Berlindon 2015 (Part IV - All Was Well)

I had a day and a half left of my trip when we got back to London from Berlin. I had no more time for theatre, between my 5:30 flight on Sunday and my plans for Saturday were dominated by a 5:00 appointment at the Harry Potter studio tour. Tickets had been sold out when I tried to book them a couple weeks before I left, but somehow became available after I got to London. I specifically wanted to go on Saturday, because it was the second day of the Hogwarts in the snow display, which meant I would get to see the Great Hall decorated for Christmas. (This is a big deal, if you're a Harry Potter fan.)

So I spent Saturday morning unpacking from Berlin and repacking my suitcase, and then headed off around 3:00 to make the journey to Watford Junction where I would get the shuttle bus to Leavesden Studios.

Even though I had been to the tour once before, three and a half years ago when it was new, I was still ridiculously excited. The estimated three and a half hour tour took me over six hours last time, and I knew this time I would only have four and a half before I would have to catch the last shuttle back to the train. I wasted no time once I got inside the lobby, picking up my digital guide and joining the queue to enter. In the lobby was a huge Christmas tree, the first sign of what was to come. 

In the pre-theatre waiting room, a guide was asking a group of about a hundred people Harry Potter trivia questions. I was one of the last people allowed in to that group, so I didn't hear the first questions, but I was the only person who knew that Aragog (the big spider in the Forbidden Forest) is actually an acromantula. So I don't need to worry about my title of biggest Harry Potter nerd anytime soon. The preshow video began, with good old David Heyman telling us how much he came to love the books, making me cry already. We then headed into the actual theatre for the film with Dan, Emma, and Rupert talking about their lives on set to introduce us to the tour.

And then, just as before, the screen lifted, and the Great Hall doors were there, now with Christmas wreaths on them. Some people celebrating birthdays pushed open the doors, and the Great Hall was revealed, full of giant Christmas trees being circled by little faeries, a fire in the hearth, and Christmas crackers on every place setting. One of the big differences with the tour now, compared to three years ago, is that they have a lot more staff inside the stages, explaining what things are, how they work, and showing off specific props. In the Great Hall, they demonstrated how they made flaming puddings, and showed off the light/mist effect that made the fire look so real.

Throughout the rest of my tour I listened to my digital guide - disappointed to find that the intimate tour narrated by Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy) had been replaced by a generic woman giving basic behind the scenes information. It was still interesting, with lots of extra videos of interviews with production staff and designers, but I missed the personal insights Tom had brought to the tour. A few sets had changed in the years since my last visit, but mostly it was just nice to be back among so may places where I felt strangely at home. One of my favorite things this time around was seeing inside the potions textbook - a staff member was showing it off, rifling through the pages to show that the entire book was authentically designed for the film with tons of original drawings and recipes for potions. The dedication of the art and graphics departments on these films never ceases to amaze me.

The biggest change was a huge expansion that had been made to accomodate the original Hogwarts Express, a real steam engine used in the films. So there's a whole Platform 9 3/4 set up now, and you can actually enter the train and see the compartments staged to look like scenes from the films. This was where I got my iconic trolley-in-the-wall shot, rather than dealing with the chaos at the actual Kings Cross station.

After the train it was out onto the backlot to see the vehicles, the iconic Hogwarts bridge, Privet Drive, and another new feature - the Potter's cottage from Godric's Hollow. (Concerned about time, I skipped the line for butterbeer at the backlot cafe, figuring the alcoholic version I make at home is better anyway.)

Back inside the other soundstage was the creature shop and a lot of designs from the production department - drafts and models of sets, all leading up to the big finale, the scale model of the entire Hogwarts grounds, gracefully covered in snow for the holidays. It was just as majestic as I remembered. I took pictures from every angle - by the time I had reached this point before, my camera battery had died so I only had a few poor-quality shots taken on my iPad.

Beyond Hogwarts is a final room filled with wands, each hand labeled with the names of every person who worked on the films. This time around there was a staff person to help point out favorite actors and JK Rowling herself. And, in the middle, a quote I will love forever, "The stories we love never truly leave us. Whether you return by page or by screen, Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home."

Outside in the gift shop, I picked up a few things requested by friends. The only thing I bought myself, however, was a replacement for a rocks glass I had bought at Harry Potter world in Orlando in May of last year that had since broken. I have reached a point where I pretty much own all the Harry Potter stuff I want that I can afford - the only other thing I wanted was yet another box set of the books (WHY DO THEY KEEP DOING THIS TO ME) but I had neither the money nor the space in my suitcase for that.

I was in line to check out when the announcement was made that the last shuttle would be leaving in ten minutes, and stood anxiously in line and then at the checkout counter before running out the door to the bus as it drove up. (There was a frantic moment in which I was afraid it was driving away and I would be stranded at the studio forever. I mean, there are worse things in the world, but still.)

Back at the apartment I had a late dinner with Kerry, who had been at home doing work for her college course. Sunday we ate together once more, I picked up a few gifts for my nanny kids, and then it was time to say goodbye and head to the airport for the flight home.

The whole trip was really what I wanted it to be - inspiring and informative. I was able to do a lot of research and gain a lot of ideas for how to move forward as a theatre artist, exactly what I needed at this point in time. I consider myself incredibly lucky to have been able to take this trip, and proud that I was able to finance it through savings. I started saving money at the beginning of the year - a dollar the first week, two dollars the second weeek, so that I was saving over forty dollars a week by Novermber, and I was able to deposit or exchange over $1000 at the bank before my trip - enough to pay for my flight and leave me spending money. I'm still working hard now to make up for taking a ten day vacation, but buying a plane ticket to Europe less than a month in advance is not something everyone could do. I did. And all was well.

Berlindon 2015 (Part I - London)

 I spent ten days recently on a trip unlike any I've ever taken before, though I went to two places I've previously visited. On Thursday November 5th I flew overnight to London, arriving at 10:30 Friday morning at Heathrow, to spend some time with my friend Kerry and take a trip with her to Berlin.

I've visited Kerry twice before (when I visited London during my time studying abroad in 2011, and again when I toured Europe with my mom in 2012), and she has since come to visit me in New York for New Year's this past year. So I've done London twice, and I've done the touristy things well. A walking tour of all the palaces and the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben and the parks and whatever. And I've been to the museums, and gone to high tea, and seen westminster abbey. I also went to Berlin in 2011 and did the same kind of sightseeing - walking tour, art museums, etc. - so this trip wasn't about being a tourist.

I traveled to Europe this time with a very specific intent. I came as a theatre artist, seeking inspiration and information. I arrived in London with an agenda focused on seeing theatre that would spark new ideas,  and get me thinking in new ways. In Berlin my plan was to drink up as much information about Cold War Berlin and the Wall as I could. I was determined to use this opportunity to gain as much hands-on experience as possible about what life was like during the years the Wall was in place, to serve as research for my play that I've been writing since the last time I visited four years ago.

During my first few days in London, I flooded my senses and my brain with images: Mötley's show, for aesthetics and energy; Roosevelvis by The Team - my former directing teacher's theatre company - for melding disparate ideas and creating an intellectual piece; La Soiree for atmosphere and spectacle; Belarus Free Theatre's Trash Cuisine - at a secret location that included drinks and food and a post-show discussion - for making politically active, socially-oriented work that matters; and All on Her Own/Harlequinnade - a double bill from Kenneth Branagh's new theatre company - for classic theatre, well-trained acting, and strong story telling.

The Mötley Crüe show was chronicled in my previous post, so all I'll say is I am never bored at their shows, and it always makes me wonder how I can energize a theatre audience the way they get me going time after time after time. 

The next day, having fully overcome my jet lag by staying up all day Friday (despite getting to London at 5:30 am New York time), I went to meet Brandi for lunch near Sloane Square, where we were seeing Roosevelvis. We spent an hour catching up on life (she's living back in Baltimore, where she's from), and then went to the Royal Court Theatre for a show starring two women playing Teddy Roosevelt and Elvis, the latter of whom was our TA for our directing class. Roosevelvis premiered in New York, and though I had very much wanted to see it, I had unfortunately missed it back home, so I was grateful to catch it, randomly, in London. It was, as with any TEAM show, a very intellectual piece with an eclectic mix of influences. I really enjoyed the mix of time periods and timelines, something I'm figuring out how to deal with in my own play at the moment. 

