Catching up

Monday morning-getting ready to leave Washington DC for Raleigh, NC. It's funny-and I didn't realize it till it was happening but-on Saturday I saw two friends from high school, Jen and Amanda. We spent about 11 or 12 hours together, talking, laughing, eating (somethings will never change) and walking around the city. But as we were hanging out I couldn't believe that I hadn't seen them in 10 years. 10 years seems like a long time, but with them it was like I had seen them last week. That's the sign of a real true friend. And I'm heading down to NC to see Brenda and Jackie who I did theatre with in college. Again-I haven't seen them in maybe 5 or 6 years. Where does the time go. Mundane daily tasks keep us running on automatic. My advice to everyone is take the time to go and see the people who are so important in your life. Over the past year, if I didn't have the friends that I have...I don't know where would I be.

But now let me think. Here are some recent highlights since I last posted.

1. The Wiz was good and will transfer to Broadway, but dear god they need to get rid of Ashanti. She can sing, but she can't act to save her life. LaChanze deserves a Tony just for her singing When You Believe.
2. Got to take a mini tour of Astoria (thanks to Tom) and REALLY like the area. Most likely that is where I'll end up when I move down there.
3. Loved seeing SO many great people in NYC, reminded me how varied and artistic people are.
4. I don't understand how the school that my friend Ryan teaches at used to be one high school, but is now divided into four schools. I understand why (violence) but each school has a floor, and some shared areas...I guess it works.
5. Philadelphia looks like a BEAUTIFUL city (I drove Ryan and Hope there for a wedding on Friday.) Lots of theatre-I think I'll have to spend some time there soon...
6. The Kennedy Center is HUGE-and I'll be back there for Follies next season. It also has the best view of Washington.
7. The Watergate looks like a Disney resort...from 1964.
8. Everyone should visit the new(ish) FDR memorial in DC. It's an experience-literally. I do think however that there are too many ideas going on at once-but it is still more interesting then just a statue. And yes I am being biased.

Nothing that interesting yet. I have to admit that I was a slacker yesterday. I got up late, wanted to go swimming but it was cloudy, so I hung out all day just , watching tv, driving around, went to a spa and got a facial-BUT there is one thing yesterday that I have never done before.

So a person has to eat-obviously. Where my hotel is there are a few restaurants, one of which is a local chain called Eggs...something. Well when it was time to eat, I walked over, went in, and sat BY MYSELF and ate an entire meal in a busy restaurant. To top it off, I did the same thing for dinner! I was driving around-thinking about going to a movie, and found a Vegetarian restaurant (in the middle of Virginia no less) and ate by myself. Some of you might be reading this and thinking "so what?" I don't know what it is, but eating like that, in public-alone, has always been a fear of mine. I can't explain why-but I think I attached some kind of social stigma to it. Even when I was thinking about going to the movies alone...it causes anxiety. So maybe it doesn't seem like a big deal, but it was kind of a milestone for me. Sad that I think that at age 30.

So what have we learned? Maybe it's a little contradictory what I have learned. Go out and try new things, even if it is alone-but don't forget those people that you love, that are important to you, that make you smile.

I already know-and I haven't even been gone a week, that this trip will give me memories that I will hold close and warm for the rest of my life.

Sappy post done. Go call a friend. See you from Raleigh.

OH! Still trying to figure out how to post videos-and I got one photo from DC..

Back to Life-and In DC

Sorry it's been a couple days since I last posted-New York was very full and fun-but not much down time. I'm so happy that I got to see so many amazing people there (Abby, Noah, Tom, Hope, Ryan (and a bunch of his friends)and Kymme. I'll update with the stories later-today I am in DC and going around to all the sites with Amanda and Jen-neither of whom I have seen in maybe 10 years! How is that possible? How do we have friends that we go so long with out seeing? So this is a quick post-more to follow. I have some videos to post too-but lord knows how long that will take me to figure out!

I'll say hi to Barak for all of you (who voted for him...)

