I need a vacation!

It's officially a "no more sleep" for Kim this semester! That's why I haven't been blogging much. I don't think I've ever been this exhausted before. With my days starting at 9 AM, I only get around 6 hours of sleep everynight. I can just see my friends reading this and thinking "only? that's a lot of sleep for her!" But yeah. I'm about to collapse from being active 7 days a week.

All week the promotions director of the radio station kept talking about how they're starting this radio contest that will send listeners to Cuba. It's so tempting to plan some kind of scheme to steal those tickets. See, I'm responsible for making sure that all the prizes are packed and ready to go as soon as someone wins them. Makes me wanna cause some kind of trouble...but, I'll be good this year.

We finally started doing our shifts in the radio newsroom class. In a way, it's better because it's a lot more fun than leactures. On the other hand...you need energy, time management skills and a DAMN CLEAR MIND cuz they got you running around like mad.

Coffee is my best friend. Here's proof:

Quote of the day
"It's cuz you don't go to bed, you crazy freak!" --Cheryl (my sis)

Hilary Duff made me EXAUSTED!!

What a weekend! I am exhausted. I don't think I've ever been this tired before. Actually, I don't think I've ever been tired--people say I'm naturally caffeinated. But really, you should see my schedule this semester. Basically, I start my days at 9 a.m, Monday to Friday. Twice a week, it's at school. The remaining three days, I head downtown to the radio station where I'm interning at. Oh and I work evening shifts.

Assignments, assignments, assignments. I awoke Saturday morning and panicked because I only had a couple of hours to re-think of a storyboard idea for a photo shoot because of my models cancelled on me. After about two hours of breaking my head, I finally got to stick to my original idea when my great bud Sean, for some reason, agreed to let me take photos of him looking like a really cheap date. It was a 4 hour shoot (which Aline was late for, but she came), so all went well in the end.

That night, I only got 2.5 hours of sleep (yeah, I really don't sleep a lot). I had to be downtown at 5:30 a.m, to help the radio station prepare for a Hilary Duff autograph session at a mall. I didn't even see Hilary when she arrived because it was so crowded, plus there was such a media frenzy. There were SO many people, the majority being 10 year old girls. Some even lined up outside at 10 p.m the night before just to get a glimpse of the pop princess. You'll never see me doing that. Poor parents! If they showed up at 5:30 a.m with their kids, they were too late. All that just to say Hi and Bye to Hilary, if they were lucky. There was even this girl who was about 8 years old, who travelled 13 hours by bus from New Brunswick with her mom just for this one-hour event. Unbeleivable.

Yellow cabs and slippery roads

NYC Adventure: Part 3

We looked at it and gulped. At barely nine in the morning, we wondered whether only crazy people showed up here. If they were, there were a lot of them- enough to form a two-block lineup at the Empire State building. Just like boxing day at Future Shop. And it was colder than the previous two days, I actually needed a hat (and started to get sick).

This is why I recommend taking a tour if you plan on visiting NYC. Our tour guide had already bought our tickets, and knew another way to get in. It was probably a weird sight to see a bunch of Canadians get off a tour bus and head straight for the pharmacy next to the Empire State building, but that's where our secret doorway was.

No NYC trip is complete without a trip up to the 86th floor of the Empire State building. Doesn't matter if you're scared of heights, the view is awesome. Just ask CJ, she survived it.

We then had a few hours of free time before heading back to Montreal. After a coffee stop at a nearby Starbucks, we decided to take a cab (NYC streets are packed with yellow cabs) and head out to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It's a really nice, big museum- from the outside on 5th Avenue, the Met, with its tall columns and windows, immense stairways and water fountains, looks like it could be an emperor's palace. It's got everything in it, from renaissance paintings to an Egyptian art gallery, which includes a whole temple that was shipped to America as a gift. We spent awhile in that section and didn't even need a guide- Sabrina, who is obsessed with Egypt made up for that.

After dragging Sabrina away from her Nile haven, we rushed off in yellow cabs again, this time to Times Square. While it was not as packed as on new year's eve, there were still a lot of people. We got to see the famous Naked Cowboy- New York's equivalent of Montreal's Ogilvy Spoonman. This guy is out in Times Square everyday, no matter how cold it is, wearing nothing but his cowboy hat, tightie-whities and guitar. I really wonder how he's able to do that.

We then went into the giant Toys R US- and trust me, it's really giant. There is a ferris wheel in there. 4 floors filled with every toy you can imagine. You could probably sue them if they don't have the toy you're looking for. You can also find a 20-feet high animatronic T-Rex in the Jurassic Park exhibit... a two-floor Barbie house...the Candyland shop, which is a life-size version of the Candyland boardgame, and so much more! Be careful if you bring kids there, they'll never want to leave.

The end of our Toys R US visit marked the end of our trip. It was time to go back to bus and head up to Montreal. It was a long ride back home- hell, we had time to watch three movies, including one whole movie while being tied up at the customs (yes, THAT long). There were something like 12 busses in front of ours, plus the roads were really slippery- the bus in front of us had trouble moving along because it kept sliding into the ditch. A lot of people were getting impatient, but in the end, we weren't tied up for as long as we thought we'd be. So we all made it home in one piece- well, I caught the flu and still have it a bit...

Manhattan Rush

NYC Adventure: Part 2

So after only getting about 2.5 hours of sleep that night (keep in mind that I barely got any the night before), we woke up to a nice continental breakfast, ready for another day of exploring the Big Apple. "Did you guys see the ball last night?" asked a fellow tourmate. Sabrina, CJ and I shook our heads no. "Ohh.." said the guy, who like everyone on the tour but us had this Québecois accent. "The ball and fireworks, vverrrryyy nice...on TV." Heh. I guess I should have taped it.

