One Week’s Time: We’ll be in NYC.

It has been about nine months since I’ve seen Magen, even if it doesn’t seem like it. An entire lifetime encapsulated in that time. So much has changed since then and nearly as much has stayed the same. I’ve read some, written a little more, grew out my nails, cut off my hair, traded black eyeliner for brown. Simple things. Tiny things. Things we get to learn about one another all over again. It’ll be nice to say I am here, in town, with my girlfriend.

It has been too long.

We’ll be staying in town with one of my greatest best friends, the incomparable artist and tsundere Anna Rose, stealing around town, visiting museums, eating delicious food, shopping for strange items and holding hands on mass transit lines. There are too many old friends to see and ancient haunts to trek to, but, I want to make the time for the important stuff, the important people. My life was spent so long a bus ride away in the alleyways of North Bergen, New Jersey and I haven’t seen it in years.

There is nothing quite like standing outside the house you grew up in, ten years after the fact. I haven’t seen it in more than six or so years. I want to take that deep breath. I want to do it.

There is so much in this trip. Part nostalgia, part best friends, part girlfriends and love. I have a tiny notebook for my purse, new makeup, a collection of old dresses and worn in running shoes that I have for the occasion. I am ready for it. I may have never been so ready for something in my life.

So, in one week’s time there will be kisses at the airport, taxi rides and suitcases filled with presents.

Let’s see what we can get done before then.