Thursday, October 9, 2008

39. take my leave

Boy left in a bitter-sweet haze of goodbye, I love you, I’m going to marry you and we will make a plan to be together soon. We’d only had one beautiful day to spend together under the new promise of a life together. We went walking in the park, onto 5th Avenue and took a picture of us in front of Tiffany’s before heading out to La Guardia. Seeing his tears and his brave smile as he finally tore himself away from my embrace, watching him grow smaller as he waved one last time, nearly ripped my heart out. I cried all the way back into the city.

Once Beautiful Boy was gone, it was time for me to take my leave of NYC. Lala and I had a few more things on our to-do list. We ate the worst pretzel in the world on the Staten Island Ferry (the cheapest way to see the Statue of Liberty – it’s free!), took a hundred pictures of Manhattan from the Top of the Rock, visited a friend of Lala’s at her super posh apartment right next to Trump Parc and shot the breeze with Jazz great Wynton Marsalis at Dizzy Jazz Café on Columbus Circle. As you do.

By a great coincidence we would still be in NY for Halloween! We don’t celebrate this holiday back home, which added further excitement. The night before Halloween we were at Dizzy’s. I had two glasses of excellent red wine and fell a little bit deeper in love with the city as seen from the panoramic windows with smooth, hip jazz in my ears. From Dizzy’s we went to a little hole-in-the-wall bar somewhere round Spring Street. We had a couple of beers and made small talk with the locals.

One local was a little bit odd. I can’t remember his name and might not recognise him if I ever saw him again, but I do recall how creepy he seemed. I tried to be nice and non-judgemental as he ranted and raved about bad art and how good his art was and how he didn’t even like his girlfriend cause she thought she was cooler than him, but she wasn’t… Blah blah blah the guy went on and on. Long story short, he eventually tried to persuade me to come see his art at his studio just around the corner.
By this time I was not worried about offending him any more and I turned my back, didn’t respond, ignored him completely. He got angry and rude. Eventually the owner escorted him out of the bar for being drunk and disorderly. A short while later, I started feeling sick. I asked Lala if we could go home and though she was having a good time, she agreed to come with me. We got home safely and I crashed into a dead sleep.

When I woke up the next morning, I thought I was going to die. I’ve had too much drink before, I’ve mixed drinks and not slept enough and suffered hangovers I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemies, but this was so much worse. I’d never felt so nauseous, weak and riddled with pain. I could hardly lift my head from my pillow, getting into the shower seemed impossible. Lala went out to get us some food; I could hardly eat a thing. I spent the day in bed drifting in and out of uncomfortable sleep filled with strange dreams.
By five o’clock, Lala urged me to get up and join her and friends at the Halloween parade. I really wanted to go, this was probably a once in a lifetime deal for me, but there was no way I could get out of that bed and spend the evening amid thousands of people in weird costumes.
Now I can’t say for sure that the creepy guy spiked my drink, maybe I just had the worst hangover ever in the history of humanity, but I guess in this twisted way I’ll never forget my one and only Halloween in NY!

The next day I felt almost back to normal. Thank goodness, because I had so much shopping left to do! I spent the GDP of a small African country on shoes, boots and Forever 21 and then fondly said goodbye to what would now forever be the city of love to me.

12 comments:

Janine / Being Brazen said...

Sorry to hear about your nasty hangover - thats sucks.

I miss Forever 21. I loved shopping there. *sigh*

Modelmental said...

Thanks man, just thinking about it makes me cringe...
Thinking about Forever 21 makes me sad. I mean, you can even shop there with our little Rands and still go nuts.
Just to make it worse, I'm gonna go on their website now.
Sucker for punishment.

Julia said...

Sorry about your ruined Halloween! what a chump - Lucky you were with a friend and also smart enough to turn your back eh.
On another note - You met WYNTON????? what is he like? I went to a concert of his when he was in NZ a while back, managed to (dorkily) get his autograph but then was too shy to say anything. I love him.

MouseClark said...

I'm so glad you now have fond memories of the city.
Forever 21 rocks - I buy stuff online from them even though I walk past the store on 34th and Broadway everyday. You need to sharpen your elbows before jumping into that store!

Cate Subrosa said...

Wow, you poor thing, lucky you were with a friend and the guy got chucked out. What a pity you missed out on Halloween, it must be really cool over there.

beka said...

So glad you had a friend there with you. Damn creepy men.

her said...

oh forever 21 *sigh*

Kimberly Julie said...

That is terrifying to think that he could have slipped you something!! So sad that you missed the awesome-ness that is Halloween... it really is the most fun holiday!! Hypothetical: If you would have been able to make it off of your plush pillow, what would you have gone as?

Anonymous said...

Gotta hate a creepy guy.

Shop Forever 21 online!
http://www.forever21.com/Default.asp?cookie_test=1

Kim said...

Shame Redframe - sounds like something was slipped into your drink!
'Goodbye to what would now forever be the city of love to me'

Wow - what an adventure!

Anonymous said...

Ok should have read your comment to being brazen before I got all smart and gave you the website for Forever 21. Sorry about that!

Modelmental said...

julia, it was a shame!
wynton was actually quite reserved. i think he kind of liked my friend lala (a lot) so that might've made him shy but he was perfectly sweet and charming! i'm such a music ignoramus, i didn't even know who he was... blind!

ceecee, the longer i'm away the more i love ny and my memories of it! i'm a hard-core bargain bitch so i actually enjoy the elbow-wars... plus they don't deliver to SA boo.

GS, yes thank goodness for a good friend to see me home! i really was shattered that i'd missed it, lala's pics were unbelievable.

bekapaige, and i was just trying to be nice!

krystal, double sigh...

kimberly julie, we're so not used to the fuss, we didn't even have costumes. in my dreams though? scarlett o'hara!

dt, i really think something was off. i was feeling quite feint the next day too... but it does add to the adventure!

mrs s, no apology necessary, it was kind of you to volunteer the info! i shouldn't go there though... breaks my heart.x