So, I’m Going To New York City

So, if you haven’t heard the news lately in real life, I’m going to go to New York City starting tomorrow.

I am currently in a whirlwind of emotions right now, getting ready to pack up and go. But for those who don’t know about my latest excursion, hit the “Read More” button, and I’ll tell you the story of how I got the chance to go to New York City for a couple days.

Channel 3 in Kalamazoo had a contest back in the beginning of September, around Labor Day, that lasted for a couple of weeks. It centered around their broadcasts of Live with Kelly and Ryan that they air at 9am every weekday morning. The contest was to find a codeword during the broadcasts, enter said codeword in online, and have a chance to win lunch with the hosts, Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest, in New York City.

I said to myself, “eh, why the hell not,” and decided to go for the contest, just for the heck of it. I never win contests anyway, I thought, so what’s the harm in entering? Thing was, I had no clue where the codeword for the broadcasts was. With any other contest Channel 3 does, there’s usually a bumper that says, “Hey! Here’s the codeword! On your screen right now! Go enter! Now!” Surprisingly, there wasn’t one for this particular contest. I was backing up the show, fast-forwarding through the show, trying to find what I was looking for, and I had zero luck at all.

So, on the final day of the contest period, September 14, I decided to e-mail someone from the station about the codeword. That’s when I found out something I should’ve been paying attention to the whole time: the trivia answers at the beginning of the show were the codewords. Duh! I felt a little bit like an idiot. So, I enter the codeword that was in the reply from the day’s broadcast, throw in my e-mail, and go to school for the day.

Fast-forward to September 29. I was sitting at home, getting to go to work. I literally got back from the bathroom just after 3pm, and I open up my email and see this:

And I’m sitting there like, “Oh my god. OH MY GOD.”

So, I immediately post this exciting news to Facebook, with the event already in my Google calendar:

So, I posted that, and immediately got one of my college friends to come with me on the trip. It took a little while for them to realize I wasn’t joking about the trip, however. Luckily, my friend realized that I wasn’t joking, and now we fly out tomorrow morning.

I don’t know if I’ll be making any blog posts while I’m in NYC, but I’ll do my best. If I don’t, I’ll be sure to share my experiences on RTRT when I get back on Thursday evening!

If you have any good suggestions about what I should do in NYC, let me know in the comments! I would love to hear what y’all think! Wish us safe travels, because this will be the first time I’ve ever flown in a commercial airplane. Be sure to watch Live this Wednesday at 9am, too. I’ll be in the audience, high-fiving whoever the guests are that day.

And you better believe a pic with Kelly and Ryan will be on this blog.