nin137

Festivals & NYC

I haven't written much mainly because my life is quite mundane. I love my work but I don't think anyone wants to read about the inner workings of real estate finance law. two riveting things have happened over the past few months. a while back I went to NYC for a conference on securitizations (snooze I know). while there I visited our headquarters.

I love NYC...as a visitor. couldn't live there. one thing I will say is that the dating scene is WILD. like so much better than where I live. I was texting with some girls and I was like, "um I'm here for like two days on business" and they were like, "that's fine let's just fuck". so I was torn between a business dinner or potentially getting crabs.

also New York is wild. like the people always seem to be on the verge of killing each other. it's like a city on the brink at all times. apparently it's gotten a lot more violent again thanks to the pandemic and less business people there. I rode the subway and got chastised by the lawyers I was hobnobbing with, they were acting like I was taking my life in my hands. I didn't feel unsafe. there are a lot of weird people. like there was this one seriously overweight dude who had what looked like a growth on his leg and every two seconds he would touch it and groan like, "hnnggh" then he would open his eyes and stare into my soul.

I went to every $1 pizza place (which, by the way is bullshit, no pizza slice is $1 anymore, they're all pretty much $3). I feel like I have a very discerning pizza palate. I ate about 20 slices all over NYC, just going from one to another. I was also chastised for this by my attorney compatriots.

as to festivals, my city throws a bunch during the summer. I love it. good for a city to thrive. we lately had a patriotic festival which was amazing people watching. the pickup trucks with trump stickers (and flags) were quite abundant. the people looked like they were all related. and my god, when outsiders say that Americans are huge these are the fucking people they are thinking of. everyone and I mean every-fucking-one needed to see a doctor stat.

monster energy drink sponsored the festival which I thought was hilarious. they had the biggest booth. so I got too close to it and one of the amped up dudes was pushing a hat on me. the two monster energy drink women (who not very tactfully were combining sex with ungodly sugar consumption) were also surrounding me so I was feeling cornered.
"here's a hat bro!"
"no thanks."
the man (boy really) took a step back as if I had just slapped him across his man-tits, "what, what you mean? it's a free hat dude!"
"well I don't want it."
"why not bro?" he was like kind of jesting but also seemingly getting frustrated with my rejection. apparently his entire life had led up to this very moment, this very pitch and this asshole was thwarting it and, what was worse, he was doing it in front of two chicks that he had planned to lure back to his pad to peruse his bountiful collection of monster energy drinks.
"you here alone dude?"
the question kind of caught me off guard, it had a nasty ring to it.
"umm, yeah."
"well," he grinned apparently all-knowingly, "this," and with this he thrust the hat in front of me triumphantly, "will help you win friends."
"no thanks."
at this point the guy was ready to loan up on monster energy drinks and tear my insides out when one of the monster energy drink gals came to my defense,
"he doesn't want the hat Scott, chill out," she turned to me flipping her dark hair with blonde like midway through and rolled out a t-shirt, "do you want a t-shirt?"

I'm always surprised by how heavily a lot of these people lean into the "I'm a stupid redneck" thing. like they are fucking proud of it. one of the singers sang a song called, "fat, drunk and pregnant" and started out by screaming, "this is to all the ladies that showed up to the night shift hungover".

I love the summer.