This weekend was the beginning of my effort to be awesome and attempt some sort of bi-city existence. I haven't mentioned this to too many people, because I don't like the looks I get, or the exhaustive dismissive sigh they give me with a "Ugh. That sounds awful. Why would you do that?" Or something equally condescending. I don't think it's awful, or all that exhausting, which is why I am doing it.
Every weekend for the next 8 weeks (9 weeks, actually, minus the last week in April) I'll be making trips to NYC. Sometimes just a day trip- up and back in the same day, and some are full weekend trips. I made such a day trip on Saturday. Everything went swimmingly, and I'm looking forward to subsequent perfect excursions.
Yes, nine hours on a bus does seem like a lot. But there's not a lot you can do on a bus, so you pretty much find one thing and stick to it. That one thing is usually start to read a book and then fall asleep 5 pages in. Bus sleep might not be the best sleep, but it's sleep, so it still feels good. Also, I think being in the crunch position for 4 hours straight has done wonders for my abs.
The bus let out right across the street from Starbucks. It was like going home. It pulled in about 7 minutes early, which gave me a great sense of satisfaction. I knew where I was (28th & 7th), and where I needed to be (30th & 6th). Brilliant. I also got to meet up with a friend of mine who now lives in NYC. We met in Boston; he was the star of Nancy Melchert's Explosio!, my severely underrated Production 2 film. We chatted over coffee and free pastries, caught up, and planned to meet up again soon, probably next weekend.
I was right on time for class, and didn't make an ass out of myself at any point. For me, this is key. Clearly, I'm really self-conscious about this entire endeavor. I realize eventually it will have to come out that I don't live in the city, but I didn't want to lead with it and alienate myself somehow. I had to pretend I knew about a few things, like inherently where things are and what that means. For example, my friend, whom I'll call Brian, said he lived at Lexington and 45th. "Isn't that the Chrysler building?" I asked. Indeed, it is very close to the Chrysler building and we had a good laugh. Plus, I was pretty proud for knowing that. Then, while in class, someone was describing a terrible location and they prefaced it with "well, it's on A." The room chuckled. I don't know what that means. Similarly, someone admitted to living "on 5th, between 7th and 8th." Technically, I know where this is. I could find it on a map and get there by walking or even by subway. However, the teacher (Chris, who is wonderful, bt-dubs), commented "wait, that's what's weird about this story. That you live on 5th between 7th and 8th. Get out." Hahaha. It was funny. I knew it was funny, based on Chris's tone, but I don't really know why.
My concern about finding the bus stop and not missing the ride home prevented me from too much after class exploring. I know I have more time for that, so I wasn't worried. Eventually, I'll find out why it's funny that Karl lives on 5th between 7th and 8th, and why it's so hard to get to A st. The bus left NYC about half an hour late, which wasn't awesome, but I honestly didn't care. Also, it was really cold. Inexplicably cold. It was warmer outside than it was on the bus, and it wasn't warm outside. I wasn't dressed warm enough for the bus. Every person on the bus was dressed like Eminem in 8 Mile- hoods up, hands in pockets, ear buds in. A girl next to me was full on winter-geared up. For a four hour bus ride. It was cold.
I got back to the district a little after midnight, and home on the couch just in time for the last half hour of Saturday Night Live. Then I set my clock forward an hour (balls) and went to bed. My body doesn't really know what time it is or what city it lives in. There isn't a time difference between NYC and DC, but since NYC is east of DC, the sun sets sooner so it's just a little different. Just different enough to get in my head and mess with it a bit.
So for the next two months, I plan to split my time between NYC and DC. I'll be a weekender, because I think that might be a thing. Maybe if I just tell people "I live outside the city" they won't think of it too much. I don't have to tell them how far outside. "On the other side of the tunnel. Yes, it is west of the river. New Jersey? Kind of."
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