New York, New York again ... #2

Note : You can see all the pictures on my site at www.bostonphotographs.com under [travel/2007-03 GettoTango]

So I finally made it the Chelsea Market around 3:30, I had a soup from a soup place (wild mushrooms and potatoes, yum!) at the market and at 4PM we were at the milonga. I danced a few songs with D and it quickly became obvious I was tired and/or I had an off day. I only danced a couple of tandas after which I stopped, there was no point in torturing innocent people there and making a fool of myself. At that point, I was wondering if the trip to NY was a mistake. If I was tired at 4PM, how was I going to do at an all night event?

But 8PM came and a bunch of us with Adam leading the way we headed to his place in Newark for the Getto Tango party/milonga. He and Ciko live in a loft, a pretty big space, very artfully decorated, lots of sofas, some industrial sewing machines as decorations (D, as a costume designer, cringed when she saw a sewing machine used as an incense stick holder ... I guess I'd feel the same if I ever saw a classic motorcycle used as a flower pot ...) and a lot of other interesting widgets. It seemed like anywhere I looked there was something interesting to be seen.

By midnight the place was full (not packed, but full), lots of great dancers, most from NY, a few from Princeton, we even had one gentleman from Denmark ...

While I did make an unusually high number of missteps, balance & navigational blunders, on occasion I'd "nail" a few musical phrases in a row and that apparently kept my parters from running away at the first chance they got. As such, I did have a great time but I did learn a lesson. Again. Before traveling 4 hours for an all night milonga, I might want to "retire" early the night before... Yeah, I know, brilliant idea ...

I did get my ego stroked again when an advanced dancer (I think she told me she teaches, I assume she teaches tango, although she didn't say) told me she've never seen someone dancing like this after just one year, except for maybe in BsAs. And then she continued to dance with me for two or maybe three tandas. Purrrrrrrr ....

At around 4AM I crashed on the couch, got up around 7am to get some breakfast, Adam, Ciko and a bunch of others were still up, J was cooking eggs, so after I settled the growling stomach I went back to sleep until 1PM.

We took the train back to NY, we went to the Museum of Natural History, that was OK, but I was not impressed and then jumped on the bus to come back to Boston. I have to say, I might consider the bus again if I'm going to NY alone, as 4 hours of driving is too much for me, but if I'm going with someone that is willing to drive half the distance, I'll take the car. It's faster and just as expensive. Also you get to leave when you want, not when the bus operators want.