Milestones, Manhattan and magic!

Hey, Steemit! It’s a whirlwind freewrite opportunity on this Saturday before @guthrie, @vermillionfox and myself make our way back to Minnesota tomorrow afternoon. It’s been impossible for me to blog during this trip […except for a two hours window during the week, which I did cease the opportunity]. I had six shoots in four days, 30 miles walked, five cities travelled, with an additional visit to New York City from Scranton last night […I’ll get to that shortly]. I am exhausted. We were all overdue for some downtime today, and to savor it as we’re all back on the road tomorrow.

This entire trip was hinged on being here for @bonni’s graduation. My mom, just shy of sixty, is only the second person in our family to graduate from college. She graduated with Summa Cum Laude honors, and was asked to give a presentational speech before her graduating class. I’m incredibly proud of as she’s achieved this while working a stressful full time job in government security, and personal tragedy and grief. After my shoots in New York, I took a bus back to Scranton and we were all there for the milestone. 

A couple of weeks before I arrived in New York City, I received an email from Company XIV, inviting me as a guest to a performance called “Queen of Hearts”. To be honest, I thought it was a scam at first. After checking out their social media pages, if felt too good to be true. I cleared my schedule for the evening of my first night in the city, not sure what to expect. It was one of the most memorable experiences of my life and I immediately began planning how I’d bringing @vermillionfox back to witness this awe-inspiring performance art.

“Queen of Hearts” by Company XIV is a seasonal performance by the theater and will run until August. At that point, the company will perform a Nut Cracker interpretation by Austin McCormick […also, the mind behind “Queen of Hearts”. I wanted to get @vermillionfox there before it ended and I knew we wouldn’t be on the east coast together before August. With that, we made plans for a one day trip back to New York City. Being there reminded me how much fun we have in New York together, as long as I’m not working.

Before we arrived at the theater, we visited Forbidden Planet, a favorite of @blewitt’s, I’m sure. @vermillionfox is an avid manga enthusiast and the offerings were lacking. We went next door to Strand Bookstore and we’re completely overwhelmed. We unexpectedly spent $100 […which is allowed for our Forbidden Planet budget, ironically]. I picked up the perfect book on Puritan governance as writing reference for a Lovecraftian horror novel I’m working on with @ghostfish. Check out her last few blogs for more on Strand.

I’m going to save my photos and videos from Company XIV’s “Queen of Hearts” for it’s own blog post. It really does deserve that, but here are a few sneak peaks of the sexy performance and @vermillionfox sitting before the stage last night. It set the bar for my future expectations. Burlesque will forever be ruined for me after seeing this event. Just seeing these bring me so much happiness to relive. Seeing @vermillionfox’s face during each dramatic reveal was more than worth the additional trip to Manhattan.

The culmination of this trip came together this morning. I sent my friend @joshbalz a text yesterday, making plans to meet him at his oddities shop, The Strange and Unusual. He recently added a Harry Potter themed coffee shop, which I knew @vermillionfox and @guthrie would love. In a serendipitous turn of events, @guthrie lost a tooth this morning. I saw an opportunity for him to get a better price than he would with the tooth fairy, so we made our way to @joshbalz’s oddities parlor.

@guthrie walked up to @joshbalz and said “Do you buy body parts?”. He immediately replied “Yes, I do!”. @guthrie presented him with his tooth and he was offered $5. SOLD! He shopped around the entire store of crystal balls, skulls and Ouija boards. He and @joshbalz performed some wand magic together, and left with new magnetic rings, a vintage camera and a complimentary butter beer hot chocolate with whipped cream and gold dust. A lengthy freewrite for those that made it this far, but such a great family trip.