A DORK IN NEW YORK

Hello! I am now living in a hotel in Manhattan for the next 2.5 weeks. I am writing for a musical and working in a white, fluorescent tube-lit cube of a room in a rehearsal studio every day. I love it and it’s also not what I expected. I’m a little too close to Times Square to relax into the flow of work. The sensory stimulus is gargantuan. I walk briskly down the really crowded sidewalks casually dodging the other pedestrians wondering, how do I know how to do this?, until I have to stop for fear I’ll disable my senses and crash into someone and/or step in some omnivore’s poo. 

I’ve been here a week, and so far I eat pretty much the same thing everyday as time is too tight to think or experiment. Sadly, I’m in prime tourist real estate and I don’t know the secret jackpot restaurants, but I’m doing just fine not having the prime NYC experience. Or maybe I am having the most common NYC experience if you don’t live here all the time? At least I found what I believe is the best coffee in Manhattan, which is St Kilda on 44th. Best coffee I’ve had in forever. A reason to celebrate indeed!

It’s interesting how you can experience a city differently depending on the job you are doing, or if you are doing one. The last time (actually, the only time?!) I had a vacation was in 2006 when I went with StuntManNate to Portland Maine for his birthday. We had a blast, but it also felt very weird. We were on our own to figure it out with no guidance. I just wasn’t used to that freedom. Being on tour is unique in that there are people waiting for you to help you do a job. If you are lucky there is even someone (a runner) who will take you places to get supplies or show you where the laundromat is. You get little pockets of alone time but you are also a little dependent unless you are very familiar with where you happen to be. Meeting the runner is perhaps my favorite part of my tour day because I have been so lucky in meeting really friendly enthusiastic people. I find people can’t wait to tell you what’s awesome about their town. I have often found myself to be quite moved by the love they express about where they live. It’s the best inside scoop you can get on where to eat, what’s interesting and sometimes an epic history lesson complete with guided tour. Bless you and thank you, runners! That was a very wordy way to say pretty much everyone you talk to for more than five minutes in New York has the bubbling desire to hook you up with info about where to eat or what to see and they do it with love in their eyes. It’s a special look unique to NYC dwellers. It’s pretty adorable.

New York is so big and there are so many worlds overlapping. I could live here for 30 years and still feel like a stranger to it despite the fact that Hell’s Kitchen and the area around Times Square are so familiar. I’m a sensitive person so I have to make an effort to block some things out, like watching people trying to park, or noticing the girl on the speeding bike wearing huge headphones. It’s not judgemental; the parking makes me anxious for the person doing it and I worry for the girl that she might be hit by a car. She’s so young and lovely and strong! She’s got her whole life ahead of her! WATCH OUT! is my inner dialogue. Haha. It’s kinda laughable, but it is exhausting if I don’t manage to put some blinders on. 

New York must be one of the reasons people believe in multiple dimensions occupying the same space all at once. Despite the multitudes, there are characters sticking out above the throng who must surely inhabit all of them in real time, like they are made of infinite layers of stardust. Today that character is a man with a loudspeaker and microphone on wheels he pulls behind him just to announce, “I love you!” 

Right after I finished writing this I finally had a classic NYC food “encounter” meal courtesy ABC Kitchen. It was a 360 feast. Every bite was perfect. Squash Blossom Quesadilla. I can die now.