I owe y’all a summary of my time on the East Coast. There’s a lot to tell, so prepare yourselves.

BOOK EVENTS
This was primarily a book promo tour, so I had my two Offbeat events: first a reading in Brooklyn, and then the next night an in-home event in Washington DC. Both events were awesome, but in very different ways. The reading was screamingly fun (I wrote about it over here) and the in-home event was educational and inspiring (and I wrote about it over here). The events got me excited to head to California. Hopefully I’ll be able to make it to SF and LA within the next three months or so.

BOOK WHORING & MY COMBATIVE RELATIONSHIP WITH MANHATTAN
Another component of the trip was whoring both Offbeat Bride and my next book pitch. I had an awesome afternoon where I stormed around the sub-freezing city doing these things:

  • Met with the casting agent of a reality show about nontraditional weddings and pitched myself as a talking head.
  • Pitched my lit agent with my next book idea. She was really excited by the concept (yay!) and although I can’t talk about it just yet, I will say that it’s a departure from Offbeat Bride, more general interest, and more investigative. In other words, it’s more ambitious, which scares me a little but my chapter maps were good practice, and I think I can do it.
  • Then I met a friend at the Union Square Barnes & Noble where I got the satisfaction of marching up to the counter and saying “I’d like to sign a few copies of my book, please, thank you!”

These three things combined made me realize that I was pretty much living out a fantasy, and it’s was pretty damn awesome. Also, it made my head inflate to a level where I actually considered going and getting a tattoo that says “I ♥ Ariel” across my ass.

ALSO, in my never-ending combative relationship with New York, this particular afternoon was a triumph. Terra had outfitted me in an amazingly warm sleeping bag coat, and the combination of actually staying warm in 0° weather while having several career-enhancing successful moments had me muttering “TAKE THAT, NYC. I can still kick your ass and stay warm against your blistering arctic blasts. All while happily living in Seattle where it’s not cold like this.” Hmm, anyone think I’m still a little defensive about my 2001 decision not to stay in NYC?

AMAZING HOSTS
I’m a “sailor in every port” kind of girl, where I like traveling via couch. Who wants to stay in a hotel when you can impose yourself upon your friends’ floors? I split my visit between three homes, first leaving pink hair all over the place at Megan’s in Fort Greene, then bullying Scott and Sarah’s roommates in Arlington, before finally draping myself across every piece of furniture and borrowing a neverending stream of clothing from Terra and Kevin. To my gracious hosts: I salute you. And be watching your mailboxes in a couple weeks.

OLD FRIENDS
One of the most awesome things about this trip was getting to reconnect with old friends I hadn’t seen in years and years. When inviting folks to my Brooklyn reading, I tossed the net far and wide, inviting people I hadn’t seen since Clinton was in office … and what’s truly remarkable is how many of them actually made it to the event. On a Saturday night, no less! The Lucky Cat was filled with retired Seattle groovers (former ravers who’ve gone on to become columnists, lawyers, and radio executives), Columbia Publishing Course alum (one of whom I hadn’t seen since the course ended in 2001), a guy who’s house I passed out at the morning after I first fell in love with Andreas, one relocated Los Angeles Moontriber, and a former dancing buddy who was straight edge the last time I saw her but now works as a bartender. Over the course of the week I got together one-on-one with a couple of these old friends and holy cow. I love you guys.

NEW FRIENDS
Do bloggers count as new friends? First there was my tea date with Anil, where we geeked out so hard that I think some paint peeled off the walls of Teany. Then there was the amazing Lisa Whiteman, who I’d met exactly one time four years ago, but who totally impressed me by not only coming to my reading, but also taking amazing pictures, and then coming out dancing and being a total rockstar. I am always really impressed when someone comes to an event where they know almost no-one, and then totally rocks the entire thing. Ellen Forney did this at a party at our house a few months ago, and Lisa Whiteman totally did it last weekend. And then of course there’s Sarah B, who bought me brunch and who I had to text with the message “I could have talked to you for 4 more hours” afterwards. I cannot WAIT for her to come to the Salon of Shame as part of her Cringe tour.

…Now if only I’d had more time to spend with Nani and Summer. And what about Gulshan? And gah! Next time!

OVER-STIMULATION
Although I am by nature an extremely social, stimulation-addicted type-A, New York always pushes me over the edge of my own capacity for people and whoring and storming around. I mean, I love people and whoring and storming around, but I’m also a big experiece digester, and I need a lot of time and space to chew over what’s just happened and shit out a contextualized understanding of what it means. New York does not give me time for this level of mental bowel movements. It’s nonstop cramming of things into my brain, and no chance for me to slow down and absorb it. That’s why I’ve been in a state of near-Aspergers social confusion since getting home. I skipped out on THREE birthday parties this weekend (sorry Lawrence, Ariel, and Kim) because my head simply couldn’t take the stimulation. Three days after getting home, I’m almost almost back to normal, although I’m still spending an awful lot of time sitting on the couch starting at the wall. As much as I miss Andreas (he’s back from Bali tomorrow night!) I’ve actually appreciated having the house to myself this weekend while I piece my brain back together.

Oh, and you can see my pictures over here.