That evening I went to La Soiree, taking place in a tent set up on the bank of the Thames, near the London Eye and therefore walking distance from Kerry's apartment. La Soiree happened to be another show I had missed in New York, despite it playing in a theatre a block away from Fuerza Bruta where I work. The show is, I imagine, a bit like if Cirque du Soleil and Fuerza had a baby (which is funny, because I describe Fuerza as Cirque mixed with a rave). It mixes circus acts with a party atmosphere, and has a 10pm late show (like Fuerza sometimes does), which is what I went to. I bought my ticket that day on today tix, and when I got there, was upgraded from "boardwalk" to "ringside" I guess because I was alone and they wanted to fill in the front seats. No complaints on my part, I got a good seat for about half price. It was a really stunning show that did an excellent job of establishing atmosphere/energy, and expectations of audience behavior/involvement. Every performer was attractive and talented and unique, and somehow in the second act a segment about bubbles broke my heart.

Sunday, there were no cheap tickets for anything I couldn't or hadn't seen in New York (Kinky Boots, Lion King, In the Heights) so I had a lazy morning at Kerry's apartment and then went to the Tate Modern for a couple hours. The Tate has been under construction every time I've been there, seemingly preparing for an expansion that is supposed to open next June. In the meantime, however, they seem to have a lot of space with relatively not a whole lot of art in it. So after sitting by the Thames for a while watching a man create giant bubbles for the delight of passing children, I headed back to Kerry's before going to the theatre for the evening.

Sunday night was my big adventure. I had booked a ticket to Trash Cuisine, a show being performed by the Belarus Free Theatre in association with The Young Vic, part of two weeks of performances in celebration of the company's tenth anniversary. It wasn't at The Young Vic, however. True to how BFT shows are performed in Belarus, where the company is banned, the show was taking place at a secret underground location. Without a phone number to have them text the meeting point to, I asked about it at the box office (right by Kerry's) and was given an intersection to be at by 6:20 at night. It took two trains and a bus to get there, to a residential corner with a church, where a crowd of people was gathered. We were then led in groups of twenty or so down the road and around a corner into a warehouse that had been set up for the show. Inside there was music, and projections of propaganda, and we were given a token for a free drink, and then were free to sit where we wished for the show. BFT is banned in Belarus because the country is a dictatorship and BFT does work that focuses on social activism and political issues, so they have to put on their performances in secret and advise their audiences to bring their passports in case of a KGB raid, which happens fairly regularly. Trash Cuisine is a show about capital punishment, particularly the death penalty. It was very powerful, and hard to put into words. The performance was live streamed around the world from the Young Vic website, and an underground audience in Belarus watched via Skype.

After the show we were given beet root soup, traditionally Belarussian, and then took part in a post-show discussion, which took the form of an Englishman who is now a lawyer in America reenacting a death penalty case he tried in Louisianna, where he defended a couple both accused of placing their newborn baby in the freezer where it died. The jury was made up of twelve audience members, who had all stated they would be willing to sentence someone to the death penalty. It was fascinating (if a bit uncomfortable) to be a part of the discussion in a country that banned capital punishment over fifty years ago as someone from a country that still has the death penalty. The lawyer-man led us through the case, presenting information in pieces as he'd gotten it, periodically asking the audience to vote on who they thought was guilty, and asking the jury members if they would convict anyone. Ultimately, in the case, the lawyer got both parents off; neither was convicted. The whole experience got me thinking about what a vehicle theatre can be to get people talking about social issues that can be hard to talk about.

Monday I headed out of London to St Neots, sort of near Cambridge to see Shannon, my very first friend ever. We met when we were babies and we're best friends growing up until Shannon moved away in middle school. We hadn't seen each other in over ten years, and she had two adorable children now, Wyatt, who's three, and Eden, who's not yet one. They met me at the train station and we went to lunch where Shannon and I caught each other up on our lives and our families, and then we went back to the house where I was Wyatt's new favorite playmate for a few hours. Apparently after they dropped me off at the train station Wyatt cried for about twenty minutes because he was sad I was leaving. Bless his little heart. <3

I had to get back to the city though, to get tickets to All on Her Own/Harlequinnade, a one-act double bill by Kenneth Branagh's new theatre company. I'd had a lot of trouble trying to get tickets on the today tix app, but ended up with a £15 partial view seat anyway. The first play was a one woman performance by Zoë Wanamaker, who I know as Madam Hooch from the Harry Potter films. She was incredible. The second play was about a theatre company attempting to put on a production of Romeo and Juliet, with Branagh playing an aging actor who is definitely too old to play Romeo. It was really well done, and refreshing to see something light, not so dense, but still Shakespeare-influenced. And it was exciting to get to see Sir Gilderoy Lockhart in person. :)

That was my first four days in London. Jam-packed and inspiring, and just the first part of my trip. More to come as we left the next day for Berlin.

The Ravenclaw Common Room

January 19, 2013:

I was pretty sure I'd posted something since New Year's, but clearly I was wrong. Things, unsurprisingly, got busy. Starting New Year's Eve I worked 11 straight days at Potter, then my roommate Anna arrived and there was Ikea shopping to be done and then Ikea furniture to be built and more trips to Kmart and decorating and being excited and still going to work all the time.

Things are really coming along here! Our kitchen is furnished with a nifty expandable table that Anna and I constructed all on our own and real wooden (not plastic) chairs. The living room has become a little separate area with a loveseat we got for free from a friend of Anna's, and a blue and bronze (Ravenclaw) rug, and a coffee table and TV stand. Gifts from my mom arrived, some pots and pans and a toaster, so our kitchen is starting to be functional. Soon after its arrival the couch was draped in Anna's blanket that portray's Sirius's flight on Buckbeak in Prisoner of Azkaban. I found blue curtains to match the rug, so the living room/kitchen is well decked out in blue and bronze, with a Ravenclaw banner between the windows.

My room now has a bed, dresser, and desk, constructed by myself and my friend Joe, whose screwdriver has saved all of our Ikea purchases from being half-finished piles of particleboard and screws. Having furniture is pretty exciting after over 2 weeks of just me and an air mattress. I'm actually pretty impressed with how well we pulled things together in such a short span of time. I will say, we did have the Ravenclaw banner and the Prisoner of Azkaban blanket before we had a kitchen garbage can, so we all know where our priorities lie. Anna and I have never pretended to be anything else though, and that is why we are perfect roommates. Well, that and we're both super neat.

---

Well that never got posted either. January was a month full of moving, shopping (for the apartment), furniture building, and work.

February was full of work. And a visit from my mom! In her short time here she got to visit two of my workplaces - the Harry Potter exhibition and Fuerza Bruta, making her the only member of my family so far who has seen the show. We also spent a day doing the Broadway thing, catching performances of The Other Place starring Laurie Metcalf (of Roseanne and Steppenwolf) and The Heiress, with several famous people including David Strathairn, Jessica Chastain, and Dan Stevens, plus my favorite, Judith Ivey. Both productions were really well done and not things I would have sought out on my own, so go Mom. (Admittedly, we did try for rush tickets to Once and took a stab at lotto for Book of Mormon but it's what we actually saw that counts, right?) We also spent a day in New Jersey with family during the "big snowstorm" (read: regular snowstorm) that hit that first weekend in February, but Mom made it home okay after a couple canceled flights the same day. (I went back into the city to work.)

Also in February: the Phelps twins (who play the Weasley twins) came to Discovery. I didn't meet them; I was miserable for four days. The end.

Aside from Potter and Fuerza, I'm still teaching Sunday school, a constant joy, chalenge, and learning experience as I navigate working with a boisterous group of 6-10 kids ages 3 and 4. They are always a surprise, and perhaps sometimes I expect too much of them or am ambitions in our activities, but it's always worth a shot. I think people underestimate how astute and intelligent young kids really are, just because their vocabulary isn't as developed yet.

And, beyond Sunday school, I get to continue with another passion, stage combat. Twice a week I assist with the classes at NYU, where my teacher and fight master is training kids this semester in unarmed combat as well as rapier and dagger. I learn a lot just from watching the students learn, and even more when I get up to help them adjust mistakes. They ask questions that make me think more and watch better, and become more aware of those same things in myself so that I'm getting better all the time, even if I don't so much as throw a punch in class. Soon I'll also get to take a single sword class, testing in my fourth weapon with the Society of American Fight Directors in May. (I might recertify in RnD just to try and recommend, because I'm a stubborn perfectionist and I love RnD.)

