Schenectady and NYC, or, Why you always bring a phone charger.

SCHENECTADY, NY: And this is where Mother Nature orgasmed all over our lives. The most beautiful weather I have ever experienced. 

We stayed at an older, but BEE-AUTIFUL hotel with dark wood banisters and a labyrinth of red and green staircases. A classy Mad Men-esque billiards room and even a small ballroom. They have the tiny elevators that are behind a regular door, looking' like a broom closet. When you go in, there is a tiny gate you close, and you see the inner walls as you go up. If you are in there with one other person, you might be all up in their grill and you might be a little afraid for your life. The first night we stayed there, the hotel was hosting a giant wedding reception that went until 2 am pumpin' the bass and rejoicing in merriment. This didn't really bother me, it was kind of fun feeling like some unintended wedding crashers, although I did not partake and opted for a reading of the first act of my play instead.  But then the next night around 11:30pm, the door man asked Eugene, Kevin and I to 'keep it down' while we were playing pool. (Jake Mahler also taught me a game called STRIKER that I must teach you if we ever are at a pool hall together.) This is ridiculous, as we were doing nothing more than speaking in our normal voices with the door closed while playing. HOWEVER, I chose to take it as a compliment that us three actors have powerful enough voices to overtake 150 hollering New Yorkers and Mexicans plus an entire sound system blasting early 90s hits. Your game is WEAK, wedding party.

We performed Winter's Tale and 'Tis Pity at Union College. The set-up of the playing space was similar to the chapel space at Franciscan, but with less pictures of Jesus. We also performed MidSummer at Schenectady County Community College. Their space was an elevated proscenium theatre space. During load-in, I noticed that the arrows were missing and had not been packed with the long skinnys (term for pole-like objects that we bungee together in the cargo van). Four of us had to make a spy mission back to Union College where Patrick stealthily invaded a meeting and spied the arrows in a tube behind a table in a corner. Well played, Patrick. That evening the gallant stools filled up immediately with eager theatre students. The stage was a concrete slab covered with wood, and was a little hard on my Puck body, but the energy from the gallant lords made it a very fun show. Also interesting to note, students from the community college watched our performances at Union and some vice versa. I spoke to one girl that actually takes classes at both, which is kind of a cool option. The students reminded me a lot of some of my high school friends back in San Antonio. 

NYC: 

We had a day off in Schnectady. Eugene and Ronald (New Yorkers) Daniel and myself set sail in Blue Van for NYC at 7:30am. I truly wish that I had found a way to horse tranquilize myself to sleep a lot earlier than I managed to. (This is not a distasteful reference to Michael Jackson … until I just typed that. Urgh..) Every time I go to New York it seems that I am tweaked out on coffee and sleep deprivation. Although this is not on purpose, I feel like it helps me fit right in. 

It is three and a half hours to the George Washington Bridge, it is another half hour to move 100 feet from there. We blasted 'Empire State of Mind' on repeat for 10 minutes, like you do. You quickly learn a particular NYC frame of mind while just trying to commute to Manhattan. People do not let you merge, you must take what is yours. Latch onto that lane as if you were traveling thru the desert for five days without food and you just found the juiciest plum supine and vulnerable. If one were to take a bird's eye view of the bridge, I suspect that you would see a parking lot of cars in all sorts of diagonal shapes, perhaps even some turned the completely wrong direction and upside down. You can hear the honking from Mars. 

This is also a good time to mention that our dear friend, Icabod, the Pumpkin, who was only traveling with Almost Blasphemy Blue Van for a short while, fell victim to Daniel-Sharp-Turn-Stevens and an open window. Our good graces to his remains splattered somewhere on the New Jersey Turnpike. Sorry Denice. At least he got to see some of the city before his early demise. (Daniel actually is a lovely driver, we were just all high on Jersey fumes.) 

