New York

Last weekend three of my friends drove me to NYC to celebrate Trevor and I's upcoming wedding (less than 4 weeks away!) New York has always been a very special place for me. Growing up, my grandparents lived in Flushing, Queens and we spent so much time there surrounded by family. It's the only place I remember feeling completely normal, it was a time in my life before anything bad had happened. I hadn't been back in about 12 years, since my beautiful grandmother passed away, may her memory be always a blessing. After that, the whole family kind of lost touch. You'd think New York would be easy enough to get to, especially considering we're only 4 or 5 hours drive from there, but for whatever reason I could never make it happen. It's something I frequently talked about and even planned. This year, surrounding all the wedding planning, there's been some awfully "coincidental" events occurring. I recently reconnected with my family, after not seeing or talking to anyone for over a decade. Meanwhile, my friends were planning this lovely little bachelorette getaway to the place where I always longed to get back to.

Naturally, I was super excited to see some of my family while we were in town. We got together with my cousin, who is a police captain in Manhattan. I got to meet his wonderful wife and their adorable babies. And, seeing as how he's the captain, my friends and I got a little VIP treatment for the day. We had breakfast and he took us to some places in Manhattan that the tourists don't know about. When I was little I thought my cousin was the coolest guy on the planet, because I knew that being a police officer was really important. I looked up to him in a big way and I was always excited to see him and hear his stories. You can imagine hanging out with him after so long took me back to a state of child-like wonderment. It was a pretty magical time and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Have a beautiful day!
MacK Mars