These streets will make you feel brand new, these lights will inspire you

Yet again I have succumbed to the cardinal sin of blogging: absenteeism. To be fair, I have actually been really busy---not sure how I can be so bored and so busy at the same time. Working two menial jobs, completing applications to grad school, harassing non-respondent recommenders, and Christmas shopping seem to do the trick though.

Thanks to the generosity of the airplane gods though I was granted a 300 dollar voucher for a flight and decided to ring in the new years and my birthday with one of my favorite people. With an 18 dollar flight and free diggs, it's a vacation even I can afford.

Normally people tend to flock to island locations when they want to get away from it all--given the desirability of warmer climates and a slower pace. But I am sort of aiming for the opposite. And to be honest, I think two weeks in New York is the only cure for 3 months in the suburbs. Having spent longer than the week I can normally stomach trapped in an incredibly public transport unfriendly locale sans car, where the average ages seems to be 60, I am more than ready to cut loose in the city that never sleeps.

I have to admit that previously I had a bit of a grudge against New York. I just tend to generally distrust anyone or anything that claims to be the best, and New York is so frequently proclaimed to be best at EVERYTHING, hence my skepticism. But I am now fully open to the idea that it really is as great everyone has been saying.

I am extra excited, because due to an early and unexpected invitation to an interview at UC Santa Barbara (which has an excellent school psychology program btw), my confidence has taken a huge boost and I am more hopefully considering the possibility of attending Columbia next year. I am partly considering this trip a possible preview of next fall.

I am of course mostly excited for the largeness and loudness of it all. The hustle and bustle, the legendary night life, and the amazing art and food scene. I know I will live it up being the typical annoying tourist, of the variety I often love to grumble at myself. Having lived through the confusion and cold of Munich I'm sure I can cut it in the Big Apple, despite my fears of spending too much on a pair of designer shoes or becoming irretrievably lost because of my fear to ask any New Yorkers for directions.

Really though I am stoked to reunite the dynamic S & M duo and embark on more spontaneous adventures in the vein of the shenanigans perpetrated this September.

Only a couple days until I can start feel brand new...