new york

A weekend trip to New York, free of expectations other than to see friends, is bound to be relaxing no matter how active. I saw three separate friends or friend groups this weekend and had a terrific time with each. Recently, especially, I think, being at home, I've been less patient and more sarcastic, which is frustrating for me and can't be pleasant for Mom, Dad or Lincoln. It's not as much of a problem at work. But this weekend, starting really with yoga on Thursday, I could almost physically feel myself unwind and calm down. I didn't have any plans in New York, only bought my ticket on Thursday afternoon with the hope of seeing a few different groups of friends, and that meant that I was never anxious about anything, or in a rush to get somewhere or worried that I was holding someone up or pissed off that someone was holding me up.

On Saturday I woke up on Anita, Sam and Charlotte's couch in Brooklyn, did some yoga on the floor in their living room, went out for a bagel and coffee with Anita and then walked for hours with her in Brooklyn and then the Lower East Side, first helping her with some errands and then just exploring. It was pure pleasure to be able to mosey along, stopping into interesting-looking stores, stumbling on a park dominated by gorgeous, towering weeping willows and eating a slice of pizza there, before moving on and pausing on the way back to Brooklyn to sit in on a free jazz show in a garden between three tall apartment buildings. The band, it's worth mentioning, played a rendition of "In a Sentimental Mood" that hit me so hard I listened to the Coltrane-Ellington version three times in a row as soon as I got back to Jenna's apartment to pick up my stuff. Seeing her (on Friday night) was also great, I can't believe it had been over two years! And last night, helping Alex move and then going out with some of her friends for dinner and then to a couple of bars for her birthday was really fun. But I think the daytime on Saturday, with Anita, was the best of all just for the, word escaping me, maybe the easiness of it. We did lose our first game, at home, to Utah, which is awful. But we couldn't find anywhere with the game on and I'm glad of that. Even such a painful loss, at the beginning of what will likely be a very painful season, couldn't ruin my good mood. At any rate, these couple of days were just what the doctor ordered. To celebrate, and because I haven't put up any music in a good little while, here are the two songs that capture the weekend for me. The first is "In a Sentimental Mood" and the second is "Slip Slidin' Away," by Paul Simon.