Said good buddy.
I spent the weekend in Brooklyn with my good buddy.
It was a much chiller few days than when I first visited back in September…So I’ll briefly go through what we did and tomorrow I’ll finish with my takeaways from the weekend.
Thursday
I drove up to New Jersey to stay with a friend for the night. In typical 2021 fashion, this would be the first time meeting her in person.
She and her husband hosted me and took me out to dinner. I felt bad because I typically go to bed around 9pm and only got five hours of sleep the night before.
I almost fell asleep at the brewery we went to after the restaurant.
Friday
Since they live just outside the city, I took the NJ Transit into Manhattan. The train took about an hour.
From there, I hopped on the A and took it to Brooklyn. (Do I sound like a New Yorker?)
Since my friend was on a coaching call, I sat on his stoop and watched Game 6 of the World Chess Championship—where Magnus Carlson got his first win against Ian Nepomniachtchi.
He let me in, we hugged, then we drank seltzers and played chess.
That evening, we took the train into Manhattan to see a comedy show at The Comedy Cellar.
Beforehand, we got dinner and I had to use the restroom so we walked over to the public one in Washington Square Park.
At the urinal, a homeless guy looked over the divider to watch me pee.
My first thought was, No way. He’s definitely not doing that. I could feel him looking at me and my first fear was that I was about to get stabbed. I braced myself to grab his wrist or punch him in the face.
But then I realized what was happening. I turned and said, “What the fuck are you doing buddy?”
He apologized, then did it again after four seconds. I said, “Fuck off dude,” and walked to the sink to my confused friend. He didn’t know what happened.
Then another guy came in to use the urinal on the side. The homeless guy switched urinals to be closer to him, did the same thing, and the new guy also told him to piss off.
We walked out half-disgusted and half-laughing about the situation.
My buddy told me, “You get all the New York experiences! I’ve lived here for 12 years and nothing like that has ever happened to me.”
“Yeah, I feel so lucky,” I replied. Then we headed to the show.
We sat in the front row.
They took our phones so no one could record or take pictures during the performances. I loved that.
Ensuring people stay present and keeping an up-and-coming comedian from being canceled by a blogger…I’m a fan.
The show was fantastic. We got out around 10pm, walked to the closest street corner, and I heard, “Dillan?”
I turned around and saw one of my friends from high school. “What are the fucking odds?!” I replied.
Saturday
The purpose of this weekend was to walk around neighborhoods I would possibly move to.
We trotted around Williamsburg and Bushwick, got lunch, met up with another buddy, and hung out at his place for a couple hours.
A super low-key day. We stayed in, got sandwiches from a bodega, and watched movies.
This was a “And then this happened” blog. Tomorrow will be the “And here’s what I got out of it” blog.
See you then.