Diplodocus

Ah, what a night.

I feel slightly more like my normal self.

Most likely because I have arrived at work exhausted, recovering from an exciting and bizarre New York night.

It is so nice to be reacquainted.

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The night began with a burrito, followed by a bonus movie class. Before the class, the professor said "Are any of you journalists?" and told us not to write about what happened.

Now.

Does a blog count? It is published writing, so I feel like I shouldn't write about it.

This being said, I think its acceptable to write about things very vaguely and then in the summer, when this movie is released, I can reveal all!

Basically, we got to screen a rough cut of a film from a very famous director, who is old and adorable and who wanted to screen the film to an audience of film-goers and film-lovers, not critics. He wanted to see how the film played, if laughs came in the right places, if the audience responded as intended, if we understood what was going on.

The movie itself was amazing. It far exceeded my expectations, not because I didn't have faith in the director but because I, like everyone there, lacked faith in his main casting choice. It ended up being a non-issue. The movie was charming and riveting and enjoyable. I will recommend it to you when its actually out.

Hearing a director talk about his movie mid-process was an interesting experience. I kept wondering if he felt at all insecure, what he must have been feeling while we watched the movie, how disappointing it must be for people to watch bad movies they've made.

I like feeling like I am protecting secret information.

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After class I went to meet my friend DD at a bar called 12'' in the East Village. As soon as I walked in there, I recognized someone.

Those of you who know me might remember how I stumbled upon a stalker's dream on Friendster last year, when I found a link to a website/blog kept by a Dude I went to middle school with. This website is a photoblog chronicling the past few years, during which this Dude documented a variety of activities involving people I went to high school with.

If you know me, you also know that I suffer from a serious disconnect from high school. Prior to encountering this website, it felt like fiction to me. Almost as though it never happened, since it had no impact on the person I became. Seeing these people - seeing that they are still together and that they still have something - was a huge mind fuck for me. I went nuts and wrote songs and thought things like "Why did I disconnect? Do I want this? Do I want a reliable entourage? Do I want a posse comprised of people I can count on? Why don't I have a group? Why don't I care about these sorts of things? Why does my past make me so uncomfortable?"

In a way I was jealous of them. I was jealous of their having something old and comfortable and a given. I was jealous that they've found new lives but still preserve the old. I was jealous of their adventures. And, most importantly, I was jealous of this Dude's blog. But not super jealous, because he does techy things for a living.

Anyway, long story longer, I walked into this bar last night and saw this Dude's brother. Not that I ever met his brother in real life. No, folks, I recognized him from the photos on the blog.

I also know, from the blog, that these two travel as a pair, so I knew it wasn't long before Dude appeared.

I should also say that I am not surprised by any of this, since I knew that Dude hosts parties in the East Village often. I guess I knew it was only a matter of time.

Meanwhile, I pounded my Mad Dog cosmopolitan while I hung out with DD and D, who was having vertigo and also making no sense because he can't hear well, and the music was loud, and he rarely goes out to bars because he can't have conversations with people because he can't hear them, but tries so hard to be part of things.

Soon Dude appeared and I acted very surprised! and what are you doing here! and wow this is weird!!! I basically pretended like I had no idea what he was doing in NYC, and asked things like "Where do you live?" even though I know his apartment is a few blocks away and know what it looks like because there are pictures of it on his website and "What do you do?" even though I know he owns his own company and I know what it does and I know he's teaching courses at NYU.

Awkward. He shook D's hand and acted friendly. We didn't talk for long, because he knew everyone there and because I was having an existential crisis.

I eventually ended up sitting along the wall with D, who I tried to make feel secure - why does alcohol make people so insecure? - and DD, who I danced with while seated, and DD's friend, who looked just like Tommy Lee (!) and who was DJ-ing a bit that night.

It felt good to be out. To talk to people. To have conversations. I took Dude's card and emailed him today, asking to be put on the mailing list for his functions. Maybe I'll actually make some friends.

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At around 12:15 we headed over to Rothko, where we saw Diplo spin. That was the whole point of the evening. The drinking and existential crises delayed our getting there, so we only stayed for about an hour or so.

It was awesome. Again, it felt good to be out and to be dancing! It's been too long.

He's quite good. Lots of reggae and hip hop and Ah-Ha.

Only downside was that it was smokey, and I smell smoke-y today because I stayed at D's and am wearing the same black hoodey and jeans I wore last night. Gross, I know, but D lives a 4 minute walk from work and obviously I wasn't going to go back to Brooklyn after the show when I could take a 3-minute-cab to his apartment and get an extra hour of sleep the following morning.

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I am exhausted, but in a lovely and familiar way.

The way in which you know fun was had and the exhaustion is worth it.

I can recover tonight while I wait for PW to arrive from Boston! And whilst waiting for PW, I am going to do fun Friday-night activities such as laundry! and taxes! and sorting through mail from the past week since I haven't been home since Monday! and doing dishes! and buying food! and settling up the bill with Roommate!

It's all good, because the next two weeks are going to be non-stop.

And then I go to Orlando to "meet the family."

And then, around May, I can get some sleep.