a little late, but this is what happened last friday.

on friday night, two of my friends & i drove to new york city.

a girl & a guy. they're both pot & coke heads & i love them.

the girl & i set out at about 5. we told our parents we were staying over our friend anna's house, a few towns over. our real plan was to find our guy friend, & hit up some parties in this cute little drug town nearby.

but he was busy when we left home, so we went to the ghetto to chill with our other friend. we went & bought weed & it was all chill, except then there was drama cause a bunch of guys had gone over their family's house, put guns to their babies' heads & robbed them. in other parts of the state, god even other parts of the city, people call the cops. but not here. here you go with your friends & they get their guns, fucking 10 year olds running back home & getting guns. it's a terrible place, i've always had a theory that this city is one of the worser levels of hell, but these streets are beyond anything.

our friends told us we should probably bail, & we agreed. so they went & did their thing & got arrested.

so we go pick up our guy friend. & he had just moved out of his apartment, so all of his earthly possessions are sitting in my car. we drove around, by this point she was driving. & she said, "i don't know, i'm just really in the mood to drive. like if someone said, "hey let's go to new york" i'd be like, okay!" & i thought about how bad i've been needing to get out of this place & i said, "hey. let's go to new york." & she said, "are you serious?" & i said, "completely." & she said, "let's fucking go to new york!" & we turned to him & said, "hey want to go to new york with us?" & he said, "sure."

so at 11:30 at night we got on the highway - the wrong highway. it's south to the city, but she went north.

so we headed towards albany, went in this massive loop & entered manhattan at exactly 4am.

he fell asleep on the ride there. she told me, "if you fall asleep i will crash this car." & we laughed, hard.

we were driving & singing, barely believing that we were really driving to new york. "semi-charmed life" came on the radio & we sang loud, smiling & laughing, figuring it for our theme song, but by the second or third time we're screaming, "i want something else to get me through this semi-charmed kind of life" we became sober, as if for a moment we realized that people usually only escape their homes in this manner when they're unhappy, & god knows the three of us are unhappy with our lives, no matter how much we try to play it off as alright.

we became silent, but eventually picked back up when "damn it feels good to be a gangsta" came on the radio.

we wanted to smoke a bowl in central park, but only because he thought the big christmas tree was there. when we told him it was at rockafellar center, we changed plans.

in the meantime we smoked a bowl at morningside park, whatever that is.

we got pulled over by cops for going through a red light.

she turned onto a street, unsuspecting, & ended up in the cops' court, dozens of police vehicles standing as threats. but we made it through.

she was seriously pissed by now, maybe 5:30 in the morning. she wanted to go home. she was the only one who had to be back at a certain time - had to walk in her house at 10.

but we begged her, told her we needed to see a little christmas. we made a deal, we'd leave at 6:30 & this time we'd go the right way home.

at 6:29 we gave up looking for rockafeller center. she turned onto a street, almost hit a man & i screamed, "person!" & she slammed on the breaks. then we went up the street a little farther & he & i both started screaming, we saw the tree. she thought we were screaming because she was going to hit something again so she screamed, too & then asked frantically, "what did i hit?!?" & we screamed, "THE TREE!" & pointed & we were all happy.

so we parked the car, went to the tree & took pictures in front of it.

we couldn't get back on the right highway, so we asked for directions. guy gave us the wrong directions. but he was cute.

getting out of the city was a little difficult, she was pissed & we were chill. i looked out, the sun was rising, the water & everything was just perfect & he & i kept saying things like, "everything is beautiful." & then she'd get mad because she just couldn't understand.

we got stuck in white plains for awhile, & everyone there gave us wrong directions, too.

finally we got out of new york. but we ended up in jersey. first, close to new york. then before we knew it we were almost in PA - a little far from home. one of the times we were trying to get on the highway i said to her, "if this isn't the right way, flip the car over." & we all laughed hysterically. finally we stopped laughing & it was quiet & i said, "i was only half joking."

it's now 8:30 & no one knows what to do. we stopped & asked for directions about a million times, but instead of just saying "i don't know how to get to connecticut" everyone gave us their best guesses which really, were the worst. she started off pissed, now she's crying, so i took over driving. still got a little lost.

stopped at a dunkin donuts for directions & a bathroom. he said, "want me to try driving now?" & i said, "might as well."

we asked the people at dunkin donuts, & with their help, & the help of his exboyfriend who stayed on the phone with us, we got on the right highway, headed in the right direction, finally.

she had already called her mom, told her she didn't have to go to work till 3 so she wasn't going to be home at 10.

we sped back to connecticut, got back to my town at 10:50. we sat in the mcdonalds parking lot & smoked a bowl till 11, cause we wanted burgers.

i drove, dropped her off at her house while he hid under blankets so her parents wouldn't see him. we got down the street, switched places cause he wanted to drive.

he & i drove around smoking, talking about the night & how amazing it was. we looked around, at his town, at my town, at this horrible state of ours & we decided, still, that everything was beautiful. that the woods & the ghetto & the houses & the rich people & the trailor park & the grocery store were beautiful.

he said, "what is it about today?" & i said, "maybe it's the kind of thing you can only see after a night like last night." & he said, "probably."

we picked up a friend of ours, someone i haven't even seen in two years, & we smoked some more. she said, "wow. you guys really went to new york?" & we said yes, in a proud but still disbelieving sort of way. & i thought about the fact that we were smoking & driving & i said to him, "you know, this is all that we've been doing for two days." & we laughed.

finally we went to his house, switched places down the street cause he doesn't have his license. he was moving back with his mom for a little while, so i helped him bring all his things to his house.

i called my mom & told her i was coming home & she said,

"did you have fun at anna's sleepover?"

before & after