I'll try to be brief but it may be impossible...
My husband is a member of a photography group (which I had originally found on a Westchester Co Meet Up group listing, looking for an art group of some kind for me). He rarely can get family members to pose for him, and for a fairly nominal fee this group has a nude model. Each photographer has a turn directing the light, any props, her pose etc (this is not at all porny, btw.. but some of the photographers have her wear something like black high heels or red lipstick..) Since then the group has moved the location to mainly meet in Manhattan so Andrew hasn't been going in that often.
He got an invitation to go to a group birthday party for one of the members, at the studio - no photography but everyone would have a chance to share their recent photos. I said I go along - I hadn't gone to the last party and by coincidence I'm friends with the group director's son so I thought I'd like to finally meet him.
Andy's used to going to the city during the week when there's a train about every 20 minutes, so he hadn't bothered to look at the schedule for a specific time saying "we'll get the next one". As we neared the train station in Westport he handed me his phone with the schedule app. We had just missed a train, so being Saturday, the next one was in an hour, arriving at Grand Central 1 hr & 45 min. after the party started. I said.. how long do these parties last? Maybe you should call them...? He didn't seem to think that was necessary.
So we killed an hour at the train station.. gave me some time to finish putting on some make up and try to dry out the inside of my purse in which I realized a travel cup had spilled soaking everything, including my cell phone which now had a shadowy monster face on it (oh and btw, I had - unknowingly - just given up my phone upgrade to Emily.. another story...) my phone seems to be functioning pretty well today.
We got to the city, I'd used his app on the train to get the best subway, we arrived just as it pulled in - he was doubting it was the right one, it was quite crowded but we (I) squeezed in and double checked with a woman to make sure it stopped where we were going - just two stops down. As the door closed I turned to see Andy outside on the platform, his hand in the closed subway door, which when he pulled it out, fully closed and we took off. The woman said "oh I thought he was with you." I said he was.. that's my husband.. (I assumed he'd have the wherewithal to get on the next one and get off at the right stop, which thank god he did) so I spent my brief time on the subway with the woman's two adorable children staring up at me. The boy, about 10 or 11 said to me "you know, you're whole life is on Facebook". I said "well only if you put it on there - you shouldn't put too much information on there" (and hmm.. aren't you supposed to be at least 13 to have an account??) He said "no, only if you put your name, they can still find out your whole life" (whoa.... heavy...the way he was looking at me I had the uncanny feeling that perhaps he knew mine.) Trying to think of something to say I asked where he lived. Brooklyn. I said "oops but you really shouldn't tell that to strangers" he said "I know but I was tricky, I only told you Brooklyn, not where in Brooklyn - you'll never find me". I might have had more fun talking to this wise little guy all the way to Brooklyn but I squeezed my way off at 28th st and waited for Andy to arrive. He did.
Now as briefly as possible: we arrived at the studio location only to find a note on the door saying they had moved to another location. We walked the several blocks to that one, got to the 2nd floor, only to be told "oh the photography party? It's over. They just left." I sat down. Andy was able to reach the organizer by phone who eventually told him the few people left had moved on to a restaurant a block and a half away, he didn't know the address but its name meant silver in english and it was between a mosque and a church. I asked Andy what nationality it said silver in? He wasn't sure but he thought Pakistani. Most things where closed but I saw a light ahead and some Pakistani looking street venders. And then mosque let out and I was in a swarm of Pakistani men of all types, ages, and modes of dress. I saw one woman but she was completely swathed in black. Pushing thru the crowd I saw an awning that seemed to be a restaurant of sorts (more like a take out place with some tables) packed with Pakistanis heading for after mosque dinner I guess, and one obvious older white grey haired man with a twirl ended mustache. That was him.
He didn't seem to have a clue who I was and didn't get any of my jokes (few people do.. I'm seriously considering looking for an open mike comedy club to see if anyone other than myself will laugh at my jokes). I think he may be a bit hard of hearing and it was very loud in there. Andrew went to get us some food and I opted for something under the heading of vegetables, avoiding the many options of goat. I've never eaten goat - I know it's the #1 most consumed meat in the world (I learned that on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" my guess of chicken was wrong) I'm relatively daring with food but I had a bad reaction to buffalo once so... just in case I went with a vegetable dish (okra and hot peppers??) - the way things were going I didn't want to end the night in the ladies room. Not that there was a ladies room. Not that there were any ladies in there at all. I wanted to take off my jacket but was concerned that my bare arms might be offensive. Maybe I was already offensive just being there.. Blessedly one of the hangers on from the group came along - a woman named Elyse (Elyse - if you ever read this, did I spell it right?? I got the E and the Y in there!)
Elyse was delightful. The highlight of the night for me anyway. She said something along the lines of I had the right to bare arms.. She pulled out her iPad and showed me first fantastic "pin up girl" shots, then the most sensual, sexual, fantastic flower photos (ah ha! found you Elyse!!!!) I have ever seen. She could sell iPads with those shots! One would think someone would be paying her for those photos.. If I had any money, I would.
misty restaurant photo on damaged iphone
So... we said our goodbyes and ended up walking back to Grand Central with Elyse, carrying on various funny and informative conversations about our ancestors, the history of Manhattan, the rise of the first apartment buildings in the city, etc (btw, Elyse MY great grandfather, the architect E. Harris Janes, designed some of those first apt. buildings. Oh and while I'm on the subject, I'm a direct descendant of the first white child born in New Amsterdam...buuuut enough about me!) We passed machine gun holding cops with anxious looking German Shepherds in front of the Empire State Building. Not sure if that's the norm there these days (did find something in the news about a possible bomb threat to a mosque or the Empire State, luckily neither were esp. while we were near them) or if it had anything to do with the string of white Hummer stretch limos across the street. I had wanted to stop for a coffee - or a drink - but we decided to wait till we got to GC. When we did, we realized we had JUST missed our train and had an hour to kill and - who knew?? - GC's many food and beverage options close down at 11 on a Saturday night??? jeeezzz.. this is the Big City! The evening's just starting! But we were too tired to go anywhere but home... a few hours later we got there...
All this time I had been lugging a bottle of wine which I was bringing to the party (ostensibly as a gift but primarily in case they weren't providing anything - and a granola bar in case there was no food) It was a screw top bottle and I had Andy open it and give me half a cup in the Pakistani place after receiving a call from Emily telling me "I just wanted to let you know it's ok, Holly is not dead" "WWWWHHHHAAAAATTTTTT???? Why might she be?????" apparently she was briefly hanged by her collar and leash when she fell thru the deck stairs but Cody (Em's bf) had the wherewithal to lower her gently to the ground rather than haul her up by the neck. She seemed ok but Emily just wanted me to know.
I had a couple more cups of wine on the train home (I'd taken the plastic cup with me) and was just beginning to relax and laugh at it all, reading the graphitti that "Jazz Van Gogh" will be famous one day (there ya go Jazz, I gave you a mention!) when we got a text from our neighbor saying Holly had been barking and crying for 6 hours (Em said it couldn't possibly have been more than 3) and he wondered if everything was alright?? Andy called him back, apologized, explained about the brief hanging incident and said we'd be home in.. like an hour or so.. (hopefully).
And to think I've been trying to get Andy to go to the city with me to see our high school friend Dan Barrett's fantabulous performance group ("The Street Cannibals") of musicians (Dan's a cellist) dancers, etc for about a year now. They are performing tonight. (with 20 celli?????) We will not be attending.. Ah well.
I must admit I have been telling Andrew I'm sick of sitting home watching tv every night..
