I’ve been painfully bad about taking pictures since the new year started. Like, I haven’t taken any. At all. Which makes my posts terribly entertaining, I know. But sometimes I can think of nothing more unsatisfying than removing my fingers from their warm glovey home to stand still and snap a photo when it’s 7 degrees outside and the winds are whipping around at 29 mph. So until things warm up a bit or I do something truly exiting or photo-worthy that would be shameful not to immortalize, you’ll have to settle for the written word.
Friday night after work I settled in for an evening of food, live music, and a good book at Starry Nites, one of my favorite little coffee shop & cafe combos in Rochester. I was going to see the theatre’s comedy improv troupe’s performance at 8:30 that night and if you’re anything like me, once I’m home, I’m done for. The tiredness and laziness sets in, the motivation disappears and all I want to do is change into my pajamas and drink tea for the remainder of the evening…at home. Like an old lady. With my cat. Getting out the door again and willingly surrendering my excellent parking spot, especially when you know what bone chilling temperatures await you, is a game I don’t like to play. So I simply stayed out to avoid any temptation of curling up under my blanket and just staying there for the next 18 hours. At Starry Nites I sharked a perfect place to set up camp in a cozy little corner nook with two tiny one-person tables and a warm lamp, right next to an outlet so I could plug in – prime territory! No sooner had I sat down when the twenty-something dude next to me welcomed me to the “cool corner” and then started singing “Just the two of us” under his breath. Fortunately he seemed harmless enough, took a phone call three minutes later, and totally disappeared for the next two hours while his laptop sat open, his schoolbooks gathered dust, and I enjoyed my creep-free peace and quiet…just the one of me. I ordered a tasty wrap and honey poppy seed salad, ate a chocolate peanut butter bon bon roughly the size of my face (no shame), drank some hot tea, and read my book while a local musician strummed and lilted on his guitar. The comedy improv performance was downright hilarious – set in the glory days of Rome with gladiators, slaves, senators, apothecaries, and wives. Pure comedic genius, spurred on of course by the “audience participation” of six drunk girls who arrived ten minutes late, crawled over 11 people to find seats together, and proceeded to call out suggestions like “parakeet!” throughout the show. But, this is comedy improv, so I would expect and desire nothing less. I could happily make a habit of this kind of Friday night once a month.
Saturday morning I snoozed until I felt like waking up, threw open the blinds and let the rare and glorious sunlight stream in while I drank hot tea and worked on my grand master plan to relaunch this blog (you may retrieve your jaw from the floor as, clearly, nothing has changed. I am incredibly unskilled at web design, lack the $375-$1500 to pay someone to re-design my blog and, furthermore, am indecisive as a squirrel). But it was nice to finally have a few hours to devote to laying out the basics of what I’d like to do and start planning and researching. In the afternoon I convinced myself to shower (you’re welcome), washed the salt off my car along with 487239 other people in line at the carwash, got some groceries for the week (Wegman’s on a Saturday afternoon? Never again. These people are total loons), and took a walk around the neighborhood to soak in the mild, fresh air after reading that Sunday would be windy and snowy…again. At night I went over to my friend’s house for several hours and we had the best girl’s night, which consisted of nothing but a bottle of red wine, a massive bowl of guacamole and blue tortilla chips, gooey brownies, good conversation, and season one of Pierce Brosnan Remington Steele. It was awesome. All of it.
Sunday morning I awoke to 45 mph winds pounding the screen against my 9th floor window, not unlike a woodpecker. I cursed this ever-constant, sleep-disrupting, lake-effect wind, one of the few things I have not yet gotten used to about living in upstate New York, right off Lake Ontario. My day was spent catching up on many things at a coffee shop, doing a talkback for Next to Normal at the theatre, some laundry, some reading, some more blog designing, and watching some more Remington Steele.
It was kind of perfect, relaxing, and a great way to regroup for the week ahead.
But nothing you’d want a picture of.
So instead I’ll leave you with something I want a picture of….
Summer, where are you!?
