A weekend in New York City
A few weekends ago, I flew to NYC to watch Sophia perform in a play. Never in a million, trillion years did I imagine that I would be in the audience while my daughter faked an orgasm on stage. In a life filled with “How did I get here?” moments, this ranked in the Top Ten.
But she’s such an amazing actress! She was onstage for almost the entire performance and even sang like an angel. I’m so humbled by how brave she is. All of the actors for that matter. Here I am, hiding behind a screen, nervous to share my writing - and she’s up there acting and singing and crying… I wish I had half her guts.
My sister Kelly and my good friend Eileen met me in NYC for the weekend. Kelly had never been before, so I felt the need to show her as much as humanly possible. Which, in case you’re curious, means walking about 12 miles per day. Not surprisingly, Kelly’s favourite area was Central Park, which happens to be Eileen’s old stomping grounds so she gave us a personalized tour. If I were ever required to live in New York City, I would definitely have to be close to Central Park. (I’m an upper west side girl, in case you're curious.)
I wanted to introduce Kelly to food she’d never find in Fairmount, Indiana so I took her to some of my favourite places. Namely: Planta Queen for scorched and pressed avocado, Spicy Moon for vegan DanDan noodles and lychee martinis, Joe’s Pizza and Leon’s Bagels.
On our last night, we went to the Upright Citizen’s Brigade which feeds stand-up comics and writers to Saturday Night Life. Again: these performers are SO BRAVE! Can you even imagine? To get onstage and try to make people laugh at you? They were crazy good.
It was fun seeing New York through Kelly's eyes. It reminded me of how fucking crazy New Yorkers are. And how there is so much freedom in that! You might feel insecure in whatever you are wearing or doing - but one day in New York reminds you that No One Cares. No one is looking at you. No one is paying attention to you. Everyone is just living their life. If you grew up in a small town, this idea is either teriftying or liberating. To me, it’s liberating.