Life is pretty good right now. Busy, the way I like it. There is a little bit of a gaping hole looming in late April, after the Potter exhibit closes and my almost-full-time job disappears completely, leaving me with "only" three part-time jobs, but I know something will come up. I'm pursuing some possible lighting gigs at the moment, working on a play (still, God, help me), and maybe, you know, I'll just take a couple weeks to relax a little before finding something for the summer. Who knows. What should be, will be.

I've been thinking a lot lately about the phenomenon/machine/enterprise/commercial entity/community/business thing that is Harry Potter a lot since I've been working at the exhibit, and I have tons of thoughts about it all now that I'm involved from this new perspective, but that is a post for another day. Perhaps Friday, when I actually have a day off, before I head to free nights at MoMa (which I haven't visited in nearly 3 years) and then Fuerza. (So when I say a day off, I mean the day time. Not, like, the whole day.)

Nox.

It's the Final Countdown

Tonight is my first New Year's Eve in New York. My first without my family, my first alone. It's funny how being an adult never turns out how you think it will. Tonight certainly isn't how I always pictured NYE in NYC. I always figured I'd be out at a bar or at least a friend's apartment, not home in a new empty one alone.

I have work in the morning and no plans for tonight, which means I'll probably sleep through the countdown for the first time since I was little. I'll probably miss a call from my friend Michael at 11:56 asking me how long to next year, to which I would normally respond 3 1/2 minutes.

I didn't know it would be this apartment, but I've been decorating it in my head for years. Someday hopefully it will be the duplex I've always imagined, but for now I'm happy in this six story prewar building. I don't have so much as a chair to sit on, a pot to heat soup in, but the heat is on and I have more keys than I know what to do with. And thanks to my new iPhone, I have a connection to the outside world even though I haven't set up Internet here yet.

The year draws to a close - one in which I lived in five different places in five different zip codes in two different states, in which I graduated college, traveled to Europe, got a new job, survived a hurricane, signed a lease, made friends, misses friends, left home, came home, made mistakes, made myself proud, and always, every day, learned something and loved something.

People always get sentimental at this time of year and see the start of a new calendar as a chance to start over and suddenly be something else. But just the way I feel the same on my birthday as I do the day before it, I know I'll wake up tomorrow feeling the way I do today. I survived Y2K, I survived judgement day, I survived the apocalypse, and tomorrows have to remember to date things with a new year, but that's all that will be different.

Moving is a new start. A new job is a new start. Weird things make me feel like a real person in the real world, like having enough money to splurge on two-ply toilet paper, or being able to buy a friend a drink, or spending a night going ice skating because I have time for that now. I never expected those things. And that's life.

And, as always, Harry Potter forever. All was well.

Rock You Like A Hurricane

Oh hi!


I don't know why that picture is so big.

Last we met, I was just telling you I was still alive after the hurricane. The hurricane was nothing to me, what followed in the next six weeks was the whirlwind of my life and why I've been so absent on the blog front. Let's see how succinctly I can do this.

October 29: Hurricane. MTA shut down.
October 30: MTA still shut down.
October 31: Halloween? Busses running, tried to take the bus to work, ended up walking because NYC cannot function without the subway. Worked all day. Took a cab home.

Began working 24/7 at Harry Potter, since Fuerza Bruta (at 15th street) didn't have power. As a result of working 24/7 at Harry Potter, I became the inventory/product manager. Welcome to a full time job.

So picture November: 40+ hours a week at Harry Potter, 10+ hours a week at Fuerza Bruta, 15+ hours a week stage managing a show at NYU, church (Sunday school) on Sundays, and stage combat (assisting with unarmed and learning broadsword) on Thursdays.

Still I will say this, now that it is mid-December and the show I stage managed is over and as of today stage combat is finished for the semester: real life still isn't as taxing as theatre school was.

Life is awesome. I have jobs I (mostly) love, the show went really well, the cast gave me roses. I passed my skills proficiency test in broadsword so that I'm certified in three weapons making me an actor-combatant. I going on dates! Now that less than 100% of my friends are theatre people, I'm meeting non-gay men, it's crazy. I went ice skating yesterday. :) And the biggest best news of all: ANNA AND I GOT AN APARTMENT! AND IT'S SO PRETTY, LOOK!

Exposed brick, pretty kitchen, an ELEVATOR!

Guys, Harry Potter paradise is about to be a reality. Get ready.

Tuesday I go to Florida, for a vacation, where I won't have to do homework, like a real vacation! I get to see my parents and my brother and my grandma and be in the sun and warm weather. Yay! And then I'll be in NYC for NYE for the first time ever, and sometime between Christmas and New Years, I'll move into the beautiful apartment!

I'm so happy. :) Hope you all have a lovely holiday season.

Post-Sandy Update

So a full "Adventures with Sandy" post will be coming in the near future, but for now:

I am grateful for:
The A train
Dunkin Donuts
My HPTE boss Michael
My three most competent co-workers, Matt, Alberto, and Jennifer
The deli that makes amazing salads on 43rd & 9th
My boss instructing me to take a cab home and paying for it
Zappos
My former professor, Bob, who has no power at his apartment but still feels really bad that I haven't been able to get my clothes that have been stored there
Employment
Too much employment
My roommates
Not needing a car
Running water
Electricity
Harry Potter
JK Rowling

Perhaps Hallows is the Theme of this Post

There is no theme to this post. A few random thoughts before bed:

My roommates are watching some Justin Bieber documentary type thing, which made me realize another thing I like about 80s rock concerts: I am the closest thing there is to a screaming 13-year-old girl. Thank God.

Tonight is Halloween in New York City. So was last night, and so will be tomorrow. Monday and Tuesday might be sort of calm, and then it will actually, according to the calendar, be Halloween on Wednesday. NYC will always start celebrating Halloween on Friday, even if it's in the middle of the week. Nay, especially if it's in the middle of the week.

And as it gets closer and closer to the 31st, it gets harder and harder to tell who is or is not in costume.

And I'm working pretty much all day, all six of those days. Maybe if it's allowed at Fuerza, I'll bring back my Ziggy Stardust facepaint from two years ago for the show.

Whenever someone holds the exit gate open for me at a subway station, or allows me to pass in front of them to exit a train or my building, it is always a surprise to me. But I like that, because then I don't take it for granted.

I now work in Times Square in addition to changing trains there on my way to or from Fuerza, so I spend a lot of time in the Times Square subway station. Tonight there was a full band of five or six people performing "Twist and Shout" with a crowd of about 50 people watching them, and there was so much joy in the subway station. It was awesome.

Today I got to spend an hour or two organizing wands at the Harry Potter exhibition. There were three display cases and about ten different wands, and I got to decide which ones went where, making both aesthetic (based on box color) and dramaturgical (based on Hogwarts house or series importance) choices about placement. I hope I can show you pictures at some point, because it was way too much fun setting up the store today.

One of my fellow ushers told me tonight about a place in Chinatown where she got a massage today. $30/45 minutes, $40/1 hour. I think both in celebration of and because of this new job, I might try to go tomorrow in between rehearsal and Fuerza before my lower back craps out completely at 22.

Speaking Of...

In conjunction with last night's post, these are my activities for the day:

1. Watch last night's Daily Show and Colbert Report while drinking coffee. (unrelated)
2. Read about the new Rolling Stones single being released tomorrow.
3. Read a list of the Top 10 KISS songs of the 1970s (slow news day, apparently).
4. Discover there was a movie made in 1999 called Detroit Rock City about a KISS cover band: find movie online, prepare to watch said movie.
5. But first, apply to work at Harry Potter: the Exhibition when it returns to NYC November 1st. I may never have been so qualified for a job in my life. And by that I mean I hope my Harry Potter knowledge and enthusiasm makes up for my severe lack of retail experience.
6. Watch Detroit Rock City.
7. Read The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling, because I'm way behind since I won't take it out of the house. I don't want anything to happen to it.
8. Go to work at Fuerza.
9. Buy groceries at Trader Joe's
10. Come home, read some more, go to bed.

AWESOME DAY. This is what my days should always be like.

Nostalgia?

This post probably isn't going where you think it's going.

