Good Times

I had a lovely 4^th of July weekend. Worked all day at the frameshop on Saturday. It was ok, but I was a little out of sorts and it was a little stressful. I felt like I was really strung out on caffeine most of the day, but I’d hardly had any coffee at all, so I don’t know what was going on. Maybe something to do with the fact that I woke up at 6am for no apparent reason and thereby lost a couple hours of sleep. We did have some fun jokes, though, and soon enough the workday was done. Caitlin was due to arrive any time, so I stepped into one of the bars I like near the shop and had a quick beer while I waited for her. It was a good decision: helped me to relax and let work go and transition to spending time with Caitlin.

Her bus arrived and we found each other and took a leisurely walk down through the Village in search of food, catching each other up on our lives as we went. We ate outside at an Italian pizzeria and drank about 15 glasses of water as we continued to chat. Eventually we decided to continue on and headed towards the Hudson. We enjoyed the lights on the Jersey shore and meandered uptown next to the river. We walked a little bit of the Highline, and then headed to Chitos (because I have to make sure that every person I know goes there at some point :-P). David joined us after a bit and we had a great time laughing and talking and sipping delicious margaritas. Caitlin started to fade around 1:30 so we said goodnight and went home.

Sunday we woke up in time to head down to Chelsea for breakfast before I had to work. Ended up eating at a French bakery where we each got a chocolate croissant and a large coffee, which they served in bowls. We had a lovely philosophical conversation, which I enjoyed so much that I lost track of time and was a couple minutes late to work. But no one cared. It was a slow day at the shop, combination of rain and the holiday weekend. I worked by myself in the back and listened to my iPod, which I never do at work and thoroughly enjoyed. We closed early at 3pm and transitioned to our company BBQ. Which started on the rooftop as planned, but had to move to the shop basement because it started to rain again. The food was ok, decent BBQ, and we all brought our own beer (Caitlin bought us some Sierra Nevada). The party was not the greatest, not a lot of people came and there was a weird awkward vibe. I had a few good conversations with individual people, but the group dynamic was weird.

Afterwards Caitlin and I decided to walk to City Hall Park to see a sculpture exhibit I’ve been wanting to visit. It was a lovely walk over, very leisurely, and accompanied by good conversation (the theme of the weekend). The sculptures ended up being fairly disappointing, but there was a lovely fountain with gas-burning lanterns that we sat next to for a very long time. Just sat, not talking. It was really cool to be with someone and be so comfortable that we didn’t feel like we had to talk. Eventually we decided to continue on, and so we walked the Brooklyn Bridge, across to Brooklyn and back again. It was a lovely evening and the Manhattan skyline was gorgeous. We had a fascinating conversation about Mormonism which transitioned into one about science, evolution, and philosophy as we headed up the east side. Around 1030 we got hungry so we ate dinner at an Indian place (very delicious) and eventually headed home, arriving around 1am.

Monday we took it easy and slept in. Got breakfast at a diner in my neighborhood, and headed downtown around noon. We got off at Central Park and took a long meandering walk around, accompanied by more good conversation. We sat on a bench for a while and watched people go by, then walked down the west side looking for food. Which took longer than planned, but eventually and after a few mishaps we got some at a diner. It was getting late in the afternoon so we continued to head down to her bus, but stopped in Hell’s Kitchen at a French café to split a carafe of sangria and a complimentary plate of olives. And then we headed to her bus. Which she got on and was whisked away around 630pm. I’m so glad she came up; we had a lovely visit. It was great to reconnect.

My plans for the evening were up in the air for a bit so I hung around in Chelsea and proceeded to search for a restroom. All the Starbucks had closed theirs for the holiday, which I thought was lame, so after some wandering I went to Chitos. Which you’re not supposed to use unless you’re a customer but I felt that I am such a regular there that it wasn’t a big deal. And they didn’t seem to mind. As I waited for my plans to firm up I sat in park and read and listened to patriotic songs played on church bells and watched the hordes of people heading towards the river to get spots to see the fireworks. Literal hordes. And I hate crowds. Because of this I’d asked David if I could come over and watch the fireworks from his roof. And eventually he got back to me with a yes, so I headed over around 830. And we had a lovely evening. We drank beers, ate chips and salsa, and watched the fireworks from his roof. We had a pretty good view and the show itself was awesome. My favorites may have been the smiley face fireworks, but there were lots of awesome sparkly shimmery ones too.

After the show we watched the hordes returning from the river and felt so lucky and smart that we were on a roof and not down on the street. We went inside and hung out for a while, played with the cat and got into a long awesome conversation that started with the founding fathers, racism, and the civil war and ended with psychology and the brain and how it works. Very interesting stuff. I left around 1am, made it home and to bed by 230, and got up and headed back to the studio this morning. It was a long slow day, I did a script breakdown of a new show we’re doing about the Laker/Celtic rivalry (excellent, by the way) and struggled to stay awake after my long weekend of partying.

I think my recovery will be a bit slower than normal but it was 100% worth it. I had a lot of fun, a lot of great conversations, and thoroughly enjoyed my day off of work. I feel tired but restored and happy.