Before Grafs

My roommate, Gray, and I decided to go on the university-sponsored tour of Greenwich Village/Soho. I knew going in that it was four hours long and I wasn't too happy about that. But I did want to see the stuff because I wanted to see some cool places and basically get a layout of the land as it were. So walk we did. I would say we walked for a total of three hours. The other hour was devoted to a stop for a rich piece of chocolate cake and a double cappucino. On the tour, we saw the Huxtable house, or, rather the building they use for the outside shots. We saw the apartment shown in Friends. And we saw the sidewalk down which Tina Turner walks as she asked "What's love got to do with it." Our storyteller of a tour guide talked about corrupt mayors, garment fires and Manhattan's two skylines and the reasons for it. Our guide let us go on the corner of Canal and Broadway and so Gray and I decided to catch the train to go home. For some reason, other tour participants followed us. With no one to follow anymore, we continued on our path, hoping maybe we wouldn't lead the others astray. When we got to the train, I swiped my card and -- now there's a lesson to be learned here -- pulled the revolving steel from the left in order to get to the train. What I should have done was gone through in the space that already existed for me to go through. Because I pulled from the left, I didn't quite make it through in the time given to me so I could not catch the train. I swiped my card through again and the "just swiped" message meant that I was to walk home. So after the four-hour tour, I found myself stranded on Broadway -- a mile or so from home. I felt I had not walked enough. So off I went. I burned off the cake in no time. And somehow, I got home before Gray did. About a half hour later, our feet worn from the day, our heads tilted back in our seats, we swore we weren't going anywhere that night. We ordered burritos for delivery (delivery is a wonderful thing) and that was it. Bernardo, another acting student, was in our "livingroom" along with my other roommate, Nikita (the other acting student). As we enjoyed our burritos, there was a knock at the door: Acting student #4 had come up to drag us out to the Nuyorican Poet's Cafe. I've heard of this place and was interested in going. Just not tonight. My frickin' feet were killing me and I wasn't budging. ....So why was I back out on the train not more than a half hour later, getting ready to walk about another mile and stand in line for two hours for no reason? We didn't go in. We had walked and stood and and stood and stood and I was done. I wanted pizza. I wanted a beer. And I wanted to go home. So that's what we did. The Nuyorican Poet's Cafe would have to wait. Last night wasn't so bad. Erin came down for her first visit and after she dealth with her jealousy over my apartment, we went to see Gwyneth Paltrow's latest movie, the trite "Possession."

We had dinner at a place called Cosi where you can make smores for dessert. And networked for the first time, as well. We went to the Strand. It's a bookstore that looks more like a library that claims it has eight miles worth of used books. I believe it. The place is overwhelming. Anyway, the guy she ran into is named J.C. Islander and he's had a couple of bit parts. He teaches workshops here and he gave Erin and Gray his phone number. Classes start on Tuesday. Finally. The week of orientation was long. It went very slowly. It was helpful, though, and I feel ready to get going. I know that I'll be wanting this time back but that's all right. I'm going to go cook some more potstickers.