new york city

from left to right:

jordan "you can buy that for me" hayter

emily "i get stuff for free" taylor

melanie "what's my thing?" adamson

brooke "amy's supplier" ewing

amy "i need the money, i'll do it for $30!" hamilton

not pictured: robin "it is what it is" ladle

our "second annual post-mother's day girls' trip to new york city" was a blast! of course it was. i mean, what did you expect? these girls are pretty much the apples of my eye, the spring in my step, and pretty much the reason why i have loved this grad school experience so much.

i am still trying not to think about leaving (even though i will have to face the truth in two weeks) so i will save all the sappy stuff for later... so for now, the fun stuff!

we all arrived at melanie's house friday night where we proceeded to stay up till 4am because admittedly, some of us suffer from f.o.m.o. ("fear of missing out", thanks melanie for that awesome acronym) which adds to the delay of anyone signing off and going to bed.

so after a refreshing two hours of sleep we arose and set forth. a quick train ride has us in the city and we started things off in the garment district. we discovered the secret behind rockstar diaries' headbands and i could have stared at buttons all day at m&j trimming, but we soon felt the need to fill our stomachs with deliciousness from the shake shack. so off we went in a cab...

ah, the shake shack. now, i am not a picky eater. to me, a burger is a burger. (well, mostly.) but really, the shake shack is divine. not that i ate a burger, but if i did . . . and not that i had a scrumptious custard creation, but if i did . . .

the events that transpired at the shake shack is the stuff of legend. i will wait for the proper permissions to continue with the details, but for now, this picture will suffice. notice the money on the table and the horror on amy's face. you can only imagine what is in that cup. . .

after the shake shack and the scene we created there, it was off for a stroll in central park. we could not resist singing music from "enchanted", nor could we stop ourselves from blocking the walking traffic for our photo opps. i mean, it is all about us, right?

we made a human pyramid. people were watching. they wanted to be us.

amy was chosen from a crowd of many by charming street performers to be jumped over. she did great.

after that, we did a little shopping and some of us had a bit of a nap in urban outfitters and anthropologie. we were refreshed and ready to make our way to soho to have dinner at a delicious taco joint where we were told we would see famous people. well, we did have delicious tacos (a rarity), but sadly, no famous people were seen. not a housewife, not an olsen twin, not a single gossip girl, not even a past contestant from survivor. but we did do some awesome people-watching and amy evaluated the body language of passersby.

with our stomachs full again, we set off on a lengthy walk down broadway to eat some delicious chocolate at max brenner (again, not that i ate chocolate, but if i did, i would have enjoyed some chocolate fondue with decadent brownies, cookie bits, juicy strawberries and ripe bananas.) melanie did not, however, enjoy her chocolate eggrolls, even though she "did eat one".

after that, we were seriously waning, so home we went on the 1:50 a.m. train. the train stop was a few blocks from melanie's house so some decided to run to get out of the cold. jordan was the only one who stayed back with me because i could hardly move. my feet were like bricks at that point (i'm getting old) and running was not an option. we got lost for a few minutes and talked a bit about our fears of never being found, but hope was regained when i recognized a house we had walked by that morning. (and in our deserters' defense, they were getting in the car to come look for us when we got to the house. just so you don't hate them for leaving us.)

sunday morning arrived quickly and after a teary goodbye with promises of next year, we waved goodbye to melanie. amy, brooke, emily, and i set off for ithaca while jordan rode in style on the greyhound back to connecticut.

needless to say, it was a perfect weekend. i couldn't have asked for a better group of friends to go through the cornell experience with. (well, maybe some that would not have made so much fun of me every time i had to go to the bathroom. . .)

till next year, girls! what will amy do for money then?