Ruby's Room: When It's Nine in the Afternoon...

So my apologies to you all for not being more frequent in my updates over the past two weeks. My camera devours batteries and money being what it is, I chose sustinence over blogging...

Though I must admit in making this choice, I felt alot less happy. Thus have I returned, to tell of the happenings of the past two weeks through photos and written word. Let's start when we last spoke...

Wing Night with Josh, Sarah, Angel, Joey, and Amy

Good fun, good food, good drinks... and a tingling sensation that lasted all the way home. After destroying five or so large platters of hot wings and rib tips, five pitchers of Bud Light (Joey drinking an entire pitcher of Bud by himself), we were presented with "Swamp Water," which you see above this paragraph. Let me just say this... if you weren't drunk after all those pitchers of draft beer, "Swamp Water" is the nail in the coffin. Did we sip from these fish bowls filled with liquor-goodness? Of course not. We drank them down to the bottom as quickly as possible (mostly to relive all those nights in Gainesville when you'd challenge your friend to finish their beer in the next 10 seconds to see who stumbled over to get the next one). All in all, I think Wing Night at Brother Jimmy's may be a regular thing for me.

The rest of the week was a blur of interviews, handing out resumes, and shaking hands. I met so many different restaurant managers and business owners that I began to lose track of who was who, which in the end simply made the disappointment of not hearing from them less impactful. I ended nearly losing hope until I interviewed with a temporary staffing agency that my good friend, Monique, works for (or worked for, as of this past Friday. She was hired by the company that she had been temping for on 42nd St & 5th Ave.) I was nervous all weekend in preparation for the 12:00 noon interview with Karen... so nervous in fact, I was without my resume until I walked into the office Monday morning to fill out my paperwork.

When I arrived, I was greeted by Kerry, who was one of the sweetest women I've ever met. She welcomed me into the conference room and laid out the necessary paperwork for me to fill out. I openly admitted to feeling like I was back in school about to take a final exam with the amount of paper I had to fill out. She smiled sweetly and assured me that it wouldn't be too difficult. She was right... it wasn't difficult, it was just alot of information that was needed from me to ensure my employment. Needless to say, 45 minutes later, I called Kerry via the conference phone to inform her I was done and she promptly returned to inform me that my interviewer would be right in. And that's when I met Karen.

Karen was amazing. Not only were we able to discuss certain aspects of the jobs I would be going out for, we discussed EVERYTHING; music, life in NYC, theatre, my family, ad infinitum. Not only did I get a fantastic conversation from the interview, I believe I made a friend, too. :) After about two hours, our dialogue fell to politics... and I learned that she is voting for Obama come Novemeber as well. I replied, "Karen, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship." To which she laughed and retorted, "Ryan, before we send you out, we'll need you to stop being so shy... could you do that?" ;)

I left the building elated and met with Monique downstairs to grab some lunch. We strolled up the block from Suzanne's and went into this nice eatery where I ordered a HUGE cheeseburger and snagged some pita chips with an A&W Cream Soda. Monique and I ate together and caught up and went our separate ways, assured that we would see each other again soon.

Skip Tuesday and jump to Wednesday. My first NY audition for a production of an adaptation of Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" called "What You Will." Believe it or not, this theatre wanted to perform it in a hip-hop style. Being excited for this would have been an understatement. I walked into the audition with extreme confidence, mostly because I was there to have fun. being cast was the last thing on my mind, especially after I was informed they were looking primarily for Equity actors, which I am not... yet. However, upon reading my resume, they were impressed with my extensive background in hip-hop (being a founding member of the famous Signs of Life back at UF [SHOUT OUT TO MY PEOPLE!!!] and being a "beat-box enthusiast and practicioner") so they gave me a shot. I had them bouncing to the beat and laughing in their seats. After all was said and done... they said they'dbe in touch. That's all I could have asked for.

Fast forward to Thursday night. I get a fb (that's "facebook," for those of you playing the home game) post from RJ Panda, who is dating my good friend, Lauren. He is part of a catering business that is rented out to high-end parties and events literally ALL THE TIME. RJ mentions an opportunity to work and make some money while waiting to hear from the Temp Agency. I accept and decide to join up for an event on Friday out in Long Island.

