Day: October 14, 2009

Hardly Homeless

mayiwrite friends, my life, new york city, nostalgia ,

What I’ll miss: Living out of a box
It was green. It was cardboard. It sat on a shelf that was somewhere below the shelf with all the Harry Potter books. It held some of my pajamas for initially-spontaneous-then-turned-regular-which-actually-means-almost-nightly sleepovers.

Behind the middle medicine cabinet door in this apartment my tootbrush leaned inside a ceramic cup. I also kept a small tube of toothpaste with it.

Above the towel rack behind the bathroom door my green bath towel hung on a small towel hook. 

A bottle of shampoo rested on a bar in the shower.

A lot of my food was in the fridge.

I didn’t necessarily live there, but the actual tenants made room for me.

Because I wanted to be near them, as much as possible. My dearest friends.

Because we knew I’d be moving.

I miss them.

What I won’t miss: Paying rents when I have no income
It’s hard and expensive enough living in New York City: harsh, merciless, unsympathetic. When I lost my job, it became a little more difficult. I won’t miss how quickly my savings dwindled with every rent check, but I kind of fell in love with the struggle to survive, and even thrive here. I came to the city with no job, and I’ll leave the city the same way. People took care of me nearly seven years ago until I got back on my feet, and people were able to soften my fall over five months ago, even with as tough as I’ve become, up through now, as I depart.

Friends, thank you.

Band Log, 10/13/09

mayiwrite friends, music, my life, new york city, nostalgia , ,

We laid our first track last night.

Beirut’s “Postcards from Italy.”

I brought my clarinet to practice. I hadn’t played in a long time. Our tambourine/vocal was ready. Our ukulele was ready. Our trumpet seemed to be coming down with a cold, but she said she was ready.

We started sometime after 9:30. We listened to the song once to remind us what it sounded like. We talked about parts.

We ran through it a few times, recording each take. We listened and discussed where to make adjustments.

I’d never approached a rehearsal so casually before, nor had I contributed to a song not really knowing my part the way I really didn’t know my part last night.

Final take: The ukulele starts her steady strum pattern. The vocal comes in, then the tambourine and clarinet provide percussion. The trumpet enters, then the clarinet joins as second trumpet. Ukulele solo. Trumpet interlude. Last verse with the three curly-haired band members singing with clarinet accompanying the ukulele first beat downstroke. Trumpet comes back, clarinet joins, ukulele returns to original strum. Trumpet drops out, clarinet fades, ukulele ends on the tonic.

We listened to the recording.

We sang, played, harmonized. We made music.

People, we’re not bad at all. AT. ALL.

We wondered why we hadn’t been practicing these last few months. I mean, dang.

Then we took a bunch of pictures to put on the cover of our, um, single.

Once editing is done, I hope to post the song for everyone to enjoy.

One of the sweetest moments of my life.

I’m really, really, really going to miss those girls. They have no idea.