the twentieth year: the second day. jai ho!

day two of the twentieth year

what did we learn today? that i am more spry than i thought i was and can indeed go for hours and hours without getting a wink of sleep. here i thought i was slowly morphing into an old man with aches and pains in my bones and an ever growing crick in my neck. i did not get home until 3:46 this morning. i did not even remember what 3:46 looked like until today because i have not seen it since the night i stayed up with erin and kelly talking about scandalous things. dear lord, no one ever needs to know what 3:46 looks like unless it is your job to make sure that the world has not exploded at that time. i just hope that when it hits 3:47 that inspector can go back to bed and forget all about 3:46.

roommate aka beth aka driver wanted to leave at eight am for the grand city of new york. we were suppose to pick up gary in rhode island and then meet up with teal in westchester before taking the train into the city. you'd think that would be an easy enough task. oh no. oh no. oh no. we got lost. many many times. we managed to drive into parts of rhode island that have never before been discovered by 98% of the states inhabitants. bad directions will forever be the bane of my existence. so we magically swap from 8oclock and hungry to 10:30 and find ourselves at gary's house. gary lives at the beach. he did not tell us this. our happy dance of joy was greater than it should have been considering the snow, but it was forty degrees and we were not in boston. all was well.

after twenty minutes of shenanigans we were off to the magical land of westchester where the rich prosper and the children ~~watch tv inside all day with their imported nannies~~ ride shiny bicycles. i can tell you with no bias whatsoever that this does not fit the mold of teal's house. oh sweet christ. her house is like the child of my house. my house birthed her house during the long winter and tried to raise her up good and right and christian. her house declared upon it's thirteenth birthday NO! I SHALL NOT GROW UP TO BE A CONFORMIST SLAVE. I WILL HANG MY OWN ART ON THE WALLS AND NONE OF MY FURNITURE WILL MATCH AND WE WILL HAVE THE MOST GLORIOUS OF LIVES. and i swear to you, dear readers, that this is absolutely true. holy crap i could have stayed inside for hours documenting the lovely. walls were mismatched, furniture was handmade, books littered every imaginable surface, masks hung from the walls and mexican folk art adorned the cabinets. i never wanted to leave. but someone cougheveryone decided i could not take up residence and document every particulate in the house and we were off to the train station.

as of noon on wednesday, gary had never set foot in nyc. in fact, he referred to it as n.y.c. we giggled. told him it was faux paux. we don't know what the fuck we are talking about. or how to spell faux paux. and i don't know how to be quiet on the train. i know, you are shocked and amazed. any who... who in the hell came up with that saying? we get to grand central and then tell gary we are not going to go above ground to time square just yet. we are going to trek around to the hearst building, where teal's delightful mother works, and then run to the met. he was chagrinned until we told him to hush. then he was double chagrinned, but thankfully distracted, and we were off.

gary and i decided the hell with blending in and took our sweet time walking and enjoyed the city where as teal and beth walked as though they were being held at gunpoint. we were a cute foursome. security took our ids and gave us some sweet badges to go up to the 41st floor. we were the ~~lamest~~ coolest vips that ever were. we went up, met some famouses, smoozed, drank out of cups made of corn plastic, photographed and went back downstairs. if you are ever in the city i recommend checking out the hearst building. she's a real beaut and is the first green building in the country. KA CHOW! take that to the bank and smoke it in your pipe or whatever it is that you do.

did you know that you can get into the met for free if you are real pretty and they are damn near close to closing? well, you can! followed teal to the egyptian section and after admiring really bitchin' napoleon era graffiti, we were ushered out into the cold once again. did you know that gary has a bush just like the one they have in the museum? well he does! oh gary. your double entendre slays us once again.

after the fastest met visit in the history of the universe, we went to my new favorite place in the galaxy, panna II. it is tacky and it is wonderful and you can eat enough to gorge yourself for two days for the whopping price of 13.95. it was nearly cool enough to be a room in teal's house. NEARLY. but no cigar. the best part about panna II? byob. NO WE WILL NOT BE BRINGING WHITE ZINFANDEL MY GRANDPARENS WOULD BEAT ME! IT IS PINOT GRIGIO OR IT IS DEATH! turns out, it didn't have to be death. if you are ever kicking around astor square, take a wander over to first ave and check it out. you will not regret it. i promise.

we hopped back on that contraption called a subway and wandered back to times square so gary could glee his giddy little heart out. ADORABLE! who knew advertisements could be so hypnotizing? all you need are a few million leds and life is instantly better if not temporarily cheapened. we took hilariously touristy pictures and laughed until we wet ourselves before the clock struck ten and these four little pumpkins had to leave.

dear mcdonald's on 295, why do you not accept credit cards at two in the morning? i desperately wanted a mcflurry. damn you. damn you straight to the hot place. signed, caitlin.

we managed to make it to boston without getting lost. and then the unthinkable happened. we were two minutes from home and then STORROW DRIVE WAS CLOSED AND WE ENDED UP IN MOTHER FRAKING CHELSEA. chelsea at three is not a warm and fuzzy place. it is filled with truckers and cobblestone roads and houses on the brink of implosion. i do not recommend. ever.

the clock struck 3:46 and we strolled on through the door. we were dirty. we were delirious. we were exhausted. we were happy.

we would do it again in a heartbeat.