1) Very late in the morning — very late — I trotted off to the F train with my laptop and overnight bag for the Lexington. I knew I didn’t want to have to trek all the way back to Brooklyn after a late concert. En route, I had the first of four New York Experiences, on the 6 train. A man sitting near me, fast asleep, almost fell on me when the train jolted. That got him awake, to be sure! We had some incoherent banter (because I couldn’t understand what he was saying, not because his speech was impaired), and I signed off with “Safe travels, dude,” and got the hell outta there.
2) New York Experience II, after I checked in, was going to Phil’s Stationery near my hotel to look for some hard-to-find pen cartridges. Phil’s, on 47th Street, felt promising as soon as I walked in, as the back of the store appeared in complete chaos, and the elderly gentleman in the black velvet yarmulke took no nonsense, but with a twinkle in his eye. My first request, for some Parker refills, didn’t impress him much. “But,” I continued, “I need your help with a couple more unusual requests.” He looked me dead in the eye and said “Then I think you’ve come to the right place for something unusual.”
2a) On the off chance that I’d find a good stationery store, I’d packed three pens that needed refills. The second was a rosewood felt tip pen by Hallmark that my cousin Margie Bess Tims gave me when I graduated from high school. The gentleman was impressed but “Ohhh, you need a Hallmark nib for that,” with some regret, as they are difficult to come by, even on eBay. So that was that.
2b) The third pen, a hexagonal brass pen with a screw-off magnetic cap — well, we sweated over that darn thing about 20 minutes! For this I ended up working with the other gentleman in the store, wearing a green T-shirt and missing a few teeth. I knew the cartridges weren’t standard, and everything he pulled out of almost every drawer (it is amazing the breadth of stuff they have) — well, the thing was just a fraction of a hair too wide to fit into the point thingy on the pen. Eventually he jury-rigged something, but there were moments when I just wanted to say “I don’t need to understand it, I just need it to work, LOL!”
2b.1) Also, the near-continuous banter back and forth between them, and then between the three of us — more fun than a barrel of monkeys.
2c) Checking out, I finally remembered to show them the first pen, made from the original stage flooring of Boston Symphony Hall, a gift from the Boston Pops staff when I left ye Instytytte. He said “If I had my camera, I’d take a picture of that.”
3) New York Experience III took place walking back to my hotel. At Lexington and 47th (I think), just as pedestrians were starting across the street, a skateboarder zoomed through the crowd. A man in his 40s, dressed in a below-the-knee white faux-sheepskin coat, long untidy salt-and-pepper hair, unshaven, and of course loudly complaining about the world. Clearly one Viking helmet away from an insurrectionist. He was nearly hit by an oncoming SUV — I was sure I was about to witness a fatality — but the vehicle stopped in time and the dude swerved just enough. Crazy, man!
4) Met my friend Julien for a midafternoon snack at the Smith. He and I hadn’t had a chance to catch up in about 300 years, and the stories were sparkling and multidirectional.
5) It will not surprise you to learn that I was half an hour early for dinner at my favorite New York restaurant, Café Luxembourg. But it was an opportunity to squeeze into a barstool and enjoy a Three Naked Ladies cocktail, always bracing. But oof, even at 5 PM, this place is crowded to bursting! I wasn’t sure they could shoehorn any more people in.
6) Austin and his BF Vance joined me for dinner, which for me consisted of a manhattan, half a dozen oysters, duck confit (I’d never make that at home) with another manhattan, and coffee. Thank goodness I took a pass on dessert!
7) We ankled over to Geffen Hall through noticeably chillier streets. And what joy, almost the first person I saw inside the lobby was my friend Kate; we last saw each other at graduation! We used to share a voice lesson with Mrs. Jones (Interlochen trivia: before there was an actual musical theatre program, all the theatre majors who took voice lessons were sent to Mrs. Jones.) So Kate was a big part of my senior year. Seeing her, she quite literally has not changed. And there were other friends to greet, and the insanity of having arrived about five minutes before curtain.
8) As to the concert. Well. I admit I hadn’t read up on what the program would be. All I remembered was that the orchestra was being sent to perform with the New York Philharmonic, and that there would be the world premiere of something called Mukti. I won’t attempt to describe it, but it certainly demonstrated the energy and vigor that Interlochen students have always brought to the stage.
8a) There was also luggage without wheels, mannequins with lampshades for heads, and an emotional support dog on stage.
9) The reception afterward — we did not keep our seats until the applause ended, and so got first dibs on the prosecco and macarons — was a joyous mob scene, and it was thrilling to catch up with a few folks, including a couple Etiquetteer readers. I was truly sorry to see the evening end, but our herd of black sheep remains strong, and we get stronger every time we renew contact.
10) The true advantage of the tote bag I had been given at the volunteer gathering Wednesday night was to use it for my galoshes on Friday. I knew it would rain, and I was just not going to let it ruin my shoes. Still, I didn’t win any grace and poise awards trying to stretch them over my brown oxfords. Oof.
11) New York Experience IV would probably be opening a cab door on a rainy night and discovering that there are actually people in there. Oopsie!
11) I did eventually get a cab — very nice cabby — and shambled into my hotel room about midnight, after an amazing day of friends and school spirit and New York Experiences.