Ready for the kicker? I had to be downtown at 36th St and 3rd Ave by 7 a.m.

Damn... I forgot that 5 a.m. existed... except when my head was hitting the pillow.

Anyway, I take the job. Dressed to the 9s, I make it downtown by 6:30 a.m. I'm the first person at the bus... I don't know anyone I'm working with or even what they look like. This should be interesting. Time passes and I meet Michael, who is apparently "boss-man," as he calls himself, for this event. In addition to Michael, I also meet Drew, who is also an actor but one that has been in the city for nearly 7 years. We hit it off and hold a political discussion of epic magnitudes outside the bus as we wait for the late-arrivals to stroll up. Again, I'll mention we were supposed to leave downtown at 7 a.m.

We left at 9... to quote one of the other waiters on the bus, "I could have stayed in bed another hour..." So true, random server. So very true.

The event is being held on this enormous estate in a large white tent which has nearly 65 tables (11 seats per table) and a runway for the fashion show. The Long Island Jewish Health Network was having their annual luncheon and fashion show for all their employees. On the menu that afternoon;

- Steamed Asparagus

- Chicken and Arugula

- Steamed Lobster Tails and Shrimp

- Grilled Salmon

- Thinly Sliced Salmon on top of Potato Pancakes with Cream Cheese

- Baked bread and chips

For dessert, individual cakes encased in glass served "Round-Robin" style by each waiter. (Which was absurd considering there were 500 women present) It was good fun to pamper these women in a way they weren't used to and to make them terribly happy. And for $17/hour... I would have done most anything to ensure their good time.

The job finally wrapped up around 3 p.m. and we were back on the bus to the East Side. I fell asleep on the ride home while listening to some classic John Mayer...

So that brings me to last night... After a morning of organizing my room and basking in the bliss that is "This American Life," I headed to Lauren, Brittany, and Becky's apartment on Steinway for an evening of Italian food and friends.

The Italian Feast (Spaghetti with Meat Sauce, Salad, Sliced Bread, and awesome)

Becky sipping her Merlot and Lauren looking suspicious...

I got a little artsy and camera-happy in their backyard. But these days, I find that photographing my surroundings brings great joy to me.

In attendance at the apartment (in order of appearance):

- Lauren, Becky, and Brittany (they live there)

- Amy

- Myself

- RJ (with two bottles of Kosher Shiraz, which we bonded over)

- Danny and Marty

Around 8 p.m., everyone had arrived and Becky and I were waist-deep in being tipsy winos. :) After not eating much that day, drinking two glasses of Shiraz as quickly as I did was probably not in my best interest. Looking back on it though, Becky and I were having a blast watching "Entourage" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

The meal was delicious (Thank you again, Lauren. Great job!) and we decided to head out to the Feast of San Gennaro in Little Italy for some more good times. We lost Becky from our group but resolved ourselves to making it back in one piece. So we boarded the N train bound for Manhattan and the rest of our evening...

Transferring to the 6 Downtown Local

In the process of tranferring trains, Marty split off from the group to return to Danny's place, where he is staying. It was so good to see him and can't wait for the next big outting we all get together for. Jump to us making it to Little Italy and hoofing it to the Festival which was only a few blocks from the station. Once we got there, Lauren had wanted us to meet up with her preschool friend, Katie. We met up with her and arranged to reconvene at Vincent's, her family's restuarant for dessert.

Then to Vincent's we went, where we met Katie, Jamie, and Abby, who were all super-sweet and quite hilarious.

It goes without saying that the desserts were UNBELIEVABLE. The chocolate mousse you see in the foreground was my choice. It was heavy, yet not overly sweet. It was simply... perfect. :)

After enjoying the company of our new friends, Danny, myself, Brittany, and Amy headed back to the train station. Brittany and Amy headed Uptown while I decided to go back with Danny to his place to spend some time with Tony, his roommate, and to find where Marty ended up.

We got to Danny's place and found Tony gushing over the new version of iTunes (which, if you haven't downloaded it already, do so. It's awesome). Tony put "Baby Mama" on and we laughed until our sides hurt.