I didn't skip today exactly, for the record - I just wrote part of it tonight and part of it the next day. Because we got back late, and the thing to do seemed to be to jot down a few words about a few random things, then save the rest for later.
I met a really sweet friend of my friend named Jen today, who took us to this super cool little bar in Williamsburg that had, as she described it, basically the best vibe in a bar that I've ever seen. It was dark, had lots of candles and couches, a really amazing ceiling mural, and the coolest jukebox ever. This thing played Band of Horses, Coldplay, and Radiohead - you just couldn't go wrong on it. The owners knew Jen, and although the people inside seemed way too cool for me, I really thought the place was great, and intend to go back there sometime. Maybe most importantly, Jen was one of the coolest, most down-to-earth people I've met up here, as well as being a really great young photographer. I'd seen her website the night before, and it had really blown me away.
Opening night went really well - everything gelled fairly nicely, and the video was almost flawless. There was one minor timing issue, and once or twice the actors flubbed their lines, but all in all, it was a great success, and we were very happy with it. People really seemed to take to it - my two friends who saw it really appreciated all the weirdness, all the things that only halfway make sense but are important parts of the plot (maybe most specifically a scene where the ship's Captain strips, morphs into a woman, and then some kind of weird sea creature), and said that it never failed to entertain. So we definitely did something right. Also, theater people are great - they start the drinking before the show starts. We were preparing to start the show last night, getting situated, and then Julia busts out some expensive Irish whiskey. I mean, hey, it got us relaxed, and by the time the karaoke scene came around, we were all singing in the back. It was great.
It's going to be really strange coming back to the apartment tonight. Really lonely and incredibly depressing, as long as I'm being honest. Nearly a week of waking up to someone, having someone meet me in front of the theater, knowing there's a friendly ear when I want it - those are things that I'll miss intensely. It was a lovely week, to say the least.
I bought my ticket home today, which was exciting and scary all at the same time. I'll be coming home on the 22nd, and then leaving again on the 30th. The tickets were crazy cheap (thanks, Jet Blue!), and the only downside is that I'm arriving and departing from Charlotte. But hey, that means more bonding time for the wonderful people who are going to be coming to get me and coming to drop me off (right, guys?). I decided to go for eight days, because I've got so much to fit in such a short time - at least four really close friends to spend time with, a whole lot of family to see, and two nieces to spend a summer's worth of doting on. And that's just the first four days - the last four I'll actually spend at a beach house with my extended family.
So this morning I got up to repark my car to stay out of the way of the street sweepers. I went down three streets to 57th, which as it turns out, is an as-yet uncovered part of my neighborhood - the Italian side. I parked my car about twenty minutes before the the street-sweeping signs said I could, but I'd watched them go by already, so I figured it was fine. But standing on the opposite side of the street yelling into his phone was this Italian guy, who up-nods at me and tells me that I should go ahead and stay for a few minutes, just to be sure I don't get a ticket. A few minutes later he crossed back over and told me that five or ten 'til should probably suffice. It was actually really adorable.
One thing - I'm going out on a limb here, but I feel like New Yorkers bond in a totally different way from South Carolinians. In Columbia, people are brought together by Southern gentility, by the way most of us share some kind of common courtesy. New Yorkers like to get angry at the same things, and by that, seem to bond. The Italian guys getting angry about the stupid street sweepers is a great example - me and the three Italian dudes shared a moment getting annoyed about the fact that we had to watch our cars to be sure we didn't get tickets when the street sweepers had definitely already come and gone. It's just a different kind of community than the one in South Carolina, or maybe the South as a whole.
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