My life lately
My life lately:
I’ve spent a few warm comfortable nights sitting in Washington Square Park and listening to live music.
The other day in Bryant Park I randomly ran into this dude named Dave from my screenwriting II class and we decided to hang out. We went to Coney Island and wandered through the creaky looking rides and past the imposing wooden rollercoaster and the “shoot the freak” game which entails shooting paintballs at a man running around in a desolate junk yard caged in below. We walked along the shore and chilled on the pier surrounded by fishermen and cigar smoke.
In Bryant Park I was randomly approached by this weird creepy corporate looking dork who fits into the category of what I have dubbed “slad”- single lonely and desperate. He looked relatively normal and young and wore a suit and approached me by asking what book I’m reading. I was bored and he was holding a folder so I assumed he was going to ask me to fill out a survey or something which would have been fine. Then he sat down (a bit too close) and started talking about his dreams and how he has all these wild ideas and that he goes to NYU but he was completely unclear about what he was studying. He keeps asking “I’m not creeping you out, am I?” I stare him straight in the eyes with the “Who the fuck do you think you are?” look and very unconvincingly say “no.” He keeps talking. “What type of cell-phone do you use?” “T-mobile.” “Oh, cool. I use verizon…I think you’re pretty.” I give him the same vacant stare. “Hey, I have an idea- let’s go to central park.” “um…no thanks. I think I’ll sit here and continue reading.” “Oh…” This was long since I’d dropped the boyfriend bomb and he was still there. There’s a sad level of desperation in his eyes and he starts telling me how he is looking to find a girl and how it’s easier to talk to us when we’re sitting alone. I want to tell him “You’re probably a serial killer rapists who doesn’t go to NYU and just put on a suit to pick up some girl to brutally murder.”
Note to guys: This is not necessarily true for all girls but never randomly approach a girl and tell her that you think she’s pretty or beautiful. There is a major sleaze factor in that. Also, for the girls you already know-they’re most likely more inclined to appreciate being treated like their beautiful than told that they are. Words are very inefficient in that respect because even a girl who’s satisfied with her looks may not consider herself “pretty.”
We’re nearing tech week with my show and that’s a lot of additional stress but the producer saw a run through and really liked what she saw so that’s definitely a good sign.
The other night I saw Slavs at Fordham’s theatre and ran into a girl from my High School Laeticia Leon who comped my ticket. The ever politically savvy Tony Kushner was there and gave a talk back after the show.
I’ve been continuing the Swing Dancing at a club called Frim Fram and the Tasmanian devil dancer dude even mentioned that I was improving which basically translates to “You don’t suck as bad.”
I also picked up another card trick at Tannens.
Ryan came into town this weekend with his family to celebrate his cousin’s birthday and I had dinner with them in the Village. They had initially intended to stay the night but they changed their minds and went home leaving Ryan with the hotel room. So, I stayed the night with Ryan in the Millennium hotel in NY overlooking Times Square. It was amazing. The following day by awesome happenstance I didn’t have rehearsal at all. We checked out and had breakfast in Bryant park and then walked through central park and went through the Metropolitan museum. We planned on riding the Staten Island ferry but the trains don’t run down there on weekends for some reason, so instead we went to Washington Square park and had ice-cream. And afterwards the people I’m staying with had him over for dinner. Ryan has also lived in Texas and so we shared stories with them about scorpions and rattle snakes. It’ll be close to 20 days before I see him again. I don’t understand how people can have long distance relationships.
Tonight I met up with the Columbia and NYU swing teams and together we crossed the Brooklyn Bridge at night-an amazing thing to do that I definitely recommend to anybody who finds their self in NY late on a nice evening with nothing else to do. We walked to a pier and set up a boom-box. There were golden lights in the trees reflecting onto the water and Manhattan was glowing before us across the river and we danced.
Sometimes it feels like my life is just snapping its fingers to some really satisfying beat.