NYC and The Mayor's Picnic

The Blessed Maryland House Starbucks

So after a late night at the Otto Bar I was in no mood to get up this morning at 6am and neither was Mark. We got our stuff together and headed out a little before 7am. We hit the road and stopped at the first Starbucks we saw. The Maryland House was a rest stop where we were able to feed our chai addiction. It was quite refreshing. Poor Mark was exhausted and had no desire to drive...I wanted to help him drive but with that van... not so comfortable driving me thinks. I also got a bagel from this bagel stand at the Maryland House from this cute little Indian girl who was all soft spoken and well...cute. She toasted my bagel very well! ^_^  Unfortunately Sbarro was not open. I really wanted pizza for breakfast but c'est le vie. It was freaking packed at that place too. All sorts of characters. This trip has made me realize how much I miss

 diversity around me. 

We then finished our journey to Cody's place in Brooklyn around noonish. She has a great little apartment on the fourth floor (omg fourth floor when you are tired...boo). Cody was Mark's partner on tippy lyra when they were in Cirque Productions and Cody's boyfriend Erin was the 'plant' in the audience during their show. Cody and Erin are both amazing people and really fun to hang out with. We chilled until Bronwyn and Patrick got their so we could go to the gig. We really didn't know anything about it except it was aerial atmosphere, we had to have 1970's glam rock costumes, it was on Randall's Island and our shifts started at 5pm. 

We started to put our make up on around 1:30ish and none of us knew what to do. I kind of went ape-shit on my face and it ended up looking god awful but whatever haha. Then we all piled in Mark's van and headed to the Bronx to pick up our shuttle. We parked and had to carry the trapeze and lyra through the crowded streets and try to figure out where the bus picked us up...with our make up on that was ooooo so interesting... in the middle of the Bronx haha =P Luckily we ran into some more performers and together we figured it out. 

Warming Up Before Going Up

So we got there and went through security and realized how HUGE this event was! It was the Spring Picnic for Mayor Bloomberg and what we assume were all of his workers form the government offices and their families. They had ferris wheels, live music, karaoke, food, carnival games, racing toilets, electronic bull rides, merry go round and a bunch of other crazy crap! There were thousands there. 

Map of the Event - We Were at the Top Right Near the Water

We were stationed at the entrance of the event with a crazy ass custom built rig that was three stories high. There were around 12 aerialists and we all took turns doing 10 min shifts. I did my first shift on lyra which was interesting because I had no idea what to do haha. The rest were on trapeze which were great fun! It was so high up, I was not used to being that high so I kept all my tricks simple...as did everyone else. They had some great techno music so that was fun. The best part was being around 20 feet above pavement... the excitement lol. 

All the aerialists were great fun and I met a lot of cool people. Around 8 o'clock we were given all white costumes and went to two free standing rigs in the middle of the event where there was a DJ and a huge dance stage and lights. I was on the lyra/single point trapeze rig and basically there was a giant dance party after the fireworks went off and I just rocked oooout! It was so much fun! I danced with people when I was on the ground and went up in the air and just partied like I never have before on the trapeze. Everyone loved it! That was the most entertaining part of the night. By the end I was EXHAUSTED and ready to go..as was everyone else. I was so happy to do the gig with Mark, Cody and Bronwyn though... we had a blast together. 

The Rig - The Trapeze is Dead Center Where the Two Girls Are Standing

Three interesting people during the party... 

1) Tall Thin Effeminate Black Man - Wanted me to "teach him" how to do trapeze. When I told him there were schools in NYC he totally lost interest lol

2) Crazy Drunk Chick - Had hard liquor in one hand and was rolling around the ground in a dress. Then when Mark started to de-rig she ran under the trapeze and stared up and waved her hands around like a hippy. I had to forcibly remove her. She reminded me of a Cirque character though so it was amusing. 

3) Shy Indian Guy - Watched us the ENTIRE time then came up at the end and shook all of our hands saying how much he admired and enjoyed our performances. Nice guy but a little strange =P 

We then booked it back to Cody's place where Mark and I ordered the carb on carb love fest that is a large baked ziti pizza. We downed that after we showered the day off and went straight to bed. I've never slept so well on a hardwood floor before =)