We dropped Ronald off in Upper Manhattan, and he began his journey. By the end of this day, I swear that he was radiating in a way that I hardly ever see anybody glow. The rest of us followed to Gene's apt in Brooklyn. They began their journey, and I fell asleep on Gene's couch for an hour. Rock and roll. When I woke up, it was noon and I met two of Gene's roommates, who didn't seem to find a stranger passed out on their couch to be such a bizarre thing. By 12:30 I threw myself into the clusterfrack. 

On this trip I was much more interested in seeing people I miss than sight-seeing. I typed out a physical list of people I know in NYC. 23 or so. I managed to drop texts or Facebook messages to most of them. Halfway thru the day, my phone died. And in classic Michael fashion, I did not bring a phone charger. Out of the 23, I thought that 8-10 were a definite possibility. We had windows of time, we had general locations, there was some sort of interaction via modern electronic device that day. 

But...

Things I didn't really think about:

*People have the strangest windows of available time. ie: "I am available from 1:30 to 2:45 depending on what part of the island you are on." 

*I don't take the commute into consideration. My buddy Seth lives on Staten Island and works at a resteraunt in Manhattan. He has to take a ferry everyday and it is an hour commute. 

*Cell phones don't work underground. Duh. So there are frequent long lapses in conversation planning. 

*Cell phones DIE when you use them. Especially if you were born with the superpower I have.

*You need a cell phone CHARGER to UN-DIE your cell phone.

*I don't know what the hell I am doing. 

So… 

I set up shop at 'Mud' at 9th st and 1st avenue. I managed to meet with Jack DiBlasi who seems to prospering here. He says maybe he got lucky, but he thinks the city is easy. If you just decide that you are going to do it, things can just kind of fall into place. 

A few hours later of meandering I found myself at Lunasa Pub at 9th and something or other to use the restroom. Five hours later, I am still there and am tipsy. It began to rain and I wrote a 3 page stream of consciousness, which unfortunately got lost somewhere in AutoSave and is never to be seen again. I got to do some serious people watching though, which is never better than in Manhattan. 

You fall in love every 15 seconds. It is such a place of extremes, that you will stand in one place for 1 minute and see eight super models walk by. But behind ever supermodel is an insane person covered in duct tape flinging poop and masturbating to a department store mannequin. People walk directly, quickly and heavily. During a cigarette break, not a single person will look you in the eye or smile, except for the insane people. The insane are actually rather personable. So many designer glasses. Do many designer boots. All women seem to wear boots. People walk with a 'street' face. They look numb, serious, and in a hurry. This place is so bustling with life and so dead at the same time. Although you cannot garner a person's perspective from their face, you can garner a definite, portrayed identity by the clothes they wear. You are in 'commute' mode until you pass into a fortress of destination and then instantly come to life. So much life. 

Seth Miller met me at Lunasa, which was amazing. I have only seen him a few minutes since high school. 

I ask people what they think of New York City, and most say 'amazing'. The ones that do not, say something like "it is shitty, and great". Seth compared it to the most beautiful women walking the streets, impossible to look away from, but when you get closer, you realize she has horrible onion breath and smells of shit. But then she walks away, and you fall in love with another side of her. 

I cherish any taste of my former life I can grab on this tour, and seeing Jack and Seth was refreshing. Only 21 more folk to go. 

Eventually the four of us met up at Union Square, and shared our New York stories during the ride home. Ronald was glowing like a superhero covered in beautiful radioactive goop. Gene got us presents and snacks. He and Daniel both experienced Occupy Wall Street, among other things, Ronald saw 9 of his close friends at 8 different locales. We all felt like we accomplished something for our souls on that day off.

Needless to say, I probably had the least eventful experience out of the four of us. But I soaked up NYC energies all day, and have been wondering ever since, "Should I move here?" I have been having dreams taking place in Manhattan ever since we left. It is where dreams are made of, and I'm half-way there in my mind. But who knows. I do know that Staunton is only 6 hours away, and next time I'm bringing a phone charger. 

Love and a slice o' pie, 

Dola