Present Joys

It was deeply refreshing to be with these people for a short while today. A little like old times. Next time, let’s make it last a little longer.

a little worse for wear / practically walking on air

Thursday at 10:30am, the #9youngones are finally back in Columbus.

Wednesday was supposed to be our big day to go exploring, but after a long night, everybody slept in late. We missed out on some prime morning hours, but we got going a little after 10am with a walk on the High Line. The plants made me miss Columbus a little. We walked all the way to the south end of the High Line, then over to the West Village, where we briefly visited Parsons (Mamo’s alma mater), peeked into a consignment clothing store, and enjoyed the neighborhood. From there, we all walked to the famous Katz’s Delicatessen, where Karl, Graham, Tay, and I got humungous, delightful sandwiches (mine was chopped liver and pastrami). The rest of the group had lunch at Schiller’s Liquor Bar—I wish I’d had time to do both! There is really so much to do in the city. More food and drink than is humanly possible to consume.

After just a bit more walking, it was about time to hop back on the subway and head back to the hotel so we could pack the van. Though we’d originally planned to leave the city around 6:30pm, Mamo moved our departure up to 3pm because he wanted to make sure we could complete the whole nine-hour trip without having to stop and spend the night. Little did he know what he was in for…

We got back to the hotel and Mamo pulled the car around and we loaded it up and we were out of the city by 5pm. After many hours of driving, we stopped for dinner at an Eat’n Park in DuBois, Pennsylvania, but got back on I-80 heading east—the wrong direction—and drove for an hour before anybody realized the problem. (Like I said, we were all very tired.) By the time we realized what had happened and turned around, it was almost midnight—and we still had an hour of backtracking to do. Much to everyone’s chagrin, Mamo decided we would just crash at a hotel instead of trying to finish the trip that night. We powered through and finally stopped at a Super 8 in Youngstown, Ohio around 3am—a mere two and a half hours from home. We got a bit of sleep, reconvened at 8am, and made the rest of the trip to Columbus. As you might imagine, everybody was pretty dopey.

What a time! In hindsight, it would have been nice to plan everything a little more carefully. But I suppose the fluidity of such a trip was what made it so fun. I’m so grateful to CCAD for making it a reality, and to Mr. Mohr for being such a fun tour guide and friend. Graduation is this saturday! The emotions—I can feel them coming. Soon they will overpower me completely. I’m glad I’ll have happy memories of this #9youngones trip to hold onto.

Photo booth shenanigans with Mamo at the Young Ones awards party.

When the Ogilvy tour finished, it was already after 5pm and we were way up in Hell’s Kitchen; after a long walk and a long subway ride, we made it back to the hotel with just enough time to throw on our dinner clothes. We met back up with Mamo, who seemed to have had a very nice personal day in the city. He’d bought us milk and cupcakes, so we ate those in the hotel lobby then took Uber cars to the Young Ones ceremony in the Garment District. The awards show itself was pretty fun. The room seemed crowded, and we had to deal with a lot of people to get any hors d’oeuvres or drinks, but we had a nice time anyway, and shouted a whole lot when Karl, Graham, and Theresa went onstage to receive their awards. The best part of the awards show was probably a super-cool photo booth they had there, which printed keepsake photos on-the-spot as well as generating animated gifs of the shots. How fun! We went through again and again.

After the official afterparty ended unceremoniously at 9:30pm, the nine young ones kept things moving on our own. We took the subway back to our hotel to freshen up, then we walked over to Madison Square Park to have dinner at Shake Shack—the first time I’d had an actual meal all day (unless you count the morning bagel)! It was a really sweet time for all ten of us to sit together at a table in the middle of Madison Square Park, bathed in the glow of a bulb light canopy.

After dinner, Jen and I went to go have some nice drinks in the W Hotel while everybody else went to a more casual joint. We all met up a little later, around midnight, and took cabs to a seedy-looking karaoke bar where we got a private room. We sang, among other things, songs by the Spice Girls, Rick Astley, Hall & Oates, Dolly Parton, and Nelly. The only song I really sang into a microphone was Talking Heads’ “Once in a Lifetime” with Anna, but the entire experience was surreal and unbeatable. Though several people had expressed interest in karaoke, I don’t think we would have gone through with it if it hadn’t been for Mr. Mohr. I’m very thankful we ended up doing it! What a wonderful, weird experience…

After the karaoke fun, we headed back to the hotel, and kept the party going with a little pyjama party in Graham, Karl, and Theresa’s room. By the time I got to bed, it was 3:30am, and I was brimming with tired contentedness.