I was chatting with a friend of mine today and he called the rock shows that I go to "nostalgia concerts." (It should be mentioned he was born in 1976.) So I thought about that label, because clearly for me, going to an 80s rock concert is not motivated by nostalgia, since I was never alive in the 80s, unless you're using the conservative definition of "life." Which I'm not. But I get the idea that for people who are somewhere between 15 and 25 years older than me, that may be exactly what such an event is. There are definitely guys in their late 30s, early 40s (or older) at these shows who want to relive their teens and 20s, and they bring their kids who are now like eight or twelve, and the whole family paints their faces with KISS make-up. Or they bring their girlfriends and get really drunk but pay very little attention to the music, and occasionally stare at me, because my presence is inexplicable to them. This is understandable since the demographic at these shows is usually 35-50 (and 5-12), and also heavily male-leaning, but there was a guy a row in front of me in Hartford who turned around every half hour or so not in a lecherous way, but with a look of confusion and/or amusement on his face. Out of the tens of thousands of people at the concert, I saw less than a dozen who were within ten years of my age by the look of it.

So maybe for those people it is about wanting to relive "the good old days" (although I've heard they weren't so good). But for me, this is about going to hear the music I like and see the bands I like now. I'm trying to think of bands/artists formed in the last 10-15 years I'd pay money to see live (which is a much more specific thing than "contemporary artists I vaguely like).

I've been thinking for a couple minutes now and the only thing that came to mind was maybe Maroon 5, maybe, and I guess technically I did sort of see them live at Ravinia last summer, but we couldn't actually see them. And that was before "Moves Like Jagger" came out, so really it doesn't count.

Maybe Pink, since she's still around, I imagine it'd be interesting, although I don't really know her music anymore.

Anyway you get where I'm going with this. I'd rather see Elton John, Led Zeppelin (please get back together (they won't)), Bruce Springsteen (I know, I know, I missed it), the Rolling Stones (God I hope they do that show they have rumored to be planning in Brooklyn), et cetera.

The point, really, I think, is that I don't believe the bands are doing this out of nostalgia for earlier decades. I can't imagine Mötley wants to go back to the 80's. They probably couldn't survive them a second time. This is still about making new music. KISS's new album, Monster, came out last week. While the review I read said the songs probably won't make it past the tour supporting the album, I think the single is as good as any of their stuff from the 70s, and they've got to keep making new music.

I keep thinking about what it must be like to still be constantly performing songs written thirty or more years ago. In some interview I read, Nikki Sixx mentioned that when they brought Vince Neil in to sing for the first time, he sang "Live Wire," and they knew that he was it. And he said they've played that song at every single gig ever since. That's 31 years of playing that song (give or take some years in the 90s when they were all fighting or in rehab). I've tried really hard, but it's rather difficult at age 22 to imagine what it's like to keep performing something for a longer time than I've been alive. But maybe I've in some ways talked myself out of my own point because they're playing those songs from thirty years ago because that's what the fans want to hear. KISS was extremely prolific for a decade so their catalogue is extensive and I don't know it as well, but I know Mötley has nine studio albums, and I know they only play material at their shows off of the (five) releases from the 80s and their most recent album from 2008. There are three albums (1994's Mötley Crüe, 1997's Generation Swine, and 2000's New Tattoo) that are completely ignored. Their eponymous album was never that popular because it's the one that doesn't feature Vince Neil on vocals, and Generation Swine is just not very good, but the only explanation for New Tattoo being overlooked is that it lands in the middle ground between the classics and their newest material. I think Saints of Los Angeles (2008) is as good as 1989's Dr. Feelgood, but it will be interesting to see when their new album comes out in 2013 if they will continue to tour with material from Saints.

This analysis is a much longer breakdown of a pretty brief topic of conversation, but that evolved into a discussion of Harry Potter and the generational need for something that teaches us that it won't be easy but if we fight for what we believe in, things will be okay. For my friend, as representative of gen X, that was Star Wars. Clearly for 90s babies (I abhor the label "millennials") it was Harry Potter. And now I wonder if I will be the equivalent of those middle-aged guys at Crüe concerts, reliving my childhood at conventions or comic con (I probably won't go to comic con). And I wonder if there will be those two or three random kids who are 20 years younger than me, and if I'll be totally baffled by their presence.

As I've said before (though maybe not on this blog), Harry Potter will never be for another generation what it was for mine, because they won't have to wait. I was ten when Goblet of Fire came out, but thirteen by the time Order of the Phoenix was released (since JK Rowling went off and got married and had a baby, like that was more important, in those three years). Yeah try telling a ten-year-old now that they have to wait three years to read the next book in a series. No way. Not now that it exists. There will be no waiting, no speculation, no midnight release parties, no early-days-of-the-internet community bonding. The anticipation, the theorizing, the community built up around those things, cannot be recreated, and that makes me feel awfully lucky to have been a part of it. There's a really wonderful book called Harry, A History I read a few summers ago that catalogues this experience and I guess for kids to read that will kind of be what they get to understand, the way I read band autobiographies to vicariously live through the pages into the 80s.

I can watch youtube videos of concerts, and read books by Nikki Sixx and Gene Simmons and get some idea of the 80s, but I can't live it. So it's not nostalgia. Audiences now aren't like they were in the 80s, tickets are expensive and the people with the most money (or the fanciest friends!) sit in the front instead of the people who care the most fighting to the front like in the days of general admission. (At the Rock and Roll hall of fame I saw a ticket for a KISS show in 1975 that cost $6 for general admission at the door.) So what this "scene" was in the 80s and was for that audience in the 80s isn't what it is for me in the 21st century. Just like Harry Potter won't be for kids now (because it's been fifteen years almost already) what it was for me in 1998. But that doesn't mean that either thing is any less amazing, or won't continue to serve a purpose.

Maybe this is a weird parallel to draw. It's probably one no one else would put together, but it makes perfect sense to me. Cultural phenomenons evolve. Their place in society changes. And that's kind of weird, and realizing I'm getting to the point where things that are quintessential to my childhood are becoming something people would call "nostalgic" is kind of freaky, but it's okay. I said my childhood ended when the last movie came out ("It all ends 7.15.11") and I was only sort of but not really joking. So I guess now I like Harry Potter as an adult?

We end with Harry Potter, so maybe this did go where you were thinking. Whatever I'm gonna live with Anna and if we get an apartment like the ones I've been looking at it will have a fireplace that probably doesn't work that we will turn into a Harry Potter puppet castle. And I will play the metal version of the theme song all the time. So, just, you know, know what to expect when you come over.

Gypsyhood

Here's the facts. Since I moved into my first dorm on Third Avenue in late August of 2008, I've moved a total of twelve times. Twelve times in four years. Five of those times were in the last year, thanks to that time when I moved to Spain for a bit.

Post-grad as I've mentioned, I've become a bit of - okay quite - a gypsy. I haven't lived in the same place for more than four months since late mid-2011. After four months in Madrid, I was home for a month, then in an NYU dorm for four months, then in Europe for two weeks, then in New Jersey for a week, then in a sublet on Roosevelt Island for six weeks, then home for six weeks, then couch surfing in Brooklyn for two weeks, and now I'm living in Harlem for three months.

WHY?

It's a valid question. I've had older friends tell me that everyone goes through a kind of gypsy period after graduation. I responded to one friend, yeah but I'm doing it more than everybody else. But I tend to think I do most things I do with a more-ness compared to most people. In any case, the people I know that have moved frequently after graduation still aren't moving this often. Theirs is more a case of, "Brooklyn is too far, I want to move back to Manhattan," or "Manhattan is too expensive, screw this I'm moving to Brooklyn." My year of living out of suitcases has not been that. Actually I've found it kind of interesting to live in different parts of the city, particularly Roosevelt Island since I know a total of three people who've lived there (and I've now lived with two of them).

I didn't lease an apartment after graduation because in February of this year I went to visit my cosmic twin (really, we're the same person) in Philadelphia where he now lives with his boyfriend. I found out while I was there that they were planning to move to NYC and was offered the other bedroom in this hypothetical apartment. I'd always hoped my friend would move back to the city and we'd live together, so I was thrilled. As the spring wore on, the hypothetical moving date kept floating further away. So over the summer, I subletted and then spent some time at home, hoping the boys would figure things out. In the meantime I ended up subletting this place in Harlem where I am now. I just didn't want to buy furniture and sign a lease just to have to ultimately move that furniture and either find a subletter myself of have to wait to move into the apartment with my friends.

