New York State of Mind

Well, I just got back from a glorious (and exhausting) 5-day trip to New York! The whole reason for going was to see my baby sister perform at Carnegie Hall with the Bishop Kenny High School chorus. They, along with three other high school choirs from New York and Wisconsin, had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to sing as a big group…not to mention my very talented sister’s piccolo “solo” during one of the songs! Needless to say, I’m a very proud big sister

Beanie after her debut. Carnegie Hall marquee.

While I was in NY to support my sister and the BK chorus, I also got to spend a lot of time with my aunt, uncle and cousins that live outside the city, and of course do a lot of sight-seeing while the group was rehearsing for the show! I went to 5th Ave. (specifically FAO Schwarz and Tiffany’s), St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Central Park, the Russian Tea Room (for some very pricey and delicious drinks and dessert!), the Statue of Liberty, Battery Park, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Top of the Rock, Times Square (of course), Dylan’s Candy Bar and the World Trade Center Memorial Museum, and, of course, Carnegie Hall. In addition to a TON of walking, I also spent a fair amount of time in Grand Central Station, commuting by train between New City and Manhattan, and even took the subway a few times! Here are a few photo collages from the trip…

The cousins at St. Patrick's. Beanie and me in Central Park.

Springtime in NY - cherry blossoms and tulips galore!

Statue of Liberty on a beautiful day.

Times Square and view from Top of the Rock.

Of course I have about a million more pictures and will try to add them soon, but for now I have to get back in the swing of things and study for a quiz. It’s hard to believe I only have ONE MONTH left ’til graduation, and especially hard to make myself go to classes after having so much fun in New York!

Easter Festivites

Although I just got back from Spring Break last week, I was lucky enough to fly home for the long Easter weekend and spend some quality time with my family, boyfriend and best friend! I flew home on Thursday afternoon, went to the beach all day Friday with my sister and then headed down to Gainesville, FL with my family for my best friend Alyson’s senior art show at the University of Florida! For those of you that don’t know, Alyson and I have been best friends for literally almost our entire lives – people at her art show even asked if we were her family (which we practically are)!

Alyson with two of her amazing paintings

After the art show, we went back to Jacksonville for one of my favorite Easter traditions – dying Easter eggs! It’s been a few years since we’ve done Easter eggs since I’m usually at Elon during Easter, but this year we were all home and decided to get really fancy with our dying. We took inspiration from Martha Stewart and her elaborate egg decorations and created some pretty artistic eggs!

Fancy Easter eggs

More pretty eggs

On Sunday, the Clements family sang at mass (a rare occasion these days) and Ricky and his dad even came to church to hear us! I’m so glad I got the chance to go home and spend the holiday with the people love…it was a great weekend, until I got back to NC and realized my car had died in the airport parking garage while I was gone. That was not quite the return I was hoping for, but luckily one of my great friends at school and a very nice airport worker helped me (after about an hour and a half of trying to figure out the mysteries of my car) and I made it back to Elon in one piece!

Now I just have to survive school until next Friday when I’ll fly up to New York to visit with family and see my sister and her high school chorus perform at Carnegie Hall!