Last Friday I worked form the city again and by the evening I found myself eager to do something that night. Being stuck in a cast for several weeks tends to make you a little stir crazy. I started scouring meetup.com for things to do that evening. There was a Battlestar Galactica Finale party that sounded very cool but it was full up with a 20 person waiting list.
I continued looking and came across The New York Composers Meetup Group. The meeting for that night was full as well but I decided to join the group anyways. Within a few minutes I got an email from the organizer telling me to come by since they usually have a few no-shows anyways. I grabbed some dinner at Pret and then headed down to the meet up location by taxi. I got there a little early so I did some reading while I waited for people to show up.
The meeting eventually started and there was a wide variety of people who showed up. The format for the night was to listen to pieces by a few people, get a little lesson on digital recording, and then do some more listening. Everybody’s songs were good and some people were very impressive, either in their music or their lyrics. During one of the breaks the people next to me struck up a conversation with me (the cast is an easy conversation piece) and I learned that the girl is a composer and the guy is a Ruby on Rails developer. I didn’t get to play the song I wanted to share but after hearing some other pieces I already started to critique my own piece.
I left the meet up at the same time the couple did and they invited me out to get something to eat. We took a few taxis and eventually ended up at a diner where we had a great conversation about meaningfulness, jobs, careers, callings, doing good things, music, programming, psychology and a bunch of other stuff. They picked up the bill, refused to let me pay (the cast really works!) and helped me flag down a taxi to send me on my way home.
All in all it was a surprisingly joyful night. And I even got some new friends out of it.
Next Thursday the cast is supposed to come off but I’m going to probably be back in the bracing boot. I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to put weight on it yet. But at least it means things are getting better. I’m just really eager to be able to drive but realize that I’ve got to take it slow.
This Wednesday is the next New York City Boardgames & Cardgames Group meetup and I’m uber-excited for that. I’m planning to bring Robo Rally and Abduction this time and have been reviewing the rules in anticipation. My new friends from the composers group may be joining me as well.