So I took on a gypsy life, drifting from neighborhood to neighborhood, sublet to sublet, suitcases in hand on trains and busses all over the city. As I well-documented, I spent my time at home ruthlessly getting rid of anything I could to make ultimately hauling my possessions across country easier. I don't know what size my future apartment will be, but my stuff ought to fit. I believe it would fit into this bedroom I'm in now, and it's not that big.

All this is to say I had an impromptu lunch with my friend today who happened to be in the city for an audition, and he told me he's going to be performing a cruise for essentially the next year. What that means for me, as I was already coming to discern, is that I'm not going to be living with him anytime in the near future. The new roommate search is on.

My first thought was my friend Anna who is currently studying abroad in Madrid just as I did last year. Frequently when kids come back from abroad studies they move into apartments instead of back into NYU housing. (This is much cheaper for essentially anyone who isn't me, who had her housing paid for by a scholarship.) As it turns out, Anna is in the market for a roommate herself as her housing plans seem to have fallen through too, so it looks like I've already hopefully solved half the battle. Anna is quite possibly the only person I've ever met who I would dare to say is as big of a Harry Potter fan as I am. She's two years younger than me and a Playwrights student, and we started talking on facebook the summer before she came to NYU because we both had Potter pictures in honor of the coming film (Half-Blood Prince at the time). I remember in one of our first conversations we analysed the latest production stills that had just been released in the nerdiest possible detail. I know I have friends that would have done that with me when we were twelve, but I don't know about at age twenty.

This is far in the future, as we won't live together until January, and we just started talking about this within the last 24 hours, but I'm excited. It's going to be the best. Have no delusions about what you will walk into if you visit our apartment. Let me give you only this picture: In our "about me" sections on facebook (or "acerca de mí" because our facebooks are in Spanish), I have "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." Anna has "Nitwit. Blubber. Oddment. Tweak."

Friendships have been built on far less.

As Anna and I were talking, I said "I guess I've been a gypsy for no reason," but then amended it to add "Or at least not the reason I thought," which is really the truth. I can see now, on what is probably (hopefully?) the tail-end of my gypsydom (I'm not sure there's a noun for it) that even though I thought I was wandering New York for the sake of my friends, I have of course been wandering New York (and the world, really) for the sake of myself. This blog started because I went to Madrid, and I went to Madrid because I was determined to broaden my experience of the world and gain greater perspective about humanity. That happened. But it continued when I came back to New York and kept living out of suitcases for another year. As I've said before, I've learned a lot about who I am, what I need and don't need, what I value, what I can let go of, who cares about me, what matters. Who are you without all your stuff? You're still you. You really are. I really am.

So, you know, it seemed crazy, it still kind of seems crazy, that I've had no real permanent address for ages, that I've had to have mail sent to Illinois constantly even though I've spent cumulatively about a year there in the last three, but it's okay. I don't think I would trade it to have had an apartment back in May. Yes, I am absolutely excited to buy a bed and have a room I get to decorate myself (which will still include Harry Potter posters, of course) and having keys I get to keep and being able to give people an address that I'm going to still be at in more than three months time. One day, I will actually change my residency to New York, but apparently that will only be after I've already lived there for five years.

All I'm really saying is I still believe everything happens for a reason, even if it isn't always the reason we expect. That's life.

This Post Is Really About My Harry Potter Collection

So I'm home now, and I'm dutifully going through all the crap in my room to get rid of stuff per my earlier manifesto and my mother's requests. This post is sort of about cleaning/organizing, sort of about moving, sort of about living like a gypsy, sort of about priorities, and mostly about my absurd collection of Harry Potter knicknacks and utterly useless memerobilia. (I can't spell either of those words.)

The goal is to reduce my possessions to the amount of stuff that will fit in my future New York apartment. It's remarkable how much stuff I managed to cram into my desk and under my bed in high school. I don't think the Mary Poppins carpet bag was not such an imaginative thing anymore. My whole room is like that.

Essentially I'm doing half of the moving process right now. Getting rid of the stuff I don't want to haul across the country, that won't fit in my new place anyway. I started this blog post about six weeks ago and never really got back to it because I've been hard at work slimming down my life. I've found a lot of crazy things.

I donated five bags of clothes within three days of getting home. I've probably recycled my weight in paper. Every day I find at least one thing to throw in the donation bag. There's now an empty dresser in my room, space to hang things in my closet. Half of the space under my bed is empty, and the rest of it is pretty much filled with books that I cleared off of my bookshelves at my mom's request. I tossed out awards and made room on my shelves for pictures of people I care about and some art. But the big thing, as I said, is the Harry Potter stuff.

Harry Potter things I have that probably no one else has:

1. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets "art coloring book" completely uncolored.
2. Harry Potter "reaching for the golden snitch" computer accessory. It's a figuring of him that can sit on a computer monitor. I don't have a computer monitor. And this is pre-movies, so it doesn't even look like Daniel Radcliffe.
3. A Hermione Granger figurine sitting on top of a potions book that has a "secret pull-out drawer" to store all my secret treasures that fit in a 2x3 inch box.
4. Hallmark "keepsake ornament" - Hermione Granger's trunk, which inexplicably includes broomstick and cane charms to put inside in addition to a potions bottle, time turner, and book.
5. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone movie poster
6. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban movie poster (with Good Charlotte on the back?)
7. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone movie poster book
8. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets movie poster book
9. A sign that I made on the computer that says "Welcome to the chamber of Emma the Harry Potter Queen, Enjoy your stay!" (I went by Emma in sixth grade, didn't you know?)
10. A whole bunch of individual pages pulled from a magazine with pictures of the Harry Potter characters on them
11. Harry Potter postcards, formerly collected into a book.
12. A laminated page from the Chicago Tribune Sunday, November 5, 2000 with a color ad for the Harry Potter windows at Marshall Field's.
13. 2 little containers that each have three "collector stones" which are just little one inch long colored bits of plastic.
14. A page torn out of an April, 2003 issue of People magazine, announcing the birth of JK Rowling's son, David Gordon (Rowling Murray), her first with Neil Murray, husband of one year, and the reason there was a three year gap between Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix.
15. Giant Hogwarts poster.
16. Two (one laminated) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows posters from Borders.
17. Harry Potter analog wall clock (pre-movies)
18. Two pencil cases that may not be from America. They seem to have German writing on them.
19. 2003 and 2004 desk calendars
20. Harry Potter "big sticker book" - two of them, bumper sticker size
21. Temporary tattoo kit with purple(?) ink. Two different sets.
22. Stickers with house flags, other random stickers
23. An unopened set of 8 Chamber of Secrets invitations. Definitely keeping those for my next birthday party.

I've had a lot of that stuff since the late 90s, before the movies came out. But what I've realized is two things. The longer you hang onto something, the more valuable it seems to become, even if you didn't really care about it in the first place. "I've had this since I was five years old!" Yes, but do you still need it, or does it just get put back in a corner of the closet each time you clean it out? That's why I tossed out so much stuff from high school and college when I got home - to get rid of it before it can become stuff I've had forever. "I've hung onto it this long, I should keep it!" Nope.

The other thing I've come to really believe, particularly through a year of living with maybe a quarter of my possessions is that so much of the "stuff" we have is just objects to affirm who we are. I have kept all this Harry Potter stuff all these years not because I actually use it, but because it's proof that I'm the huge Potter fan that I am. But I know (as does anyone who's spent more than five minutes with me) how important Potter is in my life, what a big fan I am. I don't need stuff to prove that. Just like I didn't need the stack of awards I've accumulated over my school career to prove I'm smart, so I threw most of them away.

Today, numbers 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 15, half of 16, and 17 went out the door. They're going to the nine-year-old son of a former teacher of mine who saw my declaration on facebook that I didn't need this stuff anymore. For the first time in my life, I GOT RID OF HARRY POTTER MEMEROBILIA. Maybe I'm growing up, but the eight-year-old Harry Potter fan in me hasn't gone anywhere; she's just got a little more space under her bed.

Morning Musings (An Organizational Rant)

It's been so hot I've had a hard time sleeping lately. I woke up around 5 am this morning and saw golden light on my walls coming from the window, and I looked out and saw this. I don't think I've ever been so happy to see 5 am.

 

Look at it reflecting off the river!

