A Weekend in New York - How Novel!

The weekend was lovely.

On Friday night, I left work early to meet my friends JV and L who were in town from Boston. L ultimately had to show me her engagement ring because I did not see it, despite the fact that she was basically thrusting it in my face! How very exciting - they'd chosen not to call me to inform me of the engagement because they thought it would be cuter to surprise me when I noticed the ring. Of course I didn't notice, which is predictable. I am thrilled for JV and L. I am voting for a theme wedding at Sturbridge Village, but I have a feeling my vote doesn't really count.

JV and L were in town to see JV's friend M's musical, which was showing as part of the NYC Fringe Festival, a two-week-long theater festival of off-off-off Broadway plays. I liked it more than I expected to. The musical definitely has potential - M wrote the story, lyrics, and dialogue, but it was apparent that he'd lost creative control. It must be so difficult to completely surrender one's vision to a director. I was disappointed by the lead - apparently the lead was in Alias (which I've never seen) and was therefore not entirely comfortable singing or with being on stage. Disappointing. I didn't believe anything about him. It's hard to get wrapped up in something with a drippy protagonist. The remainder of the cast, however, was exceptional. It was much better than I expected, and hopefully, with better staging, this musical will go somewhere. Congrats M!

Afterwards we headed to Rissoteria, where we had, of course, risotto, and pizza! I've been to Rissoteria a million times but it had never occurred to me to have pizza. It was very, very, very good. We then met up with D at his apartment and had some drinks, and finally headed out for desserts.

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On Saturday I met up with my friends JW and BS from college, who were also in town to see M's musical. We met on Bleeker and had brunch, caught up (I haven't seen JW in nearly two years!), reminisced, longed for the college days.

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After brunch I walked through a street fair on Bleeker, where I bought a new satchel to replace Decaying Satchel. I've had Decaying Satchel since like 1998. It's a mess, but for some reason I am extremely attached to it. I've been trying to replace it for over a year and just haven't found anything better.

I found a black one on Saturday that I didn't think was better, but for $14 on the street can you really go wrong?

I picked it up, posed with it and thought "This could do... this is doable..." I decided to buy it, but upon closer inspection realized that there was a blemish on the front. If I were a more assertive person, I'd have said "Look, this is imperfect... what if I give you $10 for it instead of $14?" but instead I said:

Me: Hey, look, there's something on this.

Woman: Oh, that's just from sticker.

Me: Yes, well, I don't know. Umm... you don't have another one somewhere, do you?

Woman: No.

Me: Oh, well, yeah. See, I want this but there's this stuff on it.

Woman: Oh, that's just from the sticker. See? (scrapes it a bit, nothing happens)

Me: Oh, yeah, that's too bad. I'm not sure I want it if its got the sticker.

Woman: You can just take it off with water.

Me: Oh. Well, I'm not sure that will work. (because water never removes the gooey sticker residue from things, as much as you'd like it to)

Woman: No, water. Just use water.

Me: (silence, confused look, waiting for her to say "Just take it for $10")

Woman: You can just use water.

Me: I don't think water will work, actually.

Woman: It will.

Me: It's sticky, though.

Woman: Want me try to take it off? I have water.

Me: Go nuts.

Woman: (puts Poland Springs onto a tissue and starts scrubbing and nothing, of course, happens, other than small little pieces of tissue being stuck to the bag)

Me: Yeah, see?

Woman: I meant oil. You use oil to get off.

Me: Oil?

Woman: You know, oil.

Me: Right. (lying)

Woman: I mean alcohol. Use alcohol. You know. Rubbing alcohol.

Oil, the opposite of water. Yes. And alcohol, right.

I bought the bag for $14 because I was getting nowhere.

The bag is miraculous. It's like Mary Poppins' bag. It's the same size as Decaying Satchel but holds 10x the amount of stuff. YES! I am thrilled, and am experiencing zero remorse about the retirement of Decaying Satchel.

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I then headed uptown to the MOMA, where I walked around and took pictures and tried very hard to remember the names of artists and paintings and sculptures that I like. I was there mainly to see the Lee Friendlander exhibit, which was amazing. It was so amazing that I ended up buying the book.

My original intention was to head down to the HOWL Festival in the East Village after the MOMA, but instead I went back to my apartment because the Lee Friendlander book weighed about 30 pounds.

Photos of MOMA Outing forthcoming...

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I went back to my apartment where I downloaded some photos, did some music-related projects, cooked a lavish dinner, and actually relaxed!

I then met D to see Brothers Grimm, which you should not see.

It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't good either. It was basically a two hour shout out to fairy tales. It was more in the Style of Terry Gilliam than a Terry Gilliam movie. It was nice visually, but otherwise completely flat. And it didn't make a lot of sense, but I guess that's not the point.

In addition, the French characters all had French accents, the Italian character had an Italian accent, and the German characters were all...British.

Such a pet peeve of mine.

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On Sunday D and I went to D's friend's house on Long Island. She and her husband have a huge house that's nicely decorated. They have a cottage in their back yard. And a pool. I said "D, let's be rich!" The purpose for the visit was swimming, but it was overcast and not terribly warm, so the pool wasn't swimmable. It didn't matter, because we sat around and ate and chatted and I enjoyed the sounds of birds and insects. I forget how comforting that can be. It was so nice to be barefoot walking on grass!

D's friend's husband works in television, and on one of their shelves were many Emmy Awards. I didn't even ask if I could touch one. Instead I just picked one up and started delivering a speech, thanking my mother for all of her support and encouragement when nobody else believed in me.

A note on Emmy's: They are huge. I am wondering if everyone who's ever received an Emmy is a giant. Seriously. They are humongous. Not as heavy as I'd anticipated, but definitely taller. D wanted to take my picture with it, but I thought that was a little excessive. Not that giving a speech in someone's house isn't excessive, but you have to draw the line somewhere! I said "No, D, no, really, don't bother" but now I really regret it. I'm sure we'll be back, at which point I will have hundreds of photos taken of my acceptance speech.

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Upon returning from Long Island (and after a really bizarre nap - you know the kind -when you don't even realize you've fallen asleep and then suddenly someone is tapping your shoulder saying "We're at Penn Station" and you don't believe them because you just left Long Island! and then you walk up the stairs but your whole leg is asleep and you don't get reoriented for another two hours or so), we went to D's apartment and set it up in Furniture Conformation 2, which might end up being the winner. This new arrangement, while not as aesthetically pleasing as Furniture Conformation 1, has the advantage of the Bed-In-Nook concept, which is awesome for sleeping.

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We hung out there for a bit, and then headed to this adorable little bar called Cooper 35 for E's non-surprise surprise birthday party!

Despite being on detox, D and I fell prey to the 4 mixed drinks for $12 ticket scheme and actually ended up drinking way more than that! Yum. There was all sorts of food and new people. E has nice friends - people I'd actually like to see again! I think this could be my best Experience with Strangers in New York thus far. It seems that they were mostly film students or significant others of film students. And then there was French Roommate. And some other people. All lovely. When we arrived, I was like "Wait! How will we know who's here for the party? I don't know any of E's friends!" but they were nice and welcoming and it was like we were all old friends.

We had much fun.

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And now its Monday and I am tired, because detox did not occur.

I have little planned for the week, though, and D and I are headed to Orlando on Friday to force ourselves not to do anything on Labor Day. Spending time with parents and beaches guarantees relaxation. We are going to scramble to watch all of our Netflixes tonight so we can get three new ones for the trip. We will watch movies and swim in the ocean and eat well and read lots of books and there will be no Labor.

It's going to be awshummmmm.