I am back home in North Carolina after an amazing trip to New York this weekend. This weekend was full of shopping, food and IBD friends – some of my most favorite things!
My journey started out Thursday evening with a short flight to New York. Rebecca and Dan picked me up at the airport and we made the drive from the big city to Westchester where I got to meet their lovely sheltie Bomber. That evening was pretty low-key, especially since I’d been at a conference all-day and made it home just in time to catch my flight.
Friday was New York City day! Rebecca and I took a ride on the train into Grand Central Station. I realized that this was my first time in my whole like taking the train. Sure, I’ve been on the subway before and I guess that monorail and Disney World, but this was the first legitimate train ride. The ride itself was actually kind of nice and I wish I could take the train into work in the morning. I think I would be a lot more productive if I didn’t have to actually pay attention to my driving! The one downside was our train got stopped for about a half an hour and we missed our reservation at the 9/11 Memorial. Since it was already getting a little late, we decided to forego that and just enjoy the City.
It was a beautiful weekend in NY! The air was cool and felt very “New York” but the sun was shining and made it a perfect day to be walking around outside. Rebecca showed me around a little bit and then we met up with my little sister, Hannah, who is currently working on her Master’s degree at NYU. I haven’t gotten a chance to see her since she started school a couple of months ago so it was great to get to spend some time with her. We got lunch at a local pub and shopped around a little. While I am a firm believer in celebrating one holiday at a time and like to enjoy Thanksgiving before moving on to Christmas, I actually didn’t mind the windows filled with Christmas decorations or the holiday music playing. It felt appropriate being in the City.

My one disappointment was that I didn’t get to spend any time with my cousin who just moved to New York to attend the American Ballet Academy. We had planned to meet up for coffee, but by the time we were able to, our train was getting ready to leave and I got about 30 seconds to say “hi” and give her a hug. Still, it was nice to see her.
Rebecca and I made our way back to Westchester – a much shorter train ride this time – and ordered pizza and watched “Pitch Perfect.” It was nice to have a girls’ night… plus Bomber, that is.
Saturday was the day of the Intense Intestines Foundation event. I was really looking forward to this because I knew that I’d get to meet some friends for the first time in person. It has been an interesting experience being a part of the IBD activism world because it’s the first time I’ve really made some strong relationships online with people all over the country and even the world. I feel like I have some really strong relationships with these people, even though we’ve never met face-to-face.
I had the pleasure to meet the founder of IIF, Brian, one of the board members Dierdre and another IBD activist Jeff, both of which I do not know as well but am looking forward to getting to know better.
And then I got to see Frank and Marisa. I have known Frank about a year since we did the interview together on Google hangouts. He has been a good friend since then and has even helped me with keeping The Stolen Colon up and running. Marisa is also an activist that I have enjoyed getting to know over the past months. We have a similar story with IBD and ostomies.
The event was a lot of fun. They had an illusionist who was really quite impressive. I always feel dumber at those sort of events because I can’t figure out how they do it! It was fun, regardless. But the best part, was after that we headed out to restaurant to hang out with everybody. I got the opportunity to get to know these people even better and my one wish was just that we had more time to get to spend together.
This morning was an early one, since my flight options were either first thing or later in the afternoon and I felt that I should give myself some time to catch up at home before having to get back to work and everything else. But that meant an early wake up call and drive to the airport. And even though my flight got delayed because of the fog, I was glad to be home early enough to get done what I needed to.
It’s nice to be home but it was hard to leave after such a great trip. I made some awesome memories in New York this weekend. I guess this just means I’ll have to make it back here again sometime soon! Thank you to everyone who made this weekend so amazing!