I don’t know if this is, like, an actor in New York City thing or just a living in New York City thing. I’m betting it’s the latter. But the former definitely adds to it. Are you confused yet? HOLD UP. You don’t know what I’m talking about.

You know when you’re at a party and someone you just met is like I HAVE THIS ART EXHIBIT OPENING DOWNTOWN ON THURSDAY, YOU SHOULD COME! And you nod slowly and you’re all, Yeah yeah totally! because you’re polite and your mama raised you right. But you know, even in that moment, that you’re not going to go. I mean, why would you? You have stuff to do and your own life and you don’t know this person really well and they might be a terrible artist and it’s all the way in Hoboken and that involves a lot of train transfers.

You know what I’m talking about?

Or does this experience only happen to me?

More importantly, is my reaction common? Or do the majority of people in this world actually act on those invitations and pick up and go?

I’m seriously interested.

My gut reaction is always to say no because I’m sort of anxious by nature but more importantly, completely overscheduled on any given day.

I started realizing that my overscheduling is taking a toll and dude, it’s SUMMER and even though I am going to Italy in a few short weeks, I feel like I can make up my mind to change things before I go. I’d like to change:

1. My incessant need to fill every night of the week with something to do. (IMPROV! ITALIAN! PHILOSOPHY! ACTOR SEMINARS! YOUR MOM!)

I mean, I do have a Mondo Beyondo List that I need to work on but that doesn’t mean I need to tackle every single item AT ONCE. You know?

and

B. My initial reaction of “No thanks, not interested”.

I wonder what life would be like for me if every time someone said “I have this thing on Thursday night…” I said YEAH TOTALLY and actually went. What would happen? I might hate it. Possible. But I might also love it. POSSIBLE?

I’m going to give this a whirl.

First up is this coffee shop some guy told me about at philosophy service last night. He was all, DO YOU LIKE ICED COFFEE? and I was all YES BUT I SHOULD NEVER DRINK IT BECAUSE I GO BANANAS! and he was all THERE IS THIS MAGICAL PLACE…WHERE THEY BREW COLD-PRESSED ICED COFFEE…AND IT IS THE BEST COFFEE I HAVE EVER TASTED.

And I was all, WHAAAAAAAAAAA?

How do you brew cold-pressed coffee?

More importantly, DOES IT EVEN MATTER?!

The man said, YOU SHOULD GO!

And I was all, YEAH YEAH DEF!

But normally, I probably wouldn’t. I mean, it sounds cool. And I’d scribble it down in that notebook of “Cool Things To Do In NYC That I Should Probably Do But Probably Will Never Get To Do Because I Am Lazy and A Creature of Habit.”

But I’m going, you guys! I even e-mailed my brother who likes coffee more than anyone I know and was all CAN WE GO DRINK SOME COLD BREW COFFEE? Ad he said YES because he is awesome.

I’m going to have to set up some boundaries here because if it gets too out of hand, the over-scheduling problem is going to get worse. Also, I call magic veto powers on anyone who says “Come see my show” if I don’t know this person directly and if I’ve never heard of the show. My 27 year old self has sat through enough really terrible theater in this town. AM I RIGHT LADIES?

That being said, I’m 27.

I live in New York City.

I am probably going to be single for a super long time.

(Which, I think, is a good thing.)

So I’d like to just…GO DO MORE FUN STUFF. And not be so attached to my routine and stuff that doesn’t matter. I want to relax and meet new people and go to that flea market with that guy that makes t-shirts out of vintage bedsheets and go to brunch at that place that everyone keeps talking about and go rent a bicycle and hear some live music and sit in Central Park for a whole afternoon because I NEVER DO THAT.

And you guys?

I need to do that.

Happy Summer, y’all.

(c) zyada