Guess what? The day has finally come. I will be arriving in New York, or rather… New Jersey… tomorrow. Seriously. This time tomorrow, I will have already reached Chicago, and will be en route to New Jersey. Wow.

It seems like just yesterday that I got my email and phone call from Duncan Hines letting me know that they would be flying me out to their test kitchen, and now the day has come. I’m (almost) packed. I’ve (almost) stocked the freezer with breastmilk for Zach. I’m (almost) ready. I’m… almost. There is so much to do and prepare, because this is literally the first time I’ve been away from Zach for more than 30 minutes since he was born last July. And now, I’m leaving for roughly 36 hours.

I have to do something to take my mind off of leaving for that long. So, what I’ve done is decided to post a list of my favorite songs about New York. I’ll be close enough to NY that I think it’ll count!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_m-BjrxmgI]

Hey There Delilah is one of my brother’s favorite songs at the moment. To the point that it gets played on repeat, no joke. In fact, he’s kind of the one who inspired this blog post because he said “You know what you should blog about? You should do something about Hey There Delilah. Since it’s in New York and you’re going to New York.” Cool kid, no joke. He helped me come up with ideas for many of my recipes for the Duncan Hines contest, and I love him infinitely.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPlcE3GcoFc]

America is easily one of my favorite songs, especially since it’s from one of my favorite musicals ever– West Side Story. It just makes me smile to listen (and sing along) to that song.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xQOb51qZ-c]

U2’s City of Blinding Lights is pretty clearly about New York, but for some reason, it still makes me think about Paris every time, probably because of the Devil Wears Prada, but that’s just me.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UjsXo9l6I8]

I have no idea why, but every time I hear this song, I tear up a little bit. Every time I’ve been to New York, it really does seem like a city where dreams are made. It’s fast-moving, it’s exciting, and there’s just so much happening that it must have some sort of incredible spirit about it. I can’t get past how much I enjoy this song, even though it’s not my typical style of music.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqlJl1LfDP4]

I’m finishing with one final song about New York, the one that most people think of when they hear the topic of Songs about New York. To me, this is a song that pretty much everyone knows.

The last time I was in New York City was 2008. You know what else happened in New York City in 2008? They had a tornado. Or rather, they had a tornado warning. It lasted about 4 minutes, and the whole city was in panic. Truly, in panic– the news anchors were visibly shaking and their voices quavered, people were running and yelling through the halls of the hotel, trying to get to shelter, and… me being from Kansas, I ran over to my window and planted myself next to the window on the 15th floor. Was that smart? Probably not. Had there been a tornado, that would have been kind of dumb. But, it was what it was, and there wasn’t a tornado, so it all worked out.

Hopefully, this trip will be incredibly eventful, but avoid any major panic like the last trip!

Do any of you have songs that remind you of travel or about New York? I’d love to add them to my playlist if you think of some!