new blog!

September 1st marked a strange day for me. It was the day that I moved away from everything I've ever known- Norfolk, my animals, my family, my best friend. And now I'm in an environment like no other- miles away from safety, security, and predictability. For kids who went to out of state colleges where they didn't know anybody, this might not seem like a huge deal. But I wasn't one of those kids. My commute home was only a couple of hours. Oh, and I went to the same school as my high school sweetheart. I've never known what it's like to truly be on your own. I've had family, friends, Katie, or a combination of the three with me all the way. Until now.

So this is the story of my move to the City. My goal is to keep anyone who's interested updated on my whereabouts. What I'm doing, where I'm working, to use a title from one of BET's critically acclaimed shows, "how i'm livin'."

I've been up here for only a week and a half and I've already experienced so much. So far living in New York City is hard to describe. I can tell you that I live in Hell’s Kitchen, only a few blocks away from every Broadway play out there, but I just can’t describe what it’s like to walk back from a late night grocery trip and see 150 people waiting outside in the rain for Usher to come out of the Shubert and sign Chicago playbills (by the way- he's just as hot in person). So far I’ve seen so many weird things just pass me by on the street. At the end of my block I witnessed a drug deal gone bad (seller- “I could kick your ass man! I’ll fucking beat the shit out of you!” buyer, over his shoulder as he walks away- “And you’ll go to jail! It probably won’t be the first time tonight!”). My first Sunday night a 60-year-old man in a little girl’s dress and a blonde wig in pigtails strutted past me on 8th avenue (“nobody else just saw that?” said a nearby teenager to his inattentive friends). Wednesday I had an interview in the Bloomberg Tower on Lexington Avenue and a minute before I was met for the interview, Emmitt Smith waltzes by with a posse of 5 white guys in suits.

It’s just a weird world up here. Just a few weeks ago I was watching Will Arnett and Amy Poehler on the red carpet at the Emmy’s. Then last weekend they’re back down in this dirty little theater in Chelsea, home to the greatest comedy on the east coast, which recently upgraded from plastic shit bags (bags attached to the ceilings to collect shit (literally and figuratively) from pipes that hang one foot overhead) to plastic shit buckets! A few nights ago I saw Sherrybaby in the lower east side and after the movie Maggie Gyllenhaal came out and answered questions for half an hour. It's just very surreal up here. No matter how many times I pass the Empire State Building or the Chrysler, I just can't help but stop and stare. And speaking of the Empire State Building, you can see it from my roof, which is just incredible. Here's a photo I snapped last night. The beams of light from the WTC site aren't as impressive on camera, but take my word- they were pretty amazing.