Full Circle

Today I find myself in the Charlotte airport, in the very spot that I began writing this blog exactly 366 days ago as I awaited my flight to London. There is a palpable difference between the atmosphere here and the city that I have left for the next few days. For the first few minutes in Charlotte, I was confused as to why people were making eye contact—even smiling. Even though it has only been one month, I have grown completely accustomed to the coldness of New York and the universally accepted irrelevancy of each face in the hordes of tourists and workers hurrying toward the next best thing.

I am so happy to be here—more specifically on my way to KD convention in Tucson—that I don’t even mind the six hour layover. It will allow me to recount my last few days, as I have been much too busy keeping up with the pace of NYC to write. These past few days and the preceding weekends have been the best by far. My weekend visitors have played a major role in making my time in NYC a fabulously unforgettable adventure.

When Boley arrived last Friday, my NYC friends came with me to pick her up and we checked off many of the touristy things from our lists. We had some of the best pizza I’ve ever had at a shack in Hell’s Kitchen, wandered through Times Square, walked the Highline, and went to Legends. We got up early to see SOHO, which proved to be one of my favorite areas. It is much more artsy low-key than the rest of the city, and because we were there early there were far fewer tourists than usual. Afterward, we walked in Central Park before getting ready for the main event…GLEE!!!

We met for dinner at Artisanal, an esteemed cheese restaurant. We found it highly overrated—the “3 cheese plate” we thought we’d share came out an hour later with literally 3 slices of cheese on it and set us back $20! After we had paid, the waiter had the audacity to tell us that gratuity was expected and wasn’t included in the bill. We took some of it back just for spite. That event--though comical--set the tone for the first half of the evening. We were supposed to meet for Glee at Grand Central Station and though we were excited to see the iconic establishment, we were a bit flustered when we discovered that it was not in fact where we needed to be. We found ourselves running the streets of Manhattan in an attempt to get to Penn Station to catch the train bound for Long Island. Once there, we were told that we could get to the next train station by 8:30 and take a cab from there to the coliseum. The show started at 8. Panic ensued. With a little help from some kind New Yorkers, we found our way to the right train and hopped on just in time, but not without a few meltdowns.

At last we were on our way, and everything worked out in the end. There had been two opening acts so we got there in plenty of time for the show. It was probably one of the best concerts I have ever seen, and when they sang “Empire State of Mind” the crowd went absolutely crazy. Every time one of the cast said “Thank you, New York” (or something to that effect) the enormity of living in this crazy, enchanting place struck me—made me realize how much I have grown to love it and consider myself a member of the massive cosmopolite.

The next day, we watched the sunrise over the Brooklyn Bridge and said our goodbyes. The work week began again, this time with fewer remarkable events—a couple at the TriBeCa Club, one at the Century Club— and they came with a normality for which I was acutely grateful. After work , my friends and I continue our missions to become NYC’s cupcake connoisseurs. Cupcake couture is a huge current trend in the city, and we have decided to try as many different places as we can (our rewards for making it through the work day). Strange as that may be, we have actually discovered some pretty cool neighborhoods, nooks and random areas of town to which we might have not otherwise ventured. So far, our favorites come from a truck that moves around town—you have to follow them on Twitter to know where they will be each day! That sounds sketchier in writing…

Michael (the kid I babysit) and the Hayes’ (his grandparents and the owner of Lance Hayes Flowers where I work in Baton Rouge) visited this past weekend, and I had a great time showing them the city. Michael and I went to the Harry Potter exhibit at the Discovery Museum on Saturday—an absolute must see for HP nerds. Even though it was all movie stuff (as opposed to the books) it was fascinating, and we spent the greater part of our day inside. That Sunday was Gay Pride day in the city. I have mentioned my frustration about different types of parades getting in the way of going to Mass on Sunday, so I decided that in order to get to church on time and shield Michael from the inevitable vulgarity, we should go to a different church. What I didn’t anticipate was that “Gay Street” was located a mere block away from our chosen location. I will not even put into writing the things that we saw that day—use your imagination. Or don’t.

The last couple of days have been insanely busy at work. Since I am missing the rest of the week, the company tried to squeeze my week’s hours into Monday and Tuesday. Monday night I was in charge of publicity for a biography of Bob Dylan that took place at the NYC Public Library. The people that attended this event were the weirdest group of people I have seen yet—including the atheist convention. Dominated by 60+ year-old hippies, these folks had no doubt consumed far too many illegal substances in their heydays. The event lasted hours longer than was intended because everyone had unrelated questions or experiences to share with the authors and the rest of the crowd. At one point the author spoke approximately one line of a Dylan song, and the audience began an impromptu sing-a-long, completing an insultingly out of tune rendition of Blowing in the Wind nearly five minutes later.

Last night I was in charge of publicity for an event at the Park Avenue Synagogue, a beautiful old venue on the Upper East Side. This was enjoyable to me because I genuinely appreciate Judaism and the Jewish culture. I live by a popular synagogue on the West Side and have made some pretty cool friends because of the proximity. Earlier that day, I went to a store called H&B across the street from my building in search of a new iPhone screen cover with one such friend. I was previously unaware of the fact that H&B is basically Santa’s workshop but instead of elves, all the workers are members of the synagogue. Every worker wore a yarmulke and was happy as a clam to be of assistance. H&B was the largest electronics store I’ve ever been in, with things whirring overhead on assembly lines and transportation rails. There are different stations for buying, paying, and picking up your items. I was already laughing to myself as I pictured the store as Santa’s workshop, and when the last clerk whipped out his candy stash to offer us a piece, I almost lost it. It was probably one of the funniest 10 minutes of my life, and I wish someone funnier than I had been witness and able to better articulate the hilarity of the situation.

I think that’s all for now—hopefully I will come back with some good stories from Kappa Delta Convention! I will try to be better about posting regularly so y’all don’t have to read a novel when I finally sit down and write it all :)