A Week in the Big City

I can’t remember who said this, but I love the quote, “When a man is tired of London, he’s tired of life.” I feel the same is true of New York City. I was there for a week, and it was the longest I’d stayed in the city at a time. This was my third visit, but the first was for only a few hours, and the second was just for a weekend. So it was great to be in the city for more than a few days at a time. I started to get the hang of things, of which neighborhoods are where, of how to negotiate the Subway, etc. I wasn’t exactly apartment hunting, seeing as I’ll be moving to NYC this fall, I was certainly keeping my ear to the ground about which areas I might want to live.

I stayed with my good friend Garrett Zuercher, the actor who played my brother in the production of Tribes in Portland, ME. He lives in an amazing house in Astoria, which is super accessible and quite vibrant. I definitely have my eye on this neighborhood when I eventually make the move . . . Garrett was a gracious host, and not only let me stay on his couch, but showed me around the city. We walked the High Line – an awesome park in Lower Manhatten, and saw the beautiful Manhattan skyline from Gantry Plaza State Park.

The gracious Garrett acted as my host/tour guide. Here he is in front of the gorgeous Manhattan Skyline.

Ah, the skyline at sunset.

Ella and myself on our hike of Mt. Beacon!

I also got to reunite with other Tribes castmates Mike McGuiness and Kate Finch, but unfortunately, not at the same time. It was great to see them again, and even better was the feeling that we are now old friends, reuniting after years apart, when in reality, we’ve only known each other for four months.

I was fortunate enough to escape the big city vibes for a few days and take the train up to Cold Spring to visit my lovely lady Ella. She works as the assistant company manager for Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival during the summer, which is great for me, because I got to see The Liar by David Ives and Othello for free! And even BETTER, David Ives came to see one of the performances of The Liar, and I got to meet him after the show! I’ve acted in a fair few of his one-acts, and it was such a privilege to meet the man behind the hilarious words I got to bring to life.

Ella took a few days off and spent some time with me, which was awfully nice of her. We hiked Mt. Beacon, which is more of a hill, but still a flippin’ good hike! We also met up with Ella’s cousin who lives nearby, and made time to watch How to Train Your Dragon 2, which was a perfect way to fulfill both our needs of animated movies. (I swear, whenever we get together, Ella and I watch more animated movies than your average 8-year-old.)

I flew out of NYC two weeks ago, and now I’m in South Africa. I’ll fill you in on my first few weeks in this gorgeous country next Blupdate!

---