Hello everyone!
Well, it has officially been a year since I first set foot in NYC as a resident! All I have been able to hear in my head the last few days is a line from RENT: "I can't believe a year went by so fast..."
It's crazy to think that a whole year has past and all the has transpired. Sitting here, I'm trying to make a list of all the things that have happened and I'm having one of those strange experiences of knowing a lot has changed in my life, events have taken place, new people have entered and exited my life, money has come and gone, confidence has come and gone, pride, etc... At the end of the day, the only list I actually need are the things that I've written about in this very blog.
Before we get into full-fledged Anniversary Talk, there are a few other updates I need to fill you all in on. Since my last post, my castmates and I have finished our run in "Merrily, Merrily, Merrily" in the Midtown International Theatre Festival. It was sad to say goodbye such a great experience, but I'm honored to have worked with this incredibly talented group of people that are also so supported. I, for one, look forward to working with them all again. Our audiences were never too big--30 at the most a few weeks ago. But each performance was well-received. One night we had a gentlemen named Chris that was a former professor of some of my colleagues when they went to Drew University. He was very proud of his students' accomplishments and paid me an exceptional compliment: a recommendation to a playwright friend to have me audition for the lead role in his play that is to open in the Manhattan Rep Summerfest next week! I went to audition for this playwright friend, John, and it went very well. Before you or I get ahead of ourselves, I didn't get the role, but John was very responsive to my performance and was very forward saying his only concern was my ability to play the appropriate age (45). After seeing the cast that was already in place, I saw exactly the problem: even actors playing younger than I am now look older than me. However, I received an e-mail from John and told me we would not soon be forgetting my "fine audition". So, that was a great experience to round out my first year here. Very encouraging.
OK, so for my first anniversary in NYC, I wasn't sure what to do and how big I should make it. I decided to spent the afternoon and evening with friends. So my friend Kim and I started by getting hair cut for the first time since April--yeah, my mop was long. I'm back to a manageable short hair cut now, thank GOD, especially with how the heat and humidity are thickening the air. We then proceeded to Heartland Brewery in Union Square to have a few beers and some jalopeño poppers. I couldn't take the heat and only ate one. After one year, I thought my spice tolerance was better, but not quite enough to eat these poppers. Oh, well, maybe next year. We took a stroll through Union Square, which just turned out to be depressing because there were so many junkies and crazies all over. Then we contacted Amanda to see what she was doing and met up with her and a friend from work down in the Village, found a neat little Mexican place to have a few drinks and some guacamole and just chill. GREAT! After a little while, we part ways and I was walking Amanda to the subway and she asked me, "It's your anniversary: what do YOU want to do?" Naturally, I said I don't know, but then informed her that I had a crazy idea earlier to get a tattoo of a tick mark to represent my first year in NYC. "YES! YES! YES! LET'S DO IT!" So, we proceeded to find a neat tattoo parlor with a chill guy that wasn't high/drunk/otherwise that really knew what he was doing. This guy, Austin, gave me my first tatto. It's NYC arranged vertically on my left shoulder with a jagged slash alongside it to represent my first year and the struggles it has brought. The plan is to return to that same tattoo parlor each year and get a new mark to represent the year that just past, as long as I'm in NYC.
And that brings us up to date, I guess. The next big obstacle will be to find a new apartment within the next few weeks. We'll see how this "adventure" goes...
HAPPY ADVENTURES!