So anyway, living in this unairconiditioned box, in combination with essentially living for an additional seven weeks out of the suitcase I packed for two weeks, has got me thinking a lot about things I need and things I don't. Apparently I can get by without air conditioning. I guess I can also get by without solid nights of sleep (at least so far). Yes, I've been wearing the same six shirts for the last month and a half. And yes, the only three pairs of pants I've had to wear basically since I left for Spain in August really do need replacing now; they get worn out a lot faster when you have less options. And not a day has gone by that I have not rued sending my other pair of shorts home, thinking, "I don't need two pairs of shorts for two weeks in Europe." My God I need to buy another pair of shorts. But apparently I don't need a lot of the clothes I know I've got sitting in drawers at home. And I don't know what all that stuff in my desk is that I haven't really seen since last summer, but I hope that when I get home I will remember I got by without it for a year and probably don't need it anymore.

I'm sure some of this attitude comes from my mom, the home organizer. And some of it comes from being a type-A neat freak (thanks for that, too, Mom), but I've still always had a lot of stuff. It's just been well-organized stuff. And now I don't want so much of it. Some things have been a little complicated since I ended up with an unexpected six weeks in New York, but mostly things are a lot simpler with only a carry on's worth of belongings. Now, don't get too excited Mom, I think part of why I'm so comfortable in this room I'm living in is because it has two bookcases packed to the gills with books, and though I go through my collection once or twice a year and always find a couple things to toss, we all know I have a harder time parting with books than with anything else.

Do you know how weird it is to be reading library copies of Harry Potter books? This may be a first.

I really am trying to think of what all the stuff in my very full room is. I have fifteen years of dance costumes in my closet, most of which I'm going to get rid of. I'm trying to sell my American Girl dolls that I have held onto for ten years even though I only ever wanted one (which I bought myself) so that I could do its hair. I finally decided to try to sell my flute that I played in junior high and then only a handful of times in the seven years since. Before I started college I condensed all my grade school crap into a single cardboard box.

There is a nagging feeling growing inside me that a lot of the random things cluttering my room are bits of my collection of Harry Potter memorabilia, which I can say from 800 miles away I won't part with. I mean, my eighteen Harry Potter books alone (not counting Tales of Beedle the Bard or Quidditch Through the Ages/Magical Beasts and Where to Find Them) take up plenty of space. And space, if you didn't know, is something of a scorching commodity in New York. It's a hotter than this weather we've been having, and that's saying something.

So, we've established Potter is important. My photos and scrapbooks are important. Minimal clothing is important. The books stay. But eventually I've got to haul all this stuff across half the country, so most of the rest of it has got to go. (I can already feel this whole thing coming back to haunt me in a few weeks when I get home.)

Join me, friends! You know you've got a drawer where you throw the junk you don't know what to do with and plan to go through "at some point." Which is never. Believe it or not, I have one of those drawers. I do. And the only thing I can promise you is in it is some Harry Potter calendars from 2002. (I'm not kidding.) Don't think of it as summer cleaning, think of it as lightening up your life! Even in Europe I got tired of lugging the suitcase around. I think I wore all but two things that I had packed, and yet I still didn't want to be dragging around as much stuff as I had. So I definitely want to get rid of the excess in my life before I have to pack it into the back of an SUV and probably inevitably haul it up a narrow staircase while my mom reminds me this is the fourth time she's helped me move into a New York apartment.

And I promise you don't need all those school papers you're keeping. Just stop it. It's taking up so much space, and it's utterly useless. I gave my brother my calculus notes years ago and threw the rest away, with the exception of things I wrote. And don't keep those readings you never read that you think you will later because you want to be well-read and intellectual. Maybe that was just something I did but we'll pretend it's not. You haven't read them yet. You're not going to. And if it was given to you to read in a class, I would bet you could find it in a book or maybe even on the internet if you're suddenly possessed with the urge to read The Prince or something.

I care about skylines and pink heavens at five am and having a comfortable bed and being surrounded by books. And I care way more about my family and friends than anything. And, okay, I take an unreasonable amount of pride in the absurdity of my collection of utterly useless Harry Potter things. But part of what studying abroad did, and graduating did, and living on my own with all this free time has done, is help me figure out who I am, at least for now, and I am not all that stuff. Because I've been me for the last ten months without it. Out with the old. In with (less) new.

And the best thing about that sky? It takes up all the space in the world, but no space at all in my room. :)

The "I Just Got Out of Theatre School and Don't Understand Free Time" Guide to Avoiding Boredom

And what does a recently-graduated, barely-employed, almost-resident of New York City do with herself? (Anybody who knows me keeps asking me what on earth I'm doing with myself all day.) Thusly I present to you:

The "I Just Got Out of Theatre School and Don't Understand Free Time" Guide to Avoiding Boredom

1. First of all don't you dare be bored in NYC. People are only bored if they're boring. Don't be boring.
2. When was the last time you read Harry Potter? It wasn't recently enough. (I read the whole series every June, NO SHAME.)
3. Go see FREE outdoor theatre. The New York Times kindly posted this article with a list of tons of free theatre to see this summer. You could see a show or two a week all summer without paying a dime. I'm personally looking forward to the Pearl Jam Hamlet that will hopefully be a spectacular disaster.
4. Write a play! Try it. It's a great thing to do by yourself. David Bowie just showed up in my play. I think he's the fairy godmother.
5. Try to "tan" in a park. Lots of parks. Read Harry Potter in the park. There are so many parks. New parts of the High Line are open! Go there! I did, today!
6. Make funny pandora stations. I found out that if I just add Motley Crue to my David Bowie station, pandora will basically play all of the music I would normally listen to, which maybe defeats the purpose of listening to pandora.
7. Remember that play you're writing? Does it require research? Probably! I'm obsessed with Cold War Berlin so my play is set in Berlin in 1975. I'm pretty sure reading Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell: The Dangerous Glitter of David Bowie, Iggy Pop, and Lou Reed counts as research since Bowie was in Berlin then and he's in my play. But I'm reading In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson, too.
8. Learn a new language! I'm learning French for free using Duo Lingo. I'm also keeping up my Spanish skills that way. Woo. Too bad they haven't taught me how to say "I am learning French" in French. Um... Estoy aprendiendo francais! Culture.
9. Jump on any random money-making opportunity, such as being one of approximately three women working at a gay pride party attended by no less than 1,000 gay men and a few women. (Yes, I did that. It was hilarious.)
10. You still haven't gotten hooked on Mad Men and Breaking Bad yet? Get on that. They're on netflix. Yes, fine, you can rewatch all of Weeds first. The new season does start July 1...
11. Write in a blog a lot. Oh and make a list of the things you do so you can feel accomplished and share it with other people.

That covers most of it... Plus working sometimes, hanging out with friends sometimes, talking to my family sometimes. And, you know, reestablishing my credit cards and bank account nonsense. Having access to cash is nice. Depositing checks is nice.

Oh and obsessively checking the weather to strategically open and close my windows in my non-air-conditioned apartment. You didn't like that mid-90s high-humidity last week? Yeah try doing it without air conditioning. Uh huh.

Gonna go back to Prisoner of Azkaban now. :)

Stepford Island

So then what happened?

Did I tell you that the day after I got to London my friend introduced me to a friend of hers who was looking for a subletter? Did I even mention that when I was packing during graduation week I had to sort my things into stuff staying in NYC, stuff going home, stuff going to Europe, and stuff going to New Jersey? Yeah, that's right. Try sorting your belongings into four locations while graduating from college and trying to host your family and preparing for two weeks of travel.

Aaaanyway. So I skyped with this girl from Kerry's apartment and it seemed like a good deal - the place was in Astoria, with other theatre people, and since she was leaving all her stuff, she was only going to charge me half of her rent, making the place really cheap, and the timing was right. Great!

We got back from Paris, left JFK, and began the ridiculous public transit trek (requiring two trains and a bus, not including the airtrain from the airport to the subway) and finally got to my new home for the next six weeks. We were looking forward to putting our stuff down, maybe showering, taking a nap. I was looking forward to not having to pack and unpack every few days for the next six weeks.

Suitcases hauled upstairs, unlocked the door, got inside. The place was filthy. I tried to be positive about it, but after sitting in the living room (on the trunk that they used as a coffee table, because I wouldn't sit on the couch), I decided I couldn't live there. I didn't want to be paying money to basically sit on a loft bed for six weeks. So Mom called my aunt in New Jersey, and we ran away via one more subway train and a NJ transit train.

