Can I call my current state of exhaustion jetlag when I flew out of NY still suffering the side-effects of a hugely entertaining party that lasted an entire weekend without much time for rest and contemplation? Probably not.
There is no time to catch up on sleep; mad deadlines loom and there isn’t even room to do the sundry boat maintenance tasks that I have been putting off all spring. Though I do have to clean up a bit as someone apparently infringed on my hospitality; there are empty Stella bottles littering the top of the boat. I presume this happened during the Strawberry Fair, as other boaters reported some skirmishes with people camping on the common.
Two weeks away from my normal routine offered a necessary respite and too many interesting adventures to describe. Stella and Al were coincidentally visiting the city at the same time, and they threw a lovely dinner party with Tae in Harlem. Later KTS and I went to see Al perform at the Sidewalk Cafe, and hung around outside the club with Stella and other folks, catching up.
It was somewhat eerie to be surrounded by people I intentionally did not know in college (including but not limited to KTS), listening to a performer I never would have imagined would end up a dear friend.
I cannot adequately describe this disjunction of past and present; I loathed the Olympia scene and it is a neverending source of wonder that so much of my current social life revolves around people who were there at the same time.
I’m not one to regret past failures. There is no point wondering if my life would have been better if I’d had friends in college. I was too angry, and too busy, to have been part of the culture of that town and school, and it is sufficient to realize that the problem was me, not the place.
Besides, would I have wanted all of my best memories and most genius experiences to have happened before I turned twenty-five? No. I’m having fun now, and that is not something that a lot of grown-ups can claim.
On the last night in the city I met Ayun and her kids at the Issue Project Room to attend a benefit for the Hungry March Band European tour. I felt a slight undercurrent of sadness at first because I miss singing with the Chorus and all of the madcap Portland excursions, but that sentiment was washed away by the booming beat of the marching band.
The intensity of the performance and the crazed response of the crowd filled me up with joy and Ayun grabbed me and made me dance.
