Celeb Sightings, Romantic Pen, Man-baby

So guess who lives in New York City?!  Bah!...it's me.  It's so crazy and I keep thinking that this isn't real and I'll wake up somewhere else one day and realize this was just a vacation or a dream.  But thus far...I keep waking up here.

Saying goodbye to the family was naturally a cry-fest.  haha It was so wonderful living with family after being far away from them for a while.  I miss hearing the little feet of my nephews running down the hall to come play with Auntie Mallo...but that would be weird if I had that expectation of my roommates eh?  I just feel really blessed for all of the love and support I've received from friends and family.  It's meant a lot to me. That's all.

About 5 days before I was supposed to be on a flight, I got super sick.  It was worse than I'd been in a long time and it was lasting a longer than usual as well.  After I came to grips with the fact that I needed to deal with it (meaning...my sister was insistent that I go to Urgent Care and that she was coming with me. haha), I had some awkwardland tests done that took several days to process. I had to change my flight because I was too sick to travel and found out when I got to Virginia that I have Salmonella.  Gross right?  It was not ideal.  But I'm glad the tests were conclusive and that it was treatable.  What an adventure that was.

Sooo...my uncle is outrageously kind and drove me all the way to New York City from Virginia.  We packed up his car and chatted the whole way up.  Traffic was a doozy and the trip took roughly 6 hours.  We had a party to go to that night so I had to do some quick unloading into my apartment.  My uncle had to stay in the car because there wasn't any parking available close to my apartment and policemen kept making him move the car. So as I carried boxes into my apartment (some embarrassingly heavy) while my uncle occasionally did a lap around the block in his car to not get in trouble with the coppers.  All the while, as I'm waddling with huge boxes down the sidewalk, sweating in a really unattractive way and hauling them into my apartment, some girls standing outside a bar had been watching me for a while and one said, "You need a man."  haha Nice.  On my next trip, I had a really heavy box and a worker in the Sprint store next door to my apartment came out and offered to help.  I initially said, "No, thank you." and wanted to do it by myself and didn't want to get him in trouble for leaving work to help me.  But when I had to unlock the door, hold it open with my food and lift this gigantic box in the door and repeat the process for a second door, I realized I was being a bit silly.  I allowed him to help me carry it up the stairs.  It always makes me so happy when people are genuinely kind and selfless.

My uncle's brother has pretty killer cool connections in the city and got us tickets to a pre-taping of a New Years Eve broadcast.  Yes, it will air on New Years Eve but was filmed in August.  Kind of hilarious.  It was a Michael Feinstein variety show with several celebs.  It was fun to be all dolled up and in such a formal setting.  My favorite was Darren Criss came and sang a few songs (you know, from Glee.)  He was fantastic live and so adorable.  Afterwards my uncle's brother was chatting with him like they were old friends and introduced us.  I nerdily wanted a picture so badly but totally pansied out.  My knees were shaking and I'm just not as suave as I'd like to be in those scenarios.  He told me he liked my glasses and that was memory enough for me. :)

After the party we were hungry and went to dinner at midnight (yep, because it's New York City and everything's still open).  After that we finished moving into my apartment around 1:30 or 2:00am.  I was so tired and deliriously happy.  My apartment is like 2 blocks from Times Square.  It definitely has it's NYC quirks, but overall, I'm so happy.  It's so fun to be right in the middle of everything and even when I come home at night I feel completely safe (which is saying something because Africa left me pretty paranoid and freaked out...specifically when it's dark.) haha  Everything is all lit up at night time and people are all over the streets so I never feel unsafe in the area where I live.

Random incidents that have made me laugh recently:

• The people in Times Square that dress up.  I've seen Woody, Elmo, Hello Kitty, Statue of Liberty, Chewbacca, Cookie Monster, a man wearing nothing but a diaper and a mask of a baby face, and then some girls walking around wearing nothing but paint on their mammaries.  That's real.  It's quite the scene.
• I passed an elderly man on the street with a green beard.
• On my way to run errands, I passed a man who was carrying something heavy on a trolly.  He called after me saying I had dropped something out of my backpack...it was a pen.  And it wasn't mine.  I let him know it wasn't my pen and he said, "Well I had to do something to get your attention."...and then gave me the pen.  I giggled awkwardly, said thanks and walked away.  Apparently if you're interested in a lady, you should offer her office supplies.  Just FYI.

Of course there is more going on but I will stop here for now.  I'm happy.  My rooomates are cool, my apartment location is fantastic, the food is delicious, there's so much to do....I'm happy to be here.  Anxious to start school, but happy and thankful.  I hope you're doing well wherever you are that's reading this.

Mal