#truncated-symphony

so I have this friend right

we went to college together and knew each other but weren’t like, close

my college was really small if you went to it while I was there I knew you

anyway

she went to Boston for a while then she came to New York

then I came to New York

and we were at a thing together and had heard of each other because we went to the same school and had been told this by mutual friends/acquaintances so both of us spent the entire time subtly staring trying to figure out where we knew each other from

so we pinned each other down and hashed through everything we had ever done at college

before figuring out that it was flute choir

which I only did for a semester but I guess The Fates Intervened

and we know all the same people, because of course we do

and then we became bros

it was a pretty sweet couple years and she has a gingersnap recipe that will blow your tiny mind and sometimes I make them and eat half the dough before I can bake it

and then she moved to Alaska

listen

she wants to run a B&B and her job sucked so moving to Alaska for the summer was an entirely logical move

she’s been gone from NY a year and in that time she’s gone to Alaska then Germany and South Korea and then back to Boston

now that I type that out it makes perfect sense that this entire trip was her fault

she texted me on Wednesday saying hey I’m in town are you around

my only agenda item for the weekend was “do laundry” so I said hell yeah and of course you can stay with me

I would like to point out that at this point on Wednesday I had no idea where she was even living or traveling from

pointless details honestly

she’s pretty self-sufficient

and she brought a giant thing of gingersnaps because she knows what’s up

her only flaw is that she’s a morning person

however

when she said “want to come out to a farm for a pancake breakfast and then go get pizza in New Haven you’d have to wake up early but it’ll be fun” I said “fuck it, sure”

.........

are you beginning to see how I get myself into situations I can’t fully explain

so I booked a ticket

without actually looking at what farm we were going to

why would I need that information?? I don’t, that’s why

“we’re taking a zipcar from the bronx”

I didn’t bother to ask who “we” was

we have a lot of the same friends

case in point

I ran into my coworker on the elevator and was like “ugh I have to wake up early tomorrow because [friend] is in town--do you know her?--and we’re going to this farm--”

coworker goes “oh you’re going on that too!!!”

I work with people who I know from outside of work and are in the same basic friends group listen it makes sense

anyway I found out from my coworker on the elevator who was even going on this trip. luckily I knew the other girl and she’s rad

at that point we had interacted for 5 minutes once and that was it but it was great! I like her! this is all fine!

cut to Saturday morning I’m half-asleep and don’t really know where I am (somewhere in the Bronx) (we walked across a bridge) (it doesn’t matter) and the zipcar wasn’t working

which is fine because the garage it was in wasn’t real

it was liminal space. I’m not kidding. there was a weirdly flashing light and a can of axe body spray and concrete and deserted empty abandoned cars and if you had been there with your back to the entrance you’d know what I mean

so friend who rented the zipcar had an extremely angry conversation with the zipcar people while we walked several blocks to the new garage (which was real) and I stealthily took pictures of the skyline because you could see the Empire State Building and I give very few fucks when I’m not the one in charge of organization

then we drove...for some time...I wasn’t paying attention (clearly) while listening to show tunes

I did tell you this story features 4 New Yorkers

arrive at farm

shove pancakes in face

the maple syrup was fucking delicious

that’s how I found out we were at a maple syrup farm

a sugary

I was looking at a pamphlet telling us what the farm was called and I still didn’t know where I was

nor did I care

then we learned a lot about maple syrup

I learned where the fuck I was while posting to instagram, after turning to my friend and saying, word for word “uh...remind me where we are again?”

then we did maple syrup shots tasted maple syrup samples

and I bought maple candy

and my friend/coworker kept doing an impression of a Canadian Maple Syrup Mob Boss that was honestly gold even though you had to be there

this was not even the whitest thing we did that day

because next we drove to Connecticut

another friend texted me during said drive, asking what I was up to

me: ............I’m in a car on the way to New Haven

10 minutes outside of the city they turn to me like “hey you’re good at googling stuff, find out where we should eat”

so that’s the story of how I became an expert on New Haven pizza in 10 minutes or less

honestly giving me a smartphone just weaponized me

the restaurant served birch beer which was honestly good enough for me to love it, but the pizza was also good

and then we drove back to New York

I got home........after 9 pm. and we’d left my house before 9 that morning.

and she left before 9 the next morning, because she is extremely weird. but she barely had to wake me up to gtfo so whatevs

I told y’all she was chill

anyway I slept all day Sunday and did not bother to do laundry even though I was down to one (1) pair of underwear

fun fact did you guys know it’s almost impossible to buy underwear in this stupid fucking city?? TJ Maxx and H&M are close to my work but neither of them bother stocking it except for men’s underwear, because the patriarchy probably

however there’s a K-Mart in the pits of hell

and by pits of hell I mean Penn Station

so that’s why I was in Penn Station after work yesterday and nobody got murdered because they had boots on sale for $12 and tbh worth it

the end