The One About Justin Bieber

Where to begin?

Exactly a week ago this very minute, I was standing in the middle of Times Square with Sarah and Meg. We took photos and did the 360-degree turn in place, our necks craned up to see the lit signs in every direction. We had arrived that day, checked into our lovely hotel on the Upper West Side, eaten dinner and split a bottle of wine at Bin 71, and taken a cab to the West Village for dessert and (more) drinks at Sweet Revenge. We laughed almost every minute of the time we were together, from the moment that we saw our driver (we had a driver!) holding the sign with Sarah's name on it to the moment when Sarah drew the curtains in the hotel room, looked out at the view of the city, and said, "All because I made fun of Target."

We left Times Square eventually, stopping to pet several adorable dogs and - oops! - have one last, pricey glass of wine on a sidewalk cafe. We walked back to the hotel happily, navigating down side streets and being about 1/100th as intimidated by the city as I thought I would be. People were, to a person, nice. The waitress, for example, who took the time to quiz us when we asked for dessert recommendations: "You want chocolate?" Affirmative. "F&$@ yeah, you want chocolate!" she said, and proceeded to rattle off three or four places where we could get it. The stranger on the street who, when Meg asked him, "Is this Carrie Bradshaw's street?" smiled and said, "Sure. Yes," and did not roll his eyes at the tourists from Michigan. Justin Bieber's grandpa, who hung out with us for half an hour in the hallway and talked about garage sales in Canada before Sarah did a live, 90-second stand-up comedy routine on The View.

There were so many absurd things about the scenario that I can't even list them all. But, here:

• Getting ready in the morning and finally having the phone ring: "Ms. Cavanaugh? This is ABC. There is a white Escalade waiting out front to take you to the studio."
• The super-nice, super-kind makeup artist who "did" Sarah before her show casually revealing that he was also a drag queen.
• The video Meg made of Sarah demonstrating how close (5 feet) Justin Bieber's dressing room was from "equally as popular" Sarah Cavanaugh's dressing room.
• Running into Whoopi Goldberg in the bathroom, watching Barbara Walters walk down the hall from makeup to her dressing room with a towel over her head, talking Target dollar bins with Elizabeth Hasselbeck, photo ops with Joy Behar in the green room, and chatting Michigan winter weather with Mario Cantone in the elevator.
• Justin Bieber himself waltzing into our dressing room and singing, Broadway-style: "Does anybody have a full-length miiiiiiirooooor?" (We said, "No, Justin we do not. But would you like to sign memorabilia with your own face on it for our children?" He did not.)
• Hearing Sarah peek out of our dressing room to say, "Hey! I know you! You're Justin's swagger coach!" (She may or may not have watched Never Say Never a few too many times with her kids . . .)
• Sitting in the front row of the studio with just the producers and the sound guys as Justin Bieber and his dancers rehearsed not 20 feet in front of us.
• Sitting on a couch in the green room and watching as my friend walked right out on stage and rocked her routine to rave reviews without even seeming nervous.

Absurd, I say again. Also exiting, fun, surreal, hilarious, exhausting, and once-in-a-lifetime, I'm sure. I got the tiniest taste of NYC - enough to immediately want to go back with Jason for a long weekend to eat and drink our way through the neighborhoods, picnic in Central Park, and catch a Broadway show. But for this one time, it was enough - more than enough - to go along for the ride as my brave, funny friend chased her dream and gave the stand-up performance of a lifetime. Turns out she didn't win the contest (though the producer tells her it was oh-so-close), but I remain in awe of a person who can have that much fun in the face of that much pressure. I mean, she practically shared a stage with Justin Bieber! I think that makes her a winner, period. I think big things are still ahead, too.