After breakfast, we took off for a tour of NYC, guided by a French-speaking New Yorker with a Spanish accent. We rode all over the city and got to see Central Park, Harlem, and Soho. We saw The Dakota, the building in which John Lennon lived in the last years of his life. He got shot in front of that place while returning home one day from a recording session as his wife Yoko Ono watched in horror. Yoko still lives in one of the appartments on the fifth floor. We passed by 5th Avenue, the most expensive street in New York- it's got the Rockerfeller Centre, The Trump Tower, Radio City Music Hall, stores like the giant Macy's, Niketown, F.A.O Schwarz and the Disney Store.

The tour ended at Pier 17, kind of like the equivalent of our old port. It's got ships docked at the port, and I don't mean little motorboats like we see in Saint-Anne-de-Bellevue- I'm talking colorful classic-loooking tugboats and sail ships. It was really nice out that day, 12 degrees with sunshine. We actually saw some people wearing shorts. You'd never see that in Montreal in January, unless, as Greg said, you count French sluts in miniskirts.

After a delicious free new year's lunch (two BIG pieces of new york pizza), off we were for shopping in Chinatown and on Canal Street. Chinatown New York is known as the place where you can get fake brand name items for cheaper.

We spent the evening on 5th avenue. The stores were closed, but there there was still a lot to see- the giant Christmas tree, displays in store windows (think of a bigger Ogilvy's xmas window with a lineup to view it). After warming up over coffee in the Trump Tower (it was a bit chilly) we walked all the way to 9th avenue to eat supper in a Chinese restaurant.

After dinner we realized that we were running late and had only 15 minutes to make it to the bus. What to do now? RUN!!! Lucky for us girls, the guys were able to run all the way there, because we couldn't. They made it on time and distracted the tour guide and bus driver. When we got there (last) about ten minutes late, the driver was telling us how lucky we were.

The rest of night was chill with a photo stop to capture a panoramic night view of Manhattan. The party continued in the guys' room with chocolate and brandy...

La Vida Loca begins...

NYC Adventure: Part 1

Happy New Year everyone! Hope you all partied hard this past weekend. I sure did. And as I promised some of you, I will write about my adventure, even though I don't feel like it because I am sick. See guys, I'm nice. j/k

My New Year's celebration begin on Thursday December 30th when Sabrina and CJ came over to spend the night. We were to leave at 4:30 am to catch a bus to New York City. I only got one hour of sleep that night while CJ decided to stay up all night. At least she (and everyone but me) got some sleep on the way there.

Our bus departed at 5:30 am from Laval. Even so, we got to U.S at 10:30 am, after being tied for 2.5 hours at the customs. I almost had a heart attack when the officer got suspicous of me and asked me to follow her inside because the photo on my 5 year-old passport doesn't look like me- it's this hidious picture of me with bangs and black hair. I'm now a redhead with no bangs, plus I was wearing my glasses. Even worse, when I was asked to show another piece of I.D, I realized that I forgot my wallet at home. My last bad omen of 2004. Good thing I had extra cash on me.

It was long bus ride. We spent it sleeping (or trying to) and staring at Samir. Needless to say, we arrived at our four star Crown Plaza hotel in New Jersey a bit late- around 4:15, meaning we only had 45 minutes to get ready to leave for Times Square. The first thing I noticed when we got there was there there was no snow at all. The hotel was practically right next the New Jersey-New York Tunnel, so it only took about ten minutes to get there.

After listening to our tour guide tell us what to expect at Times Square, we decided that it sort of sounded like a pain- 500,000 people, tight security, no bathrooms (well, we could go into the Dunkin Doughnuts and pay $5 to pee). Thus, we decided that we would spend our new year's eve at Tavern on the Green, a popular dinining venue in on 67th street in Central Park that features a lantern-lit garden and music. After wandering around for awhile, we finally found the Tavern ourselves- we asked a police officer for directions, but he didn't know where it was...it turned out we were right next to it.

At the front of the brightly-lit Tavern, a man in a long black coat and black top hat (think Uncle Scrooge like) stands at the gate and greets all the party goers. He opens the doors for people who pass by in their cars. It's all very nice, until we find out that only those who have payed $100 for reservation can get in.

What to do now? We made our way back to the city and went to 9th Avenue (away from the big crowd) to get something to eat. We finally settled for Saigon Fun, a cozy Vietnamese restaurant where we got to have a good, inexpensive meal, and use the bathroom for free before heading back out to party city.

We walked all the way back to Times Square and had to follow this massive mosh pit-like line of traffic in order to try to make our way to one of the viewing areas. After actually being able to get on-site and having security check our bags, we found ourselves wwwwwwwwaaaaaayyyyyy far from the main stage. It was so crowded that we couldn't really get anywhere.

So we decided to wander aound downtown a bit more. Everywhere we went was crowded, but not as clamped as in Times Square. There were really long lineups outside of all bars and clubs. We walked for blocks and blocks trying to find somewhere to go, with no luck. I'm glad it was nice out, or I would have given up. Finally, we just went back to Times Square and found a spot to sit down on one of the streets that had no view of the ball. We didn't even know that it was new year's until we saw the giant Times Square confetti comming our way (yes, they are really giant, bout 2x2").

That's how I spent New Year's eve- wondering around the craziest city on earth with five of the craziest people I know- a whole lot better than in boring Montreal.