Me and Robert Marshall, author of A Separate Reality

HAPPY ENDING READING AND NY.

I was not in the mood to go to NY. The week before the trip, I was seriously thinking about cancelling. I was tired, overworked, and was on deadline to get the first two chapters of my dissertation finished by the end of Christmas break. That being said, a quick jaunt to NY was really the last thing I needed. But, it was Happy Ending, a reading series I really admire, and the cherry on the cake of my trip was that I'd get to spend lots of time with one Mr. Nick Burd--otherwise known as my gay boyfriend or a.k.a the best host ever. Amazingly, there were no flight delays, and I landed at Laguardia a little before noon, grabbed a cab--after fighting profusely with a cab driver who refused to go to Brooklyn--much less Fort Greene--and was on Nick's doorstep within a half hour of landing. He was still stuck at work, so I sat on his stoop for around twenty minutes, waiting for him to stroll down the block. The weather was gorgeous--60 degrees and sunny. When Nick arrived, we decided to do lunch at ICI, an amazing bistro where all the food is organic, and I ended up having scrambled eggs with smoked salmon, a bagel and cream cheese, and lots and lots of coffee with cream. We mostly walked around Brooklyn for the rest of the afternoon, shopping, peeking into expensive-ass stores in Park Slope, and stopping twice--once for tea, and another time to split a cupcake--which, I lamented repeatedly was not as good as the one's from Magnolia Bakery. I love just walking the city with Nick--he pays attention to everything, and is constantly drawing my attention to something cool that I wouldn't have noticed on my own. Most of all I love that, when we hang out, its just so RELAXED. I've known him for a long time, and there's no bullshit. I can't wait until Nick finishes his novel, so I can come to all his readings and cheer him on. That's just the kind of friend I am.


By the time we got to the reading that night, I was NERVOUS as usual. I made a total ass of myself by walking up to a table filled with hipsters and asking which one was Amanda Stern--as I had never seen her picture. That went over well, and I blushed so hard that I thought my face would catch on fire--thank god it was darker than fuck in the bar. Of course, when I got home that night I Googled Amanda and pulled up a pic, and I've got to say, even if I HAD seen a photo of her, there's no way I would've recognized her--she's much prettier in person than in her photographs. She was really kind--especially after she found out that I suffer from panic attacks--and made with the drink tickets pretty quickly. Two weak-ass drinks later, I was still nervous as hell, and the place was beginning to fill up. Two of my favorite Impetus authors--Nick Antosca, along with Kate Hunter showed up to support me, so we sat and chatted for a while, and I had the pleasure of meeting the incomporable Ned Vizzini (who Jessa Crispin rightly refers to as a "dreamboat"). I chatted with Robert Marshall who was also reading, and bought a copy of what looks like his fine book A Separate Reality. After the band played a few songs, it was my turn to take the stage. Now, for those of you who have never been to Happy Ending before, the tradition is that before you read, you must take a public risk--and the act of reading doesn't count. Basically, you have to do something on stage you've never done before. So, I called Nick Burd up to the stage, and asked him to be my sperm doner if I don't find someone suitable in a few years. That went over pretty well, and everyone laughed. The cool thing was that, after taking the risk, I wasn't really nervous anymore. Before I knew it, I was sitting back down again, relieved.

Ron Hogan from Beatrice.com and Galleycat.com also showed up. I really like Ron--he's a sweetheart, and I was pretty touched that he came out to see me read. He was interested in the whole Jaime Clarke nightmare, so I gave him the story in broad strokes. I stood around and chatted for a while with Alix Strauss--who also read from her book The Joy Of Funerals, and Ron, and then Nick B. wanted to go and get chinese food, so we went to this absolutely insane place in Chinatown where the waiters largely ignored us, and we had to practically beg to get our check. It was fun anyway.

The rest of my trip was spent packing (Nick was moving the day I left), drinking with Nick, talking, and walking around NY so much that I thought my feet would fall off. I very much wanted to take Nick Antosca to dinner to discuss the upcoming release of his book, but he had zero time for me as he's living the jet set lifestyle. Typical. I shopped a lot at my favorite vintage store Hooti Couture, and Carol's Daughter--only to get all my body lotion and hair products purchased at CD taken away from me as I tried to get on a plane to Chicago that saturday morning. Bastards.