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It’s weird being in a new apartment knowing that I’m only going to be there for 2 months. Since nothing feels permanent at all and I’m living out of boxes, it really feels like I’m on vacation. So, I’ve been going out a lot. Now, when I say I’m going out a lot, I’m not talking about going to the bars every night for an alcohol fueled bender. That’s not the case. Instead, I’ve been checking out bands I’ve never seen before, meeting up with friends I’ve lost touch with, and, in general, putting myself in situations where I am forced to meet new people.

When you live with one other person for a while, it’s inevitable to become very comfortable with a set routine. You see the same people, go to the same places, etc. Then, when all of a sudden you’re by yourself, your entire day-to-day plan has to change completely.

So now I’ve become much more open to try new things. To be more spontaneous. I’m not talking about anything really rash or unexpected. Just little things like seeing a band I’ve never heard of just for the hell of it. So that’s what I did on Friday night.

My friend Evan wanted to go see a band at Harper’s Ferry (right down the street from me), so we went. The place was absolutely empty. When we first entered, they charged us $7. About 10 minutes later, noticing that the show would be poorly attended, they changed the admission to $5. Not a good sign. I brought my camera just in case, and used this night as an opportunity to try new things with the camera’s exposure settings. Not the greatest pic, but it was fun trying to figure out how to get the right speed/color combination:

On Saturday morning, I woke up at about 10, which is extremely late for me. I wanted to get some new RAM for my computer, and while I was at MicroCenter, my friend Josh called. We haven’t hung out for months, and he said something to the effect of: “Sorry to give you a random call like this, but I was wondering what you were up to today. My brother’s birthday was two days ago, so he’s having a party tonight in New York City. Would you want to go?”

Well, I thought. I have a long day of exciting things like installing ram and setting up my roommate’s network call. This really would cramp my style, but…..sure.

We drove to the city in under 4 hours with nearly no traffic whatsoever. His brother’s party was at a bar called Rodeo. It was a really great place. The bottom floor is a bar/restaurant, and there’s a room upstairs with couches and comfortable chairs. Really the perfect venue for meeting up with friends and lounging. Here’s what it looked like upstairs:

The one thing I took away from the NYC trip was a complete wake up call. Everyone I met there was just a couple of years older than I am, and they all have awesome jobs. Animator for Nickelodeon. PR guy for Hasbro. Actor. Artist.

All young people that wake up in the morning and not at all dreading their work day.