dynamite

this weekend has been one of the best weekends i've had in a long time. it began with john musto's going away party friday night. i waited on the L at 1st ave for almost 45 minutes, as weekend transportation tends to be, and i just watched all the freaks and geeks headed to brooklyn. it's a different crowd than the manhattan crowd: like the east village on crack. when i transferred to the G at Lorimer to get to greenpoint, i'm pretty sure i saw a guy that had been shot. i had just gotten on the train, and he was getting off. i caught a quick glimpse of his shoulder as he turned. his jacket was soaked with blood on the shoulder and upper arm, and i saw what really looked like a gun shot wound (that's GSW for all you ER fans). as we pulled away i watched him through the window, and several people stopped to ask him if he was ok or needed help. who knows what the story was, but i'm pretty sure i wouldn't be riding the train if i had just been shot. i was looking around the train wondering if anyone else saw it, but people were just staring into space. we are way to numb too shocking oddities.

i got off the train at Greenpoint Avenue, and the streets felt dead compared to the buzz of manhattan. i walked several blocks to musto's building, checking my back every now and again. it was a motley crew at the party, with a few BBHers in the mix. one guy kept wanting to feed people spinach dip. then i met a guy named casey who talked about dipping and how much he loves meat ("i'd eat a bar of soap if it had animal parts in it"). turns out he's from texas, go figure. and one girl with bright red hair who talked about tripping on acid while at disneyland and recommended it as if it were as normal as sleeping at night. we all hung out for a while, smoked a few cigarettes out on the fire escape, then we were told it was time for the bear. i didn't know what the hell it meant, but i soon found out that musto had one stick of dynamite left that he was saving for this party. he had made a wood cut out of a teddy bear in which he cut a hole to put the fuse through. they leaned it up against the back wall of the yard behind the building and got everyone together. so everyone that was left crowded onto the fire escape to watch it go down. i've never seen, heard, or felt anything like it before in my life. it rocked all of my senses at once. i'm not going to lie, it was pretty awesome. but as you would naturally assume, you just can't light a stick of dynamite and then go back to normal life. first, it was the guy upstairs who came out on the fire escape and yelled at us. i suppose it was merited, considering it was 2am and we just blew something up 30 feet from his bed. then we began hearing sirens. lots of sirens. a lot of people hurried out, but some of us stuck around to see what would happen. in hindsight it probably wasn't the best idea, considering most people were fairly intoxicated and the potent presence of certain herbs. my friend bharat actually lied and told everyone the cops were upstairs talking to the yelling neighbor so that everyone would leave so we would avoid trouble. we walked outside to go to a bar down the street and could see all the firetrucks at the end of the block with firemen trying to figure out where the explosion occured. nothing happened, thankfully. we went on with our night as the rest of greenpoint tried to go back to sleep.

saturday morning i rolled out of bed around 11:30 wondering if i had really seen dynamite explode the night before. i made some eggs and turned on the tv. my friend jenn called and said she was going to the bowery mission to take some old clothes and asked if i wanted to go with her. i'd been wanting to clean out my clothes, so i was in. we walked our stuff over and then went to pianos and sat at the bar for lunch. i've only ever been there on a crowded weekend night, but this saturday afternoon was perfectly peaceful. we sat there for hours and just talked. jenn is one of my favorite friends in new york. we knew each other at a&m, but have really just become close in the last year. we have similar roots, so she always understands where i'm coming from. jenn is one of those people that just takes things, and people, as they are. we can have really raw and honest conversation, and it is what it is. because of this openness, she loves people really well, which is what makes her good at her job - supervising activities at a juvenile center. talking to jenn always refreshes me and gives me perspective on life much broader than what i'm able to achieve in my own tiny mind. we finally headed home as the sun was starting to go down. it was an unscripted saturday, and it was perfect.

later that night i ended up in a little mediterranean restaurant at 79th and Amsterdam with lyndsey and our old roommate meghan. meghan and her boyfriend are taking a short break, so she's going through a really hard time right now. she needed a girls night, and we were more than willing. i so enjoy anytime the three of us have a chance to sit and visit because it reminds me of when i first began my life here in the city. all three of us experienced our beginnings together as perfect strangers, but now it feels like we're old friends. after dinner, lyndsey and i came back to avenue c and went over the boys apartment. it almost felt like a night in college. it was our house and their house, hanging out drinking and listening to music with college football on mute (thank god).

sunday afternoon lynn and i somehow found ourselves spending a good two hours playing random music for each other back and forth. it was the itunes version of dueling pianos. we pulled out all the stops, even the stuff we're semi-embarrassed that we still have (e.g. michael w. smith). we recalled all the words to songs from junior high, and i of course had to show off my repertoire of old rap music i still have committed to memory (lauren hill, 2pac, master p, etc). we sang and laughed the entire way through.

later that night lynn and i went to go see a show at irving plaza with our friend andrew (aka shep, aka shep dawg). on the docket was owen, acute, appleseed cast, and copeland. we went for copeland, and they put on a phenomenal show. we seemed to have "obnoxious fans stand in front of me" stamped on our foreheads, but we managed. i've only had their new album for a few weeks, but it's been on repeat so it was incredible to see it live. there is something about seeing music performed on stage that makes me feel so alive. the lead singer of copeland was so animated, as if he was begging us in gestures to listen to what he had to say. it was an appropriate ending to the weekend.

this weekend was one of those weekends that, at the risk of sounding cheesy, really refreshes the soul. my love for the city is increased, and my confidence in the part i play here was reinstilled. new york city is an amazing place. there's so much here on one tiny island. everyday is chance to see or experience something new, and the people i know are nothing short of lovely.

for a moment in time, this random chain of events helped me forgot all worries and responsibilities. i simply enjoyed being, and that's something i hadn't done in a while. it was just what i needed.