Let's take a look at this picture: Lindsay has no driver's license, no debit card, no credit card, and no address to which to have new ones sent. Lindsay had already called to have a new debit card sent to the Astoria apartment, which she now has to cancel, since she doesn't think the roommates she abandoned are likely to want to send it to her, and she wouldn't know where to have it sent anyway. Yes, life feels like crap.

Mom changed her flight (for free, yay southwest!) so that she could stay and help me figure things out for a few days. I decided to try one more sublet option I remembered at the last minute and decided if that didn't work, I was giving up and going home to Chicago until further notice.

The sublet was on Roosevelt Island. Don't worry, no one knows where that is, I didn't either - it's a teeny island between Manhattan in the 60s and Queens, only two miles long and less than a quarter of a mile wide. The Queensboro Bridge goes right over it. I found this place thanks to a friend placing an ad in the Playwrights digest - our weekly-ish e-newsletter with announcements of performances, auditions, sublets, etc. She said "price negotiable," and I wrote her with the upper end of my budget, sure it was too low, since her place sounded so nice, but she said the people who had offered her more money were strangers, so I was in luck.

I was anxious to go look at it that day (Wednesday), but the timing didn't work. Turns out I couldn't really go until Saturday. So I spent the next couple days trying to relax in suburban New Jersey, hoping I'd be able to start putting things back in order over the weekend. I even got to see my nine-year-old cousin's third grade play about New Jersey. It was awesome. Friday night I was scheduled to work in the city, so I took the train in and then spent the night with friends in Brooklyn, since I didn't get off until 12:30.

Saturday morning I made my way to Roosevelt Island, which has a stop on the F train. (You learn something new every day). The apartment was great and the best part, to me, was the view of the Empire State and Chrysler Buildings from the living room window. It was a definite yes. We made plans for me to stay the next night, Sunday, with her leaving Monday, and then I left, the happiest I'd been in days.

In the afternoon I met up with my favorite NYU professor, Bob, who I sometimes have coffee with, and we had a celebratory brunch at Le Pain Quotidien, with mimosas, since we were feeling exuberant, I guess. We spent some time catching up on graduation and everything going on in his life - we can always talk for hours - and then went our separate ways as Bob was meeting guests later and had to get ready.

I then walked uptown to meet back up with my aunt, uncle, two cousins, and two of their friends. My other cousin was celebrating his twelfth birthday (even though his birthday is the day before mine) with an overnight in the city. My aunt has had an apartment in the Gramercy area for a long time, a place I have been fortunate enough to stay at on several NYC trips before moving here, and they were all staying in the city for the night.

We went to the spy exhibit at the discovery center in Times Square - God bless my aunt and uncle for chaperoning three twelve year olds and a nine year old in New York City - via subway. The adults thought the exhibit was really interesting, with lots of McCarthy-era technology, but it required far more reading than the boys were really interested in, so we moved through pretty quickly. With so much time to spare we went to Toys R Us and the boys rode the ferris wheel. I didn't even know there was a ferris wheel in Toys R Us, I'd never been in there. And I don't need to go again.

After Toys R Us we headed back down to Union Square - they to go to Max Brenner's for dinner, I to go to work just a few blocks away. After work I went back to the apartment, conveniently close, and then on Sunday morning we all went out for breakfast at Big Daddy's, one of their favorite places.

My plan then was to head out to Roosevelt Island (my suitcase having been brought in the car with everyone and stored in the apartment), but we realized the bag of all the toiletries I'd bought at a Target in NJ - much cheaper than anywhere in the city, of course - had been left back home. So we left my suitcase with the doorman and I rode with everyone back to New Jersey.

Then the rainstorm came. There was huge thunder and lightning, and I decided I didn't want to travel and lug my suitcase all over New York in that weather. So I contacted my friend, told her I'd meet her the next day to pick up the keys, and spent one more night - Tony night! - in New Jersey.

Late Monday morning I finally took one last train into the city. I met up with Ryann, my subletter, at Playwrights to get the keys, walked up to the apartment to pick up my suitcase, and then took two trains to get to my new home. Exhausted but happy, I unpacked, which took about five minutes, as I only had one suitcase, and then enjoyed staying in one place for a while.

The apartment is amazing, with a big kitchen and big living room. I have my own room, which I think is bigger than my bedroom at home, with a half bath attached. From my window I can see bits of Manhattan and Queens, as well as an outdoor theatre directly below me. There's a Shakespeare play going on there this month, and someone I know happens to be in it.

Roosevelt Island is weird though. It's like a small suburb in the middle of New York City. It has a tiny branch of the public library - the size of a one room school house and carrying exactly ZERO Harry Potter books. There is one school and one high school. There is a post office. There is a police station. There is a grocery store. There are I think two churches. There is a bus that goes around the island that costs 25 cents. There is a starbucks and a duane reade. There are two hospitals, a park, a baseball field, a basketball court, a youth center. There are a few restaurants, a thrift shop, things like that. Most of the people who live here are either young families or older people, because of the hospitals - lots of people in wheelchairs. So really. It's like a suburb but condensed into less than one square mile, so it's apartment buildings instead of houses. The apartments are nice but the buildings and the hallways are all very industrial. It's weird. It's beautiful, there's lots of trees and lots of water, but I think it's too quiet. I'm enjoying it for now, like a six week vacation, but I guess it's okay that I can't really afford to live here.

Still... I'll miss this view.

Fin (Days 15 & 16)

Our last day in Paris was a rainy one and we were pretty exhausted so we had already decided we would spend the day in the neighborhood. Both of us felt we'd done all we wanted to do in Paris for this trip, so we had a leisurely morning repacking and having breakfast, then walked around near the hostel. Le Village hostel is in an area with lots of fabric shops, which really interested Mom, so we spent some time looking at fabric and then went souvenir shopping.

Fortunately we really hadn't bought much more than postcards anywhere else (with a couple exceptions from the Harry Potter studio tour), so we knew how much space we had for extra stuff. We got a few presents for family and a few things for ourselves - I hadn't bought anything the last time I was in Paris, and I hadn't started my shot glass collection yet when I was there, so I bought one and a few other things.

As we were heading back to the hostel we passed Le Petit Musee du Chocolat - a chocolate store that could give Honeydukes a run for its money - so we spent some time exploring it. There were lots of colorful sculptures made entirely out of chocolate, including a scale model of the Eiffel Tower. It was a fun little thing to do before we left, and we managed to not buy anything, which was good since traveling with chocolate is not the best idea.

Back at the hostel we ate a small lunch of whatever leftovers we had from various meal purchases - a little Chinese food, some fruit, some cheese and bread. Then before we left I ran up the street to Subway to get us food for later, since we figured we didn't want to have to eat dinner in the hotel restaurant. (We were staying at the airport hotel for the night since our flight was pretty early the next morning.) We walked to the train station where we would take a train out to the airport and then catch the hotel shuttle back to the hotel.

But our adventures weren't over.

While waiting in line to purchase our train tickets, we spotted a guy with an adorable puppy. Turned out he was American and was homeless because his roommate didn't like the dog, so he asked if we were leaving Europe and had any coins to spare (since banks won't convert coins, just paper money, even if it's 2 euros). After we purchased our tickets we had a 2 euro coin to give him and as we were playing with the puppy he mentioned that he cut hair and asked if he could give me a haircut. I kid you not. As it had been two months since my last haircut and was going to be about another two months before my next one, this was perfect. He did it right in the station, on a platform. We got lots of stares, but apparently he does this all the time. He's the hair cowboy. Google him. It's for real. He's kind of famous:

So I got my hair cut in Paris, in the train station. His puppy, Nanook, was tied up over by our stuff where my mom was patiently waiting, but he quickly got free and ran over to us. So then it became my job to stand on his leash and keep him from eating my boots while also trying to stand still as Kanu cut my hair. Ultimately it worked out great. I got a haircut, I got it for way less than I could ever get it cut in NYC, he got some money. We got to meet a cool guy and an adorable puppy, and it's a great story to tell.

Kanu and Nanook walked us back to where we would get our train and we parted ways. We were able to catch a train right away to the airport, an express train that got us there in half an hour at that. Then as soon as we got up to where the hotel shuttles arrive, our hotel shuttle showed up (which only comes every half hour). We got to the hotel, checked in, and went up to our room where we ate, as it had now been a while since our last meal thanks to my haircut. Relaxing baths, comfy beds, one more round of packing, and bed.

