My parents were up in Vermont visiting UVM for Parents Weekend, and I decided to drive up to see them and my sister (pictured). Problem is, I don’t get out of SNL until 1:30am on Saturday nights, and have to be back at SNL on Tuesdays at noon. So it had to be the shortest road trip ever.

Of the 36 hours this trip lasted, I spent 10 of them driving, 7 of them sleeping, and the remaining 19 actually there. And it was all totally worth it.

The last time I went to Burlington, VT, I flew there. It’s like a 40 minute flight from JFK, but getting to JFK takes like over an hour, then you have to deal with security, and waiting to board, and boarding, and waiting on the tarmac, and waiting to take off, and then landing but waiting to taxi to the gate, and then waiting for your bags, and then waiting to be picked up from the airport.

So I just wanted to drive. 

Plus, I’ve never driven in the northeast before and it’s fall! So I rented a car and did it (because the whole “you have to be 25 to rent a car rule” doesn’t apply to New York for whatever reason).

Hey guys, there’s this place, it’s called Upstate New York. It’s BEAUTIFUL. You should check it out.

Seriously, the drive was amazing. On the way up I went through New Jersey, into upstate New York, and drove all the way up and then crossed over into Vermont. On the way back, I drove down through Vermont, through Massachusets and Connecticut, and then back into New York.

I also drove in Manhattan/Harlem/The Bronx for the first time which was crazy but exciting and not as scary as I thought it would be.

Anyway, the point of the story is that I can never drive in Florida again. I wish I could have taken pictures of the mountains and hills and leaves changing colors, but ya know, I was driving. I do, however, have a few pictures from Vermont which is what’s scattered through this post. Seeing the fam for a few hours was nice too.

Footage I took from the 9/11 Memorial, the Tribute In Light, and the memorial at Battery Park. 

Rebuild, Recover, Remember.

After the news broke last night, I felt like I had to take advantage of the fact that I’m in New York City, so I went out to Union Square at around midnight. That’s where people were partying in the streets when Obama won the election, so I figured it’d be the hot spot again. Strangly enough, nobody was there.

We all know now that Ground Zero (pictured above) has been the place to go in New York to celebrate Osama Bin Laden’s death, and while I didn’t go out with the hoards of people last night, I did go down this afternoon to check it out. It was still swarming with people. It wasn’t the rampage that it was last night, but people from New York and all over the world came to check out the scene and wave American flags.

The craziest part, however, was the amount of news organizations that were there. I’ve never seen so many in my life. All of the obvious news people were there, CNN, NBC, FOX, etc., but all of the local stations from Boston drove down, all of the local stations from Philly drove over, and we even had news trucks from Albany. I even made it in the background of CBS2 News here in New York.

Video of everything I just talked about is on Facebook and will be on Tumblr later tonight. Here are a few more pictures:

^Celebrating with the American Flag.

^NYPD keeping us safe. <3

^Freedom Tower under construction. 

^Endless people.

^Flags for sale on the street.

Going to leave this as my wallpaper for a while.

USA<3

I saw this in Time Magazine and thought it was really cool. So I recreated it for my wall.

Okay, I’m just going to say it. Modern Family is the best show on TV.

That’s really all I have to say.

If you’re not watching it, start watching it so that you can understand the screenshot included in this post as well as enjoy 30 minutes of hilarity every Wednesday at 9PM on ABC. It’s about three families within a larger family: a traditional husband & wife + three kids, a gay couple with adopted Asian baby, and an old guy with a young, Columbian, gold digging wife + her son from a different dad. 

The cast is great, the writing is great, and Sarah Hyland is hot, really, you can’t go wrong.

(Screenshot Courtesy: ABC / 20th Century Fox)

Wooo got my absentee ballot! If you are 18+ you need to vote! This may not be a presidential election but it’s still really important to vote for governor and senate (I guess ideally you should vote for everything else too but I don’t know what any of it means so whateva). 

I’m still a legal resident of Florida so that’s where I vote and if you’re a Floridian you should too. I’m not telling you who to vote for, but Florida is such a swing state that every vote counts.

Do it.

People who don’t vote are nothing more than Canadians, and nobody wants that.

In honor of the 9th anniversary of September 11th today I’ve changed the deandagati.com homepage to something a little less egotistic and a little more patriotic.

The picture above is a shot from outside my apartment in NYC, about 35 blocks north of the World Trade Center site. Every year since 9/11 the city turns the lights back on. They’re really amazing to see and are visible from all over Manhattan.

This is my third 9/11 in New York and I really like being here for it because while the city puts on ceremonies and memories, life goes on like any other day — something that I think is well represented in the picture above.

America <3

I can see a bunch of the surrounding cities’ 4th of July fireworks shows from my house, so last night I was just kind of standing out in the street looking at fireworks coming from all directions, including some of those sweet illegal ones being set off by my neighbors. It looks incredibally lame in the video, but trust me, it was cool.

Happy birthday, America!