Wednesday, May 25, 2011

No, really, "The Life"

I'm starting with the bad things did happen disclaimer. Skip this section if you don't want to hear about the downers

Disclaimer: My day was not perfect. I messed up my 4th toe on my right foot. I, as usual, had serious moments of insecurity at the first job of the day. I'm not missing a little bit of skin on the top of my right hand. I'm accumulating quite the sleep debt. I've been waking up before 8... every day. I woke up at 5am on Sunday. I ran out of time to eat dinner and my ravioli went bad. I swiped my card at the wrong turnstile on my way home. I saw a girl that looked like this kid-who-broke-my-heart's xgf (who he's pretty much still in L.O.V.E. with) and it made my stomach get a sinky feeling in it... etc. etc. etc.


But, today was a great day!
My tomato plants are growing. I arrived to both of my jobs a tiny bit early. The trains were on time. On my way home from ushering I was so sleepy I swiped my card at the wrong turnstile and despite my abrasiveness the guy at the Astor Place uptown 6 train still let me go in without paying the extra 2.25. While I felt incredibly insecure, people were nice today at job one and I did do a couple of things right.

I ate my lunch sitting on a tiny fence in the median of Broadway, in the sun. I didn't spend any money on lunch because I packed from home and it was delicious. The grumpy elevator man had a 1/2 a moment of less grumpiness when I asked him his name. His name is Jose. He was the perfect character. The freight elevator opened and there he was... a little dirty looking, smoking (no, really, a cigarette... inside, in the elevator), in his tank top with a scowl to make you feel like you didn't fit in the freight elevator with all his crankiness. Jose's alright.

None of my work boo-boos were noticeable to the people around me. I got asked out in seriousness. A friend who moved away from NYC is coming to visit and txted me to ask if I wanted to join her and her friends at Blockheads in a couple weeks. AND it's a day I'm not working!

Job one let out early so I walked to job 2. I was going to go to Barnes & Noble to kill time. Instead I stopped in Madison Square Park and laid in the grass and did NOTHING for a good 30 minutes. I didn't even write emails or make lists; I just smiled at the awesomeness of the world. After sitting there a few minutes 2 guys sat nearby and took off their shoes. I realized they were right, you could take off your shoes. I enjoyed the next 45 minutes of semi-low productivity, barefoot. A little boy waddled over to me and laughed every time I smiled. My eyes started to get stingy because of how blessed I felt in that moment. A few moments later I saw that girl mentioned in the negative section.... good to be back on earth... meh.

I walked to work and decided to stop at Barnes & Noble to change my clothes. The line to the bathroom felt too much like Cedar Point and it simply wasn't worth the wait. As I started to leave (after wishing I could buy at least 20 different books) my best friend [schae] called! We caught up just a little as I [originally typed we, but I guess I was the only one walking] got to work. We were short an usher, so on day 1 of training I was a real usher and met some great kids. These kids, of course, reminded me how I want to work with Jr. Highers/high schoolers and that I believe in physical theater and need to do more of it.

On the train home I met a guy named Seth and his dog named Murphey. They were both super nice and reminded me that if you want to change something (ie. people's inability to make conversation on the train when you know they want to... for however brief) you have to do it. Waiting's just not for me. I walked home surrounded by the perfect temperature of night air.

I arrived home to email from m.d., which always puts me in a good mood. Shortly after replying to that one I received an offer for a lighting designer gig.


Not every day's this great, but I have to soak these days up for other less favorable times.
I hope you're enjoying all of the sunshine & silver linings.

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