The next morning we were on the first shuttle back to the airport at 5:15. I hadn't been in this terminal last time, and it was super cool. Very technological, space age aesthetic. There was a weird atrium area that had a bunch of escalator-ramps that all went to different floors and pointed in strange directions and seriously looked like that shot in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone when you see all the Hogwarts staircases for the first time. I half-expected them to start changing places while we were riding them.

We were flying Iceland Air home, so we flew from Paris to Rekyavik, basically three hours straight north. I watched 500 Days of Summer, which I actually found pretty depressing, and then found Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (part 1) and started watching that. I was about halfway through when we landed in Iceland.

Our layover in Iceland was only about an hour, but we got our passport stamped since we were heading back to America and then quickly bought food at the only place to buy food in that section of the airport. It was a weird experience, with everything in kronor, having absolutely no sense of how much something cost. We got our food and checked out and it was like 2,500 kronor or something, which meant absolutely nothing to us but felt like a lot. Apparently it was like $18 or something, which was a lot for what food we were getting, but it's an airport.

Then it was time to board our flight to JFK. We ended up seated next to a girl from Iceland, so we got to hear her speak Icelandic with some of the flight attendants. I watched the rest of Harry Potter and was in the middle of watching The Hangover (which I had never seen - I know, I know) when our screens stopped working and they couldn't get them fixed. So mostly I tried to sleep for the rest of the flight.

We landed in New York I think a good 40 minutes early, and then began the next adventure, but that's a story for another day.

Hogwarts Will Always Be There to Welcome You Home (Day 3)

This was the day I had been waiting for since we booked our tickets in March. I think we may have booked these tickets before we did anything else. WB Harry Potter studio tour in London(ish). The Making of Harry Potter is at Leavesden studios, which is about 20 minutes outside of central London by train. The tour website said the tour lasts approximately 3 hours but is mostly self-guided so you can go at your own pace. Clearly, we knew this meant it would take way more than 3 hours, since I raced through the Harry Potter exhibition in 1.5 hours when it was only supposed to take 45 minutes. (I'm gonna switch tenses a lot. Sorry. I'm exhausted.) We arrived at Leavesden via double decker shuttle bus, which is decorated on the outside so there's no doubt it's the HP bus. Very cool. Our entry time was noon, and we got there around 11:30, ready to go. I picked up my digital guide and souvenir guidebook that came with my deluxe package (it's got to be done right, right?) and we queued to enter, beginning with Harry's cupboard under the stairs outside he main entry. It's actually even smaller in person than one might expect. Upon entering, there is first a video in which David Heyman, the producer, and some other film people talk about bringing the books to life and the phenomenon that has touched millions around the world. I had tears in my eyes right from the beginning. This is my childhood they're talking about. David Heyman is a pretty awesome guy. He sure cares about the books a lot. The next room was a theatre with another film, this one featuring Dan, Rupert, and Emma, talking a little bit about what we're about to see and what it was like for them to grow up at the studios, where they spent ten years of their twenty-something lives. A little bit of me continues to mourn their rule of only casting British actors. I still remember how angry I was at age ten that I couldn't audition for Hermione. And then the screen goes away, the doors to the Great Hall appear, and we're about to begin. The set is still there in its entirety, flagstone floor, wooden benches, Dumbledore's owl podium, the fireplace, and various costumes from each of the houses. At the front stand the costumes of many teachers, including Dumbledore, McGonagall, Snape, Hagrid, Flitwick, Trelawney, Moody, and Filch. We eventually had to leave that room because the next tour group was coming in, but all I wanted to do was sit down at a table (RAVENCLAW) and stay forever. From the Great Hall we enter the rest of J Stage, where tons of sets can be seen, all with informational placards and more audio and video on my guide (the battery will die before I finish). Tom Felton narrates at each stop and then there are additional video clips and galleries of concept art or behind the scenes photos as well. I look at, listen to, and read everything. There is a scale model of the ceiling, a 1/8 which is the largest version of the ceiling that ever existed - there was never a real vaulted ceiling above the Great Hall, the model was used and then CGi magic was added. There are dozens of wigs and bits of facial hair from the makeup department. Tom Felton had a wig but for some reason still had a 3 hour appointment every week to keep his hair freakishly blonde.  The directors each talk a little in a video about what being involved in the movies meant to them and what it was like at their particular stage of the series. There's a Yule Ball table and a table of chocolates and cakes and ice cream from a feast in Chamber of Secrets. One of the best things about this tour is it celebrates all the unseen work of thousands of people who made the movies possible, from the art department to builders to set decorators to makeup to the creature shop. And I loved the opportunity to stare at the detail and intricacies of all their proudest work. Costumes showed four versions of the same outfit Dan wore in Deathly Hallows, a jacket, tshirt, and jeans, in different stages of destruction during the battle of Hogwarts. I know not everyone cares about all the details as much as I do, so I'll try not to ramble on too much. Sets: Gryffindor common room and boys' dormitory, bits of the leaky Cauldron, Dumbledore's office, a cage full of props, a display of wands, defense against the dark arts and potions classrooms, a portrait gallery, the Burrow, the Ministry of Magic, Umbridge's office, Hagrid's hut, and so many bits and pieces of things. There was a sp evil effects and visual effects area that showed how a lot of the green screen bits came to life. By the time I finished this part (rushing through the last quarter because based on someone's estimate of the second half I wasn't going to finish in time for the last bus at 7:30), I had already spent over 3 hours in the tour. Yep. Outside on the backlot were vehicles: the Knight Bus, the Ford Anglia, and Hagrid's motorbike. We took pictures in all of them, after a brief rest for sandwiches and butterbeer. That's right, I've now been to both of the only places in the world that sell butterbeer. Also on the backlot were two Privet Drive houses, Tom Riddle Sr.'s grave statue, and several chess pieces from the first movie. They're massive. From the backlot we moved to K Stage, which started with the creature shop. Tons of masks of individual goblins, mockups of infieri, a life size Buckbeak that moves, models of Dobby and several of the actors (for times when they're dead-like, I suppose, such as in the second task of the triwizard tournament). Warwick Davis (Flitwick/Griphook) leads several videos in this area that explain how lots of prosthetics and animatronics work. It's amazing how much stuff they built so that it could be digitally scanned and manipulated, and so that the actors had something real to work with as much as possible. (Things you would never expect are green screen, like shots of Harry walking alone in the snow outside Hogwarts, and yet there is a real Basilisk and hippogriff. Right.) Next came one of the hardest rooms to leave: Diagonal Alley, a set still so complete and lit that you could essentially still film on it right then, they said. Again here the detail was unreal, and it wasn't too hard to imagine really walking through the shops. One of he signs had the quote from the first book about Harry wishing he had about eight more eyes. Well, that was me. I wanted to look at everything and be everywhere at once and never leave. There was a crooked scale model of Gringotts, and a full size everything else, with Weasley's Wizard Wheezes at the end, the 20 ft. Fred of George still perpetually lifting his hat. Both my mom and I had a really hard time moving on here too. This was another place where I teared up. Because the thing about being in the sets, as someone so devoted to the detail of the books, is here outside of the films, there were no incorrect plot points or changing of lines to ruin things. I got to just be in the world I had grown up in in books for so long and always wanted to visit. It really was a dream come true. The next few stops were displays of concept art and architectural drawings and white card models of all sorts of things. It was kind of interesting, but nothing compared to seeing real sets, and it was getting late, so we moved on pretty quickly and finally came to the grand finale: an incredible full scale model of Hogwarts, used for all those sweeping shots of the grounds. I got to walk all the way around it, see the layout in detail, study the bridges and stairs and grounds and just generally marvel at the majesty of the whole thing. One more teary moment. It was so breathtaking and so real, to be able to see the whole thing, knowing that in the minds of the filmmakers and of course JK Rowling and now anyone who sees this, Hogwarts isn't just cobbled together shots at Oxford and Cambridge and castles in Edinburgh and green screens and sets. It exists as a structurally sound, realistic place, and I can picture it now. It was like coming home, like seeing a childhood best friend who is al you remember them to be. And that's why Harry Potter will always be important to me, and always keep my inner child because "The stories we love never truly leave us. Whether you return by age or by screen, Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home."