I first wrote this entry by hand in the back seat of my mom's Blazer, driving on interstate 80 through Pennsylvania.

In all honsety, I'm pretty devestated to be leaving New York. I knew I was only there for the summer, but I hadn't realized just how much the city had grown on me. It really worked its way inside my head, my lungs, my feet. My boss told my parents that I must be a real New Yorker at heart because of how well I fit into the city.

I miss the buildings and the crazy taxi drivers and the parks and the hot dogs and all the wonderful people already. Tess was the best roommate and such a fun, vibrant person to have around. Laura, such an adventurous, hilarious girl. And of course, my Chris. Every mile we drive away from him, the tighter that invisible band around my heart pulls.

My one consolation for the moment is such a beautiful distraction: the sun is just starting to get that orange dusk glow and is shining in the windows, reflecting off the ring Chris gave me. The light bounces off the diamonds and little flecks of light sprawl out over the white paper and it looks like a miniature solar system. It's like he gave me the universe.
3 weeks until her comes to visit me in Ann Arbor. Three weeks. Three weeks. As long as I keep telling myself that. I don't focus on the 2 semesters of seperateness that lie ahead of us. Three weeks.

But let's go over the past few weeks since I last wrote and enjoy the memories instead of being sad about leaving...

Chris took me to Six Flags in New Jersey for a fun weekend away. We went through the Safari, but had to ride the bus because Chris has a convertible. Apparently the animals have been known to rip right through the cloth tops. lol It was really cool, especially when the animals were walking right alongside the bus.

The rollercoasters were great. It was a little rainy, so a few of the water rides were closed. But we did get to go on the best ride ever: Kingda Ka. Straight up in the air, reaching 148 mph in about 2 seconds. The whole ride is only 4 seconds long, but soooooo great. And we got Dots ice cream, which is the best stuff ever.

We didn't get to go the second day because it was raining pretty hard. But we ate at a nice little bagel shop and just enjoyed being together on the ride back to Chris's place.

Two days later, we headed back to New Jersey, this time to Wildwood, a beach town on the very southern tip. We spent the week on the beach for 3 or 4 hours every day. At night we went out for nice dinners with his dad and family. We saw a dinner theater show, rode rides on the piers, and just had a great time. On the first night, standing on the beach under the moonlight, Chris gave me the most gorgeous ring. The whole weekend could not have been more perfect. But any time spent with Chris is usually the best time I could possibly be having.

We got back to New York and Tess and I did something a little crazy: we got tattoos! And not those airbrushed ones from South Street Seaport. Although I did get one that was very similar to the one I got airbrushed a few weeks back. It's the phoenix, in blue and purple, right next to my hip. I'm so happy I got it. It's such a great way to remember such an amazing summer. Tess got the comedy/tragedy masks on the top of her foot. It looked great too. Laura and Chris came with us for support and we all went out to the bar afterward. This was a hilarious, fantastic night with lots of impromptu songs and spills in the bushes. haha

My parents arrived shortly after and I had a fun time showing them around the city. We did a live music cruise around Manhattan at night and saw the lights of the city. It was a lot of fun, but they were only here for a couple days, so it was hard to show them everything I wanted to.

My last day at United Stages was pretty sad. I love all the people I worked with, and it was hard to say goodbye. We all went out for sushi and stuffed ourselves and had a good time. The full time employees bought me and the other intern, Annette, flowers and nice cards that everyone signed. It was very nice, but the rain coming down outside was very appropriate for a sad goodbye. Overall, this was such a fantastic internship. I learned so much and was so lucky to work with such warm, charismatic people.

But at least I have all these wonderful memories to keep my spirits up as my parents and I make the slow trek back to Michigan.