This past weekend New York City had beautiful weather. I wore t shirts. Deenah and I tossed a frisbee in Tompkins Square Park. Walking walking walking. I was very happy to see New York Springtime.
Monday got dreary though. Drizzle. I ran last minute errands and then Deenah and I had a meal at Quantum Leap, and she saw me off at West 4th Street Station. All the goodbyes I experienced in the past week seemed so unreal. They all felt like goodbye forever. But with this last goodbye, I realized I’d be back in town soon enough.
My experience of time has been so skewed over the past couple of weeks. If I can figure out how to articulate it I will. But it’s very inconsistent - stretched and compressed at different points.
I’ve never taken the A Train to JFK Airport, but it was very easy. The only trouble was some character had gotten on the track in front of us and delayed us for 20 minutes. When I got to the Airtrain, I rode to my terminal and watched the seagulls flying with the airplanes in the cloudy sky. I was actually going to get on this plane I had been talking about for weeks.
Airport security was either incredibly efficient or pathetic - it took no time at all. My plane took off around 6:30 and I was off. I couldn’t sleep on the plane (I’m in Berlin now and still haven’t) and worked on a zine I figured would occupy my time and read The DaVinci Code which I bought because I didn’t have any other books. It’s effortless to read, which I was surprised by since I haven’t read a novel like that in a long time.
The flight was largely uneventful. I transferred in Amsterdam to my Berlin flight. Everything was English there, I was kind of confused by it because it was clearly not the US - more bright colors. The bathroom made more sense - stalls went all the way to the floor, and the automatic flushing didn’t happen three times when I used the toilet.
Finally arriving Berlin, I was greeted by Simon and Sibsi. Was really nice to see familiar faces after hours of being strangely awake in planes. We took the bus and subway (which were both really fast) to Kreuzberg, where Sibsi lives. We stopped by Andre and Clemence’s apartment. Johnny, Sam and Chris were all there as well. Seeing these people is grounding, but I’m still so tired and jetlagged that I haven’t fully accepted where I am. I could wake up in New York and think “that was a weird dream”.
I’ve not yet seen Neil or Dashan. But we have our first show tonight, I think we’re meeting up there.