Battered body, happy heart.

Right it’s been a while… a good bits been going down.

I’m literally turning into my own one woman travelling show. The week I heard about my granddad, myself and all my roommates had to leave our apartment for 5 days… OK let’s back up some.

This random Sunday night, David, the guy who rents our apartment, called us all down to the kitchen for a house meeting. I was dead asleep when he woke us up so I was barely literate for all of this. But basically he told us that he was afraid the cops were going to show up at our apartment with a warrant to search the place and they would kick us all out with no warning.  It’s not illegal for 20 people to be living in a small apartment like ours but it violates the terms of the lease so he thought the super intendent of the building had called the cops and that they were gonna show up at some point that week on suspicion of prostitution… Sounds insane I know, but he got so paranoid about how it would look with all the beds and stuff. Anyway there was no arguing with him. So we all relocated to a similar apartment set up belonging to his friends further downtown. Although it was bigger and more spacious, it was nowhere near as nice or as comfortable as ours. Where was our doorman? Our residents lounge with pool table? Our gym? Our rooftop deck??! We were slumming it for sure.

Anyway I was scheduled to move out on the day everyone returned to the apartment so I did that, and moved in with a girl I met at the studio. She lives in an even NICER building only 5 blocks from the studio. There’s a CONCIERGE not a common old doorman! 😛 It’s right beside everything, including the FDNY station so we’re serenaded by sirens day and night but you get used to it. I’m sleeping on the sofa bed in the living room, my friend sleeps on a mattress on the floor and there’s another girl in the bedroom. There’s a LOT more privacy and space which is bliss but I miss all my mental case roommates downtown.

Highlight of last week then was the arrival of Emer! She’s Aoifes best friend, an American citizen the lucky little bitch, so she comes here every summer to work. She brought me a delish care package from home with Dairy Milk, make up, crisps, pyjamas, socks and other stuff. If only a certain sister hadn’t forgotten to put the box of teabags in…. So we’re going to move in together by the 1st of June, probably out to the Bronx where she’s lived before, be way cheaper. Then I have a long lost friend from the Gaeltacht, Molly, who is coming over with a friend on a J1 so if we can manage it, we’ll get a place that will take the four of us. It’d be serious banter. This happens to be the busiest week of my life since I’ve come here, so Emer is searching on her own, hopefully I won’t be so useless come Monday.

So yeah this week is crazy, on Monday I was volunteering with Dancers Responding to AIDS at a show/competeition in the Joyce Theater called Dancin’ Downtown. I was an auditorium monitor which meant I escorted the groups of dancers from their green room to the theater and co-ordinated their leaving and arriving. I got to wear a little Britney Spears headset, with a mike and a radio, and carry a clip board, so I felt SUPER important! 😀

Being important!

So that was most of Monday. On Saturday I have a gig for Heineken at some big sporting event, I still don’t know what it involves as we haven’t had rehearsal for it yet but I have 4 hour rehearsal tomorrow and Friday before we spend the whole day at the performance location on Saturday. Then Sunday is our Student Showcase all day. Not feeling too confidant about it, our choreographer Victor was away for a good while and only came back yesterday and he has changed a lot of things. Tomorrow is our last rehearsal to learn the new bits, polish it up and just get through the damn piece. I’m sure it will all work out, just not looking forward to a long, frustrating, tedious rehearsal at 8 am.

So with all that happening at the weekend, I only have 3 days to get all my weeks 12 classes done in. Did 4 yesterday, pilates, jazz and two theater classes plus rehearsal and I was DEAD. But I had a theater workshop with the choreographer of Cinderella on Broadway which was so much fun and he taught us the routine that they learn in the audition which was awesome. 

 

Another 4 classes today, ballet, tap, pilates and theater, dead again. The humidity is not helping, it’s SO HOT AND SWEATY! I’m just lying on my bed here and I’m melting into my sheets. So attractive. 3 classes tomorrow and then our long rehearsal for out Heineken gig. I’m tellin ya I’ll be needing more then a few Heinekens come Sunday night! 😛

Even though I’m pushing myself to the max this week, I’m loving it. This is exactly what I came here to do, I think I thrive under a little but of pressure. You never know what you’re capable of until you have no choice but to do it.

So my calves may be solid bricks under my skin, I’m pretty sure I gave myself whip last from tossing my hair in jazz, my dodgy knee is feeling a bit crunchy and my feet are throbbing as I type, my heart and soul are happy and fulfilled. And that’s worth all the discomfort.