NYC

I just get into Manhattan, driving down 55th street, and go through the intersection at…I think it was like 5th Ave. and as I’m passing THROUGH the intersection, the light changes to yellow, and as I get to the other side it turns red. Now I clearly not blocking the box-YET I get waved over by a traffic cop and proceed to get a $115 ticket for running the red light. But there is no point in arguing these things-even though I told him that I was from the area and had never heard of such a thing before. He told me at least he didn’t give me a ticket for blocking the box and addiny points onto my license. I smiled and thanked him. My mom can’t get mad about it because before I left she told me not get any SPEEDING tickets, and this clearly is not a speeding ticket.
Now that’s pretty bad-I think much worse than the piece of plastic that has come loose in front of my front driver’s side wheel. It happened once before-a couple months ago-but I just kinda forced it back into place. So I hear this noise as I am driving in CT, and figure that must be what it is. But I didn’t want to pull over because I was listening to a show that I wanted to hear all the way through (first prize for who ever can guess the show that would keep me from pulling over) but after a while I figured I better stop. So I stop at a rest stop, push the plastic back up and go on my merry way. Well about 15 minutes later I hear it again, but this time I am not planning on stopping-I figure when I park in Manhattan I will just fix it. The noise isn’t that bad if you are driving fast. When you have to crawl through city streets…everyone stares like you are the Queen of Romania and your wig is on sideways. Does Romania even have a queen? Is there even still a Romania? I park in a garage-the guy looks at me and says something along the lines of “what the hell is that?” I get out of the car-fix it AGAIN-this time with a little more force-and leave the car.
One of the things I love most about Manhattan is that people who have NEVER been here before look like they have been dropped off in the middle of a war and they have no idea where to go or what to do. These two sweet little Southern ladies come up to me while I am ordering lunch and ask me where the subway is. I happen to have walked past a station so I tell them two blocks up and to the right. Then they ask me where the Hilton is…now the subway I can fake. That’s easy. Midtown there is a station like ever other block so you can’t really go THAT wrong. The Hilton? “Which Hilton?” They didn’t know-why would they? They’re only staying there. They didn’t really seem to care that much and were happy enough to have a vague clue where the subway was-so off they went. God speed little Southern ladies. When I am on Atlanta or Savannah I hope people are slightly more clued in as to where to send lost tourists.
I forgot to mention that this morning right after I left my house-I called into Matty in the Morning for the Right Now part of the show, and actually got on the air! After being on hold for 25 minutes, I got on-told them about my trip (which they were envious of, or so I like to pretend) they played “On the road again” and some audio clips from “Deliverance” and that was that.
So hereI am. Day one eating lunch all by myself in NYC. My friend Vicki will be horrified that I am eating alone-we talked last summer about how it kinda scares both of us. But it’s nice actually. I can sit and type and watch people-be the quiet observer. The girl sitting next to me is alone too-she doesn’t seem at happy. But her tortellini salad looks VERY good-so that’s a plus for her. I have like a little more than an hour to kill before seeing The Wiz-so I might walk down to the drama bookshop-and I can’t remember if the Virigin Megastore is still open or not.
I’m rambling. Is that the point? Don’t get bored-I’m sure more exciting things will happen!

First one!

So welcome to the 21st century-I guess I should welcome myself really. I'm Paul-this is my blog. Everyone else seems to get some space in the world-and this is mine. My life is...well sometimes it's dull, let's face it. Sometimes it reminds me of an I Love Lucy episode (I'm never Lucy-usually Ethel.) Sometimes sad, sometimes angry, almost always opinionated-it's just me.

I got this blog because in just under two short days I am going on a road trip-all by my lone self-and I wanted a way to share my thoughts and what I see along the way with everyone. So here I am! After my trip is over (which is about three weeks long) I'm planning a pretty decent change in life. I'm 30-maybe that's the new midlife-I don't know-but I'm leaving Boston for the Big Apple. It's a little cliche I guess, but it's actually scary as hell-but something I want to, and need to do. I've loved the time after college that I have been in Boston, and met literally hundreds of outstanding people-but a VERY wise man once taught me to take the gifts and skills I have and share them with as many people as I can. I think I've done that here-at least I hope I have. Not that I think I can do in NYC what I do up here-I should be so lucky-but I'm diving in-head first. Hey, I almost moved all the way down to Miami...then I realized the Golden Girls don't really live there.

So I'm going to try to be good about this whole blog thing-posting along the way-and after the trip ends as well. I'll figure out how to post videos and audio clips-it will be all multimedia. I don't know how long that will take me. Technology nowadays...

Welcome to my life-I hope you enjoy it. I know sometimes it makes me smile and laugh...that's all I really want.