Welcome to THE night of your life.

I am back after a whirlwind weekend with my college buddies. This was my first bachelorette party and it was worth the crazy trip!

I attempted to go to bed early on Friday night because of my 6am flight, but this was not to be. I did get a few hours of sleep and woke up at 3:30am to stumble around in the dark and then drive to the airport.

The plane was basically empty so everyone had a row of three seats to themselves. The flight attendants didn't do any work the whole flight because almost everyone was lying down sleeping, I guess the Saturday 6am flight from RDU to MSP is not the most popular.

Diana and her mom picked me up at the airport and we went to get some coffee at the Mall of America while we waited for Caitlin (the Maid of Honor aka MOH) to arrive from Chicago. It was so early that none of the stores were open and I was so tired I kept walking in the wrong direction, luckily Diana was there to tell me what to do.

We got Caitlin and went straight to the Marriott where we settled into our party suite and changed for the bridal shower. Meghan (the final St. Olaf bridesmaid) arrived getting dropped off 10 blocks away and walking in the rain and snow with giant bags full of vodka and sodas. She had come in from Oregon the day before.

At the bridal shower we met more of Diana's friends and family/family to be, ate delicious catered food and watched awkwardly as Diana opened her presents.
Sadly I am a bad bridesmaid and ordered Diana a gift off her registry (good bridesmaid behavior) but had it shipped to her house (bad bridesmaid behavior), so I made her bring it all the way from Madison to Minneapolis (and back), just so I could watch the joy on her face as she opened her stemless wine glasses and wine carafe (selfish bridesmaid behavior). I hoped she would wrap it up so it looked nice, but it was just the box it got delivered in (that one is her fault).

Meghan was a bad bridesmaid too and got Diana Tostitos, salsa and Velveeta as a gift!!! (I guess she also got her a chip n dip platter....if this rumor is true, then she is a good bridesmaid)
Then we dressed Diana up in an embarrassing toilet paper gown:
And then it was back to the room and time to party!
Diana's ring is a shot glass!Meghan made this sign:
We turned the coffee stand into a makeshift bar:
And gave Diana very practical gifts that were appropriate for her to open in front of her mother and future mother-in-law (who were also in the room with us):

After a few drinks in the room we grabbed some dinner at a pub across the street and then it was time to hit the bars! We ended the night at the same pub we started at and DJ Dustin hooked us up with our favorite tunes, like that one by "cylie myrus". There was a telephone on the dance floor that was a direct line to the DJ booth, so we used that frequently.
We ended up going to bed at 3:00am central time (4:00am eastern), so I was up for over 24 hours. I was exhausted and slept for 10 hours when I got home, but it was totally worth it! I can't wait for the wedding in March!

sooo excited!

Going to Minneapolis on Saturday for a Minnesota-winter style bachelorette party with all my old college friends!!


High: 33
Low: 22

That's survivable.....

New York City Vacay

I am finally back in North Carolina after a slew of back-to-back work trips and vacations.

Recap:
November: Madison and New York City
December/January: Miami, D.C., Texas, NYC

I don't travel again until March when I go to Salt Lake City (work) and Scottsdale, AZ (Diana and Will's wedding!) I'm a bridesmaid and am soooo excited!

In other exciting news my best friend, Mali, is newly engaged to Sean. I get to be her bridesmaid (and help plan the bachelorette party.....oh the possibilities)

Trip to NYC:

The most recent NYC trip was a lot of fun, however it was FREEZING outside. It reminded me a lot of Wisconsin except less snow.

Liz and I arrived in NYC New Years Eve early in the morning and went straight to the West Side YMCA where we were staying. Well, we tried to go there. To avoid a $60 taxi ride, we took a bus ($2.25) to the subway ($2.25) and got out at 65th and Broadway (the YMCA was at 63rd and Broadway)

It was windy, snowing, wet and slushy on the ground and we could NOT find it! We spent almost an hour rolling our suitcases through the slush and muck, getting our feet soaking wet and cursing at Google maps on Liz's iPhone which could not make up its mind about where we were going.

Finally we just hopped in a cab and 3 minutes later were at our destination. Google Maps was trying to take us west when we were supposed to go east.

I must admit, it was a great location, right on Central Park near Lincoln Center and Columbus Circle, and it was also cheap ($50/person/night)....however it was NOT what we expected. We had heard stories of how awesome it was from a friend of Liz's, and when we got there we were told we had been "upgraded" from the room with bunkbeds we had reserved to a room with a "double bed".

"A double bed for each of us?", I asked.

"Uh...no, just one", answered the desk guy.

They were totally booked so we had no choice but to stay in THIS "room"

This was taken with me leaning against the door:
This view is right in front of the TV and heater.
I mean, WTF!?!?! The bed was definitely smaller than a double bed (my feet hung off the end) and I'm pretty sure the mattress was filled with concrete.

This so-called 'upgrade' was totally a scam and we think they called it that because of our view, which actually was pretty nice:
This is where we stayed on the map:
Anyway, we immediately started drinking as a way to manage our anger:
We spent New Years Eve in the Hell's Kitchen area, it was a lot of fun (I think).

Being the uneducated tourists that we are, we thought we better get to a bar early in case it got too crowded. The last thing we wanted to do was wait in long lines outside in the cold. So we finished off a bottle of champagne and a bottle of wine around 5pm, and then had another bottle of champagne......then more wine.....then some free donuts from the guys at Dunkin.....then the Irish Pub.....needless to say, we were not technically awake at midnight (don't worry, we did make it back to the room). Unfortunately I cannot blame this one on jetlag.

The next day we got up before noon (after a good twelve hours of sleep) and switched rooms. We got a room with bunk-beds which gave us a bit more space, however they were still made out of concrete. After moving rooms we found a place for breakfast which we ended up going to everyday (Whole Foods' breakfast buffet) and proceeded to wander through Central Park on the way to Saks 5th Avenue. It was COLD.
At Saks we tried on Burberry coats. Liz bought a beautiful black one and I was going to buy this one but it was too big (and I need the thousand bucks for rent):
On Friday we also went to Bergdorf Goodman, Bloomingdales, and FAO Schwartz. At Times Square we bought half-price tickets for Avenue Q, the BEST show I have ever seen. However this is the worst picture ever taken because I didn't want to use a flash:
But here is one taken of the net:
We were heavily reliant on the street map and the NYC subway app on Liz's iPhone:

On Saturday we took a tour of NBC studios and saw the sets for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and the SNL studio. We also watched the iceskaters in the plaza, gazed up at the Tree and did some more shopping:

Then it was on to the Guggenheim. The line to get in wrapped around the building, however we found a quicker way in via the museum's restaurant and past a distracted security guard.
The building was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and is absolutely gorgeous:
Celeb siting out side the Gugg (Paul Giamatti buying a hot dog):
It was SO COLD and windy that we decided we should see a movie, we ended up at It's Complicated (pretty good). This was followed by an Italian dinner with a very flirty bartender waiting on us. We thought the free drinks and not-very-subtle winks were pretty cool until we saw him doing it with the people at the other end of the bar.

After mending our broken hearts over a glass of red wine, we eventually made it back to the hell hole of a room. Did I mention the bathrooms were down the hall and that the water was either freezing or scalding?

Sunday we ate breakfast and hopped on the Subway uptown, then a bus through Harlem to LGA, then a plane home. We were very proud that we only took one taxi ride ($5) the entire trip.

It was a great trip, but I'm glad to be home!