Meet George and Kristin.

George is quite literally my oldest friend in the world…not age-wise but number-of-years-being-friends-wise. He lived two doors down from me. Stopped by my house every morning in grade school so that we could walk to the bus stop together and showed up on our doorstep with an umbrella to walk me to his Nana’s car when the weather was too dreadful to stand and wait in. He was one of those people who never had to knock when he came over…my brother from another mother, if you will. One time we were riding bikes on the same sidewalk but coming head-on toward each other. I yelled “you go left, and I’ll go right.” He said, “I go right and you go left?” “Yeah, yeah,…you go right,” I shouted back. But of course my left was his right and his right was my left and we collided straight on and fell onto some stranger’s yard. That’s probably the most memorable thing I can recall during our younger years of friendship. That and him hacking a loogie (sp?) on a windy day and it coming back and getting on his shirt.

Kristin is probably one of the sweetest and most friendliest people I’ve ever met. She is George’s fiancée and significant other…they’re so great and supportive of each other. We’ve been friends on facebook for a while and when I first met her this past weekend, we felt like we already knew each other. Instead of a formal handshake, we immediately gave each other hugs and hit it off from the start. We had a photo session in NYC even though they’re from PA and I’m of course in VA. It was the first time I’ve seen George since high school. That was nine years ago.

George and I have a strange connection as far as numbers and dates. His birthday is only two days before mine. He and Kris have been together for five years. Jeff and I have been together for five years. Not only that, Jeff and I had our first date on April 7th…George and Kris’s anniversary is April 9th. They’re getting married the weekend after Jeff and I are…AND…this is funny…Kris even called George one day because she noticed that we even have the same amount of friends on facebook. I love it.

This past week has been nuts. And not enough sleep. I think that’s a good thing though. Roanoke to D.C. to Brooklyn to Lancaster to Roanoke…and possibly back up to Lancaster again this weekend.

I saw various musical acts last week—headliner was Langhorne Slim with The Whoa’s, some other solo guy from Indiana, and The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players who describe themselves as “Pee Wee Herman on acid.” I also saw Fuerza Bruta which is a performance art show that completely blew my mind. Everything happened above us and instead of sitting, you stood/moved around/interacted. There was a guy on a giant tredmill with people rolling by/falling off, running through styrofoam walls, paper pieces floating everywhere, people tumbling along the wall of silver billowing fabric, suspended every which way, an elevated pool with people swimming/sliding/pounding that moved closer toward us from the ceiling…so close that it was right above our heads and we could touch it. Check out the trailer on their website (might need to push play then pause to let it buffer in order to play without skipping). It reminded me of a rave towards the end sans glow sticks and pacifiers. Water was raining down on the crowd, lights were flashing, and we were all dancing…it was probably one of the best nights of entertainment I ever had. Highly recommended show if you’re in New York and need something to do.

Two of my favorites from Langhorne Slim:

Restless:
[audio:Restless.mp3]

Diamonds and Gold:
[audio:Diamonds_and_Gold.mp3]