Present Joys

I miss my friend Theresa, who is now a big shot in NYC, very much.

a little worse for wear / practically walking on air

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

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.