New York, New York

Today I was looking over my flight schedule. I was sighing/lamenting over my eight and a half hour layover in New Jersey.. What could I do for over eight hours in New Jersey??!! Well my oh-too-kind mother reminded me of a very good friend we have in New Jersey. I gave her a call, filled her in on the details and, to make a long story short (too late, I know) she and her husband agreed to meet me at the airport and take me to "The City" during my layover.

What city you may be asking yourself? Well maybe you aren't asking yourself that. But, being raised in the west like I was, and being HORRIBLE with geography, I had no idea that the Newark airport was just over the river from NYC. So I will be enjoying my layover in New York. Doing what? I am not sure, my friend and her husband said they would plan something fun. But I feel that just being in the city with them will be enough.  I  honestly never had a desire to stay for long periods of time in a city that size, but I am very excited to walk around, window shop, eat and be in New York at all. It is something I never pictured myself doing, but I must say it will be hard to not compare my life to a movie! And it will be another thing checked off my bucket list!

So on top of my new excitement (New York) I am also losing sleep over the idea that in 16 days I will be in Ireland. I will eat dinner in New York City and then have breakfast the next morning in Ireland!! I was looking up the Belfast area to see what possible trouble I could get into during my layover and found Lough Neagh not too far from the aiport.. This I feel is something I should explore. What kind of explorer would I be if a lough was something I could pass up? Not much of one at all. Not much of one AT ALL!

So as if eating dinner in New York City, falling asleep over the ocean then waking up and having breakfast in Ireland weren't enough, after my Irish breakfast and lunch I will be having dinner in Spain! All of this I have discovered literally as I type. This, my friends, is why I will struggle to sleep the next few weeks. And because of my lack of sleep.. When I land in Ireland at 9:00a (my body will feel like it is 3:00a) I will most likely burst into tears and brokenly sob about 'how I can't believe this is actually happening' causing concerned onlookers to quickly flee away from me. This, in turn, will make me sob even more and I feel the lake I explore will grow in depth by a few feet with my visit...