That Rambling Woman: Jazz Age

Sunday, August 21, 2011

It’s raining. The thunder is intense and awesome. Anouska and I had every intention of running today. Really, we did. But alas, it looks as though our best efforts have been foiled. We will probably do a P90x video instead.

Anouska is taking an online ‘writing diagnostic test’ for her law school. Adam is working in the other room, which is for the best since he has strong opinions on commas that Anouska doesn’t always agree with. It can get intense when those two start debating dependent and independent clauses. Adam keeps his Bedford Handbook handy at all times now. These are my kind of people.

We went to the Jazz Age Lawn Party on Governors Island yesterday. It was one of the coolest events I have been to. It is put on by this band, Michael Arenella & his Dreamland Orchestra, which plays music from the 1920s. The band is authentic sounding, and the band leader, Michael Arenella, definitely plays the part to perfection. In between sets, old records were played on gramophone players. There was endless dancing by the attendees, as well as dancing exhibitions and lessons by Roddy Caravella and his Varsity Syncopators. Caravella was a good dancer, but he and his partner were so pleased with themselves that they were irritating to watch. He also featured himself in every dance number, even though he wasn’t the most interesting to watch. It was kind of sad, actually, to see this Caravella guy grasping onto his delusion that he is Gene Kelly when he has clearly seen better days. Don’t get me wrong, he was clearly a great dancer, he just should have allowed his other dancers more floor time. Anyway, my favorite moments were watching Anouska and Adam dance. They are incredible. Anouska just bounces around Adam. They make a great team. The two of them taught me a basic step, which was fun. I only danced once with Adam, in the corner of the dance floor, so no one could judge me. I wasn’t meant to move my arms and the rest of my body independently of my legs. This is why I do Irish dance. My upper body is used to being a board. I bust a move like a refrigerator. It isn’t a pretty sight. Anouska and Adam said we can practice more in the privacy of the apartment. Adam said I have perfect rhythm and timing, so at least I’ve got that going for me.

I’ll post some of the pictures and videos I took of yesterday. My outfit wasn’t authentic at all, but it was comfy. I did get compliments on my head band, which I got at my good friend Aly’s store, Paisley Skye. A professional photographer stopped Anouska and asked if she could take her picture since Anouska’s scarf matched her eyes. Anouska was taken aback, but of course consented. It was cute. We had a fabulous day and enjoyed crashing on the couch that night. And watching Monarch of the Glen for hours.

I am now watching Lily (Anouska’s bunny) hop around the apartment. Her hoppings-about are confined to the rug because she slips on the wood floor, which scares her. Hehe. She is adorable and fluffy. I miss my Lily kitten. Yep, I’m a crazy cat lady.

Tomorrow I have to bring the heavy poster thing that I had to bring home with me on Wednesday back to work. I worked my first cocktail party for mediabistro.com on Wednesday. It went fine. I just had intense blisters and had to carry a lot. I had worn heels (mistake) to work, which had already given me blisters. When it was time to go set up for the party, my boss, Heather, me, my coworkers, Mary and other-lady-whose-name-I-don’t-remember, gathered up a box of books, three heavy posters and their stands, and all the little incidentals we needed and walked down to the Union Square Lounge. Walking was Heather’s idea. I don’t mind walking, but when the bar is four blocks over and 16 blocks down, and you’re carrying two 15 lb. posters, and wearing heels in which your blisters have just burst, it isn’t much fun. We set up the party in time for the guests to arrive. Part of my job is to chat with guests who are on their own. I saw some nerdy looking guy standing at the bar by himself so I marched over and introduced myself. We chatted awkwardly for about 2 minutes then I walked away. I found out later that he was one of the featured authors for whom the party was for. Oops. And here I’d felt bad for him. Oh well. At least I got a copy of his book. That I stole, which is another part of this story. So the four featured authors read a bit from each of their books and the guests were invited to ‘tweet’ that they were there to some address and they would get one of their books for free. I am only paid to stay for the first hour of each party, so when 7 pm rolled around, Heather told me to take some of the smaller papers and signs home, oh and one of the giant 15 lb. signs too. I was stunned. Really? You want me to just carry one of those heavy signs all the way home from 16^thStreet to 125^th? Oh, ok. I’ll just do that. That’s when I decided to just take one of the books. I didn’t have a Twitter account, but I was tired, my feet were bleeding, I had to carry a ridiculous amount of stuff, I didn’t know where the nearest subway entrance was, and my Google maps had stopped working on my phone, so I felt I deserved a book. Once I had hobbled out of the bar (up two flights of stairs, which was fun) I called Anouska and told her my situation. She instructed me on where to go and what trains to transfer to, saving me yet again. I made it home an hour later, after many odd stares on the subway (it didn’t help that the case for the heavy poster resembled a rifle case), and lots of slow limping. Needless to say I am not looking forward to lugging all that back to work tomorrow. Wah waahhh…

Ok. I’m going to do P90x now.