Only a week since my 21st birthday, and already I feel the huge gap between one year and the next that everyone asks about at your birthday: "You're a year older, do you feel any different?"
I do feel very different, and not just because of my first drink - an Absolut-ly Frozen Big Berry Cosmos, containing acai berries, pomegranate, lemon and lime and some Citron Vodka - purchased at one Carmine's in a city so nice, they named it twice: New York New York!
During our family trip to Connecticut, we took a train into the city, and the day was mine to do with as I wished. We debarked at Grand Central, which has an aquamarine ceiling, did anyone know that? You never ever see it any pictures of the place. It's all about the marble. But you look up and bam! You're swimming in teal. But I digress. Outside the station, Dad valiantly hailed a taxi and we hit our first stop: The Met.

For those who don't know, the Metropolitan Museum of Art is very big, and very packed, and very confusing. The maps and signage was no help at all, and we often got lost in back rooms that were curiously empty of museum-goers - the place had no flow. That being said, I did enjoy it when we found the exhibits we were actually looking for. We saw an Alexander McQueen (!!!!) exhibit, which of course my parents had many many comments on, mainly having to do with how freaky the clothing was. All I have to say is it was freaky, but good freaky. There were also tons of statuary, and of course the Armor room full of knights and decked-out horses. And I dug the Egyptian gallery, complete with a full copy of the Book of the Dead, which looped the room it was housed in twice, and the little blue hippopotamus. Hippos are actually really dangerous, but the little blue hippopotamus is adorable. :) All in all, the Met is not my favorite museum, and it gave us all headaches. But at least it's not the MOMA.

After the Met was the aforementioned lunch at Carmines, Central Park and the Public Library, traversing up and down Times Square several times, and hitting a bar called McGee's, which HIMYM fans will know is the bar that was the inspiration for McLaren's, and where the writers went to develop the show. Then, it was showtime! Me and Meggie had tickets to see Wicked, which was wickedly amazing. I cried at the end of both acts, not because it was sad, but because the singing was that superb. It was a great great great trip, and a great great great birthday.

Now, back to the beginning: Why do I feel such a difference between 20 and 21?
On this side of 21, I just began my internship with Namey Design Studios, and am already swimming in projects. I've been promoted to shift leader at Einstein's, which I start again on Saturday. I have an apartment that I have to start finding furniture for, and rent to pay. And it feels, for a first time ever, as though I might actually be growing up. Boy, that makes me sound childish, but I mean it in the sense that those around me are starting to view me as something other than a child. I'm stepping out on my own, taking charge, and I beginning to find that I like it.