gold! I absolutely love it!!

Now y'all, I knew i'd be sitting next to a stranger, and I prayed, prayed, prayed that it would be someone that I could have a fun conversation with, and someone that didn't get airsickness! So, im walking and I see a lot of cute people, and i'm thinking okay, okay somebody fun be 12 D...all of the sudden, I see a rather large man, who probably should have booked 2 seats, and I am thinking Lord please do not be in seat 12D!

Well, of course, he was in seat 12D!

My roommate and her mother start dying laughing, and i'm thinking, I may need the oxygen mask before the plane even takes off!

Well, after about 15 minutes of silence, I decide that I am ready to talk to my soon to be friend!

See, every time I fly, I have a very specific, crucial question that I ask everyone that I ever sit next to on a plane. If you are ever on a plane, and a blue eyed blonde asks you if you get air sick...its me!

I turned to my plane partner, held out my hand and said confidently, "Hi, i'm Katie!"
He looks over slowly, and says, "Ken here, good to meet you."
"I have to ask you a question, I said, "so sorry, but I gotta know, so I can prepare myself, do you get air sick, Ken?"
He looks over again...slowly, and says "That's a bit of an odd request, but much to your happiness no, I do not!"
I smiled so relieved at him, and said "alrighty then, we got no problems, and by the way I don't throw up either, so you have nothing to worry about!"

He started laughing, and then flashed me one of those million dollar smiles, and started talking to me! Now hes probably mid 40's tall big african american man! He was probably one of the sweetest people I had ever met! He started asking me why I was going to NY, and then I asked him why he was going. It turns out his sister WORKS FOR ABC and was getting an award!! YAY for her! He asked if he could give her my e-mail since I was looking into news! What a guy!!!! Then, I was so excited because we had tv's in the front of each seat, so Ken and I watched CSI: Miami, and tried to beat each other to the punch by guessing the crime and murderer in each show! It was so much fun, and we laughed and laughed! We talked about Kens wife, and how she wouldn't let him bring a coat, or eat certain things...although he helped himself to some animal crackers, and even used my tray to hold some...he was seriously the funniest man!
I was so lucky to get to sit next to him! We were seat buddies on the way back too, and he didn't exactly remember me when he boarded the plane! The minute I saw him, I yelled from seat 12C, "HEY KEN!" and he looks, slowly, and said "Oh, Hey girl!" After about 10 minutes, he started talking like his old self, and we became fast friends!! We meant to exchange e-mails and keep in touch. I consider one of the best parts of my trip meeting Ken, the retired chemist from Charlotte! LOVED him!

After we landed, we got our luggage, and got a cab! Our cab driver wasn't a talker, so I proceeded to check my 4 missed voicemails! One was from my landlord, who knew the vice president of a bank, who knew a broker in NYC. The next 2 messages were from both of them! I got in touch with the VP and we talked, and he told me to save his number for this summer when I got there if I ever needed anything, or wanted a job! I thanked him so much, he is married with kids, and told me maybe I could babysit in the city sometime! Then, I called the broker, Rory! He was really really chatty, just like me! Apparently, my landlord had told him I was quite the talker, and we had that in common! Both very helpful! It is so funny the connections people can make. People in New York are so friendly.

He showed us 2 apartments...on Park Ave so clearly, that wasn't going to work out! I wish it could have, because I would have loved to have been able to rent in the city, but its so expensive!

Then, I had my Lilly Interview, which went extremely well, I think! I am looking forward to hearing from them this week! I told them I had a blog, and saw so many cute pictures from the Martha Stewart Show, they knew of many of you!!

After that, we had mimosas at the hotel bar because we were just so jet lagged, and we had been rushing around all day! A little intoxication always helps wake me up!

After mimosas, we went to use the bathroom. I know I sound like i'm rambling, but there is a point to this! Now here's where the fun starts! So we are walking to the bathroom, all a little tipsy from our afternoon pick me up, all of the sudden, my roommate is calling our names, and we are struggling with tears running down our face, and she cant get her zipper to zip...AHHH! All of these women, who apparently had the same idea we did, came in and were laughing with us! That was only one of many highlights and embarrassing moments of this trip!

Then, after that my mother got to the city! My aunt A came to have dinner with us, and I was so excited we were all together.
We went and had drinks at the hotel bar before going to Becco's on Restaurant Row.
First off, if you haven't been to restaurant row, then you definitely need to go because it is amazing! There are so many beautiful restaurants, with menus as good as the restaurant looks! We found Becco's and we got seated upstairs. It was very loud, but the food was absolutely amazing. Right after we were seated, my Aunt Bea texted me, and told me she was coming too!! Her and my uncle were in the city as well!
So about an hour into dinner, I just looked around the table, and realized that it just didn't get much better then that moment!
It was such a small thing, but to have so much family (I pretty much consider my roommate and her family, family) around a table with me, in New York City was about as perfect as it was going to get.
Watching everyone laugh, and smile, and just be together was just really nice. I know that sounds so deep and stupid, but it really was just the perfect dinner, and the perfect first night of the trip.
After Becco's, we went back to the hotel and wanted to go to the rooftop bar, not to have drinks, but more so just to see the view!
Well, we had already had a bottle of wine around the table, so again I was feeling good and when we were walking back, I SAW A FIRESTATION...with many gorgeous firemen!!! I quickly called a group meeting and told everyone I wanted a picture with fireman number 3! They all started to walk off, but I was DEAD SERIOUS! When I used to do mission trips, we always took pictures with the firemen so I personally didn't find it awkward at all!
I walked right up and asked, and they took a picture with me! Right after the picture, the cute one said "Are you from North Carolina?"
I replied shocked "YES!, are you?"
He had gone to school in Charlotte, went to the college both of my parents went to, and asked me if I was from NC because he recognized the accent. Coincidence, fate, who knows?!

The next day, the apartment search continued...but no such luck!

We ended up getting student housing at the New Yorker and to be honest, I am ecstatic about that because I have already started to meet people who are going to be living there, and not only are we all very close in age, but we all have very similar internships. Also, we will have an RA, and that will be very very helpful to know that at least someone is watching out for me.

We took tours of many buildings on the intern housing list, and yall one we toured HAD to be a halfway house...the lady kept telling my roommate and I that people that lived there were trying to get to "their next step in life" I am trying to take the next step in my career, they were trying to take the next step to stay on the wagon...two different scenerios, no way we could live there! I am all about that type of housing, but there was no way that only interns lived there like they told us!

I am getting more and more excited every day!

So many other things happened on the trip, but I will spare you the novel! I promise to be better about blogging now that life has slowed down a bit!

I hope everyone is having a great Monday!