In Praise of Messy Lives

A couple of Wednesdays ago we went out to a library event, a conversation with Katie Roiphe about her new book of essays, In Praise of Messy Lives.  I didn’t know too much about her, but I liked the title, so we went.  Very strange event.  So the book was presumably a reaction agains how things are so regimented these days…there is a "right" way to live your life, being "normal" and healthy and not too extreme and all that.  I thought it would be interesting because I’m not really into moderation myself, but the conversation was mostly about how Roiphe felt marginalized because she thought people were judging her for being a single parent.  Not super relevant to my life, but we were mildly amused by the reading of Go the Eff to Sleep by Werner Herzog.  (I think some of my parent OD faves will enjoy this.)  We had loads of wine at the reception, did not talk to Ms. Roiphe who was small but scary, then stopped in at our local for a burger before going home.

Thursday was a long day, I was preparing for a long work trip so was at the office until 3am, took a car home, took a shower and then jumped on a 5:50am train to Connecticut.  Yuck.  Got home at 10pm and fell asleep still in clothes and makeup.  I had an appointment for a blowout around noon, so I got up for that, met S for brunch, and walked around doing some errands and shopping.  We had tickets to Leviathan which was a little crazy – almost 2 hours with no dialogue.  (Movie is set on a fishing boat, and with the wind and the waves and all the activity going on, it’s really too loud to hear any voices or people talking.  Super trippy, I think it would have made a better short than a feature film.)  After that we went home, cuddled up and watched TV.

Sunday I had to pack and leave for another work trip, got into town just as room service was closing, had dinner, did work, and early up on Monday.  The rest of the week was a little rough, early mornings and late nights, but I squeezed in some nice dinners with colleagues which was fun.  Then on Thursday S came up to spend a few hours with me en route to see his parents.  I ended up pulling another almost all nighter, but it was nice to catch the couple of hours of zzzzz’s I did get with him cuddled up next to me.  Friday was fairly seamless, I got home around 10pm, had some wine, watched some Covert Affairs online, then had a minor freak out when I went on facebook after midnight and saw that my brother’s birthday party was "tonight."  I was almost ready to run out of the house at 12:45am or whatever it was, but I called my sister and she said it was Saturday so I had another 20 hours to spare.  Ha.  S wasn’t slated to get home until late Saturday, and I needed an errand to get me out of the house, so I scheduled a 5:20pm mani/pedi the next day.  I barely made it out of bed for that, and S came home early so we met up downtown.  My nails are a beautiful shiny deep charcoal color.  We had a couple of drinks at Scratcher, then walked around to a building he wanted me to see, and it was by Anyway Cafe, the most awesome restaurant/bar in the neighborhood, possibly in all of Manhattan.

Everyone was drinking these gorgeous espresso martinis, so I had one, and S ordered this tasting of different infused vodkas.  Ginger, cucumber, and pomegranate – soo good.  I hadn’t eaten all day, so I got an avocado and tomato salad, which was pretty much the best thing ever.  Everything was fantastic, and the bartender brought us over shots of their citron martini, so we had one of those too.  We walked home past the bar my brother’s party was being hosted at, and I knew someone was looking at me but didn’t recognize anyone.  Lo and behold I got a text from my brother, "Did you just walk past me?" But I knew he wasn’t out there, it was just someone from my hometown who saw me and obviously told my brother so my bro decided to mess with me.  Kind of creepy since it wasn’t anyone I recognized, but they obviously recognized me.  I put on a cute top, studded spike heels and black pants (I am so over dresses and skirts lately, so strange.)  Put on lots of eye makeup, just because I felt like it.  We walked back to the bar and went looking for my bro.  Randomly the first person we see is Mike, the first guy I ever kissed.  We used to hook up all the time in the summers I was 16 and 17 I think, but hadn’t seen him since then except for a funeral a few years back.  He was so hot back in the day, still handsome-ish but one of those who never did much with their life.  I immediately tell S, just because I like to make weird situations even stranger.  We find my brother and all his friends, and they are trashed.  Even more trashed than me, and I just consumed a ton of vodka and only had a salad all day, not my usual!

At some point my sister and her boyfriend show up, after seeing a Rush concert in NJ.  (Yeah, I don’t know.)  The bar is full of people from my hometown who never left my hometown, which is super bizarre.  The guy Mike tells he how he basically stalks me and is my biggest fan.  My 16 year old self would have been so pleased.  I tell him to give me a kiss for old times sake but I’m not really feeling it and he proceeds to hang around me the rest of the night.  I meet my brother’s girlfriend of five years for the first time, she seems sweet.  Around 2am my brother’s way too trashed and about to get thrown out of the bar, so we walk him out.  I am not too steady myself, but we load him and his friends into the party van and say goodbye.  We take a cab home and I walk upstairs with no shoes on and sleep until 7pm the next day.  Staying up all night, drinking too much, sleeping the day away – messy lives indeed.