Day 2: Road to India (Bronx, NY, USA)

November 14, 2009

I woke with some sinus pressure which I released pretty quickly with a couple of tylenols and applying pressure to my sinus bones with my index fingers. I got up at 6:44 am to do the usual pee, tea and a quick sort out of what I'm purging today. My bags are just too heavy!

I'm at my new friend, Carries' apartment in the Bronx. It's beautifully basic, without a hint of pretension. I love its simplicity. Carrie is a rising star, it even says so in the bathroom on a handwritten affirmation taped to the mirror. It's a small, well situated one bedroom minus adequate closet space that found typical of NYC apartments. (An alarm sounds that I first think is the alarm of a huge truck backing up on the narrow street just outside, but realize that it's coming from the bedroom. It continues for a long minute which tells me I didn't need to do the tip-toeing I did while putting the kettle on for tea. I clanged a few cups together and thought "eeekkk I'm going to wake my gracious hostess from her slumber!" I realize now that she, like me in my 20s, would wake if a mac truck plowed right through the middle of my home.

The first cupboard I opened was where I would have put mugs if I had lived her. Bingo, right in front was an obvious favorite, with the smaller mugs to the back. You know those ones that feel somewhat awkward in the hand, but this one is yellow (the fung shui color of health) it's round with a perfect handle to slide 3 of 4 fingers into while holding the mug with the left for the occasional hand-warming on a NY winter morning.

(The alarm sounds again for the third time.) back to the simplicity of my temporary resting place. The walls are landlord-white and somewhat bare except for the few chromed famed posters having something to do with plays, actors and the awards they when. There's a lanyard hanging with my host's full name printed about the title "actor". The TV is small and just barely holds the cable box perched on top. It sits on a box draped with a gold silk curtain or table cloth and in front of that is my backpack, carry-on bag-now only half full after a quick purge as my tea brews-and my laptop bag. A book shelf made of light wood holds books about enlightenment and screenwriting, a box labeled "Playbills" and two Absolute bottles collecting pennies.

I love this place, it's functional nature is so honest! There's a purity here, no place to hide oneself, an authenticity that makes it a welcomed home that sincerely says, "come as you are!" I look forward to getting to know my generous host more over the next two and half days. Being in this place reminds me of what Rumi said, "Wherever you are, be the soul of the place" and that's what and who I'll be. I go to London in a few days. yet the riddle I've taught my niece, Ava, comes to mind, "What time is it? and Where are you?" allowing her to use only one word for each answer, "Now & Here", and if not I am no where.