Yesterday could have started a little better...I lost my car key and had to have AAA come out to break into my car so I could get my spare. It is a lot easier to break into my SUV than I ever would have imagined.
I met up with my High School friend Lesley at her tattoo studio. I was worried that Lesley may have turned into a boring person, or a burned out "I remember the good old days" drag. That was misplaced worry for sure. Lesley is still so real and outgoing and so unapologetically authentic. It is hard to find people that don't try to fit into a mold, and when you do, they are often attention seeking jackasses. It takes a very special person to get the balance right. Lesley is very special. We were able to pick right up where we left off 18 years ago. We were such close friends in High School...I forgot how much I missed her until I saw her again. For years, we had planned on buying an old mini-school bus and doing a giant road trip after High School. It didn't work out, but I am glad that it is a road trip brought us back together again.
That was the first time I had been in my old neighborhood in Greenwich Village since the mid 90s. I couldn't look when I drove past my old apartment building. I was flooded with memories of being broke as hell my senior year of NYU. My ex-husband and I were living in a Soho studio that we subletted from an elderly couple, the Greblers. It was the recession. We were broke. I lived off a diet of beer and falafel sandwiches for an entire year or more. I think 90% of the gross national falafel product is sold within a two block radius of our old apartment building on Prince Street. I felt like I was 21 again being back in that neighborhood. It's funny the way people and places can trigger memories so vivid, it's almost like being in another point in time. I am so much more free and happy now than I ever was back then. Thank God for maturity, and perspective, and not giving a crap. You're never really free if you see yourself as “on your way” to success or happiness via some special life recipe. I could never enjoy the moment back then. I am enjoying almost all of my moments these days..even the bad ones. Freedom rocks.
