Jul
In retrospect, I’m glad I did come back from Montréal to interview with the company with the worst website I’d seen in a long time. If it weren’t for giving them a chance at making me quit full-time freelance, I probably would not have been able to go to the Stanley Hotel, or spend a whirlwind 48 hours in New York City, all within a month of each other.
This was the last stop for this campaign. I’m not unfamiliar with the East Coast, but I hadn’t been to New York since I was 6, a time before emigrating to the States was even in the cards. So I was a lotta bit stoked to come back after 26 years, you know? BRAND NEW TERRITORY!
Pretty soon after dropping our bags at the hotel, we took a stroll through Manhattan to some rooftop bar to check out the light show created for the event happening the next day. I’ve never felt this out of place, but enjoyed the people watching.
Next day, we all hit the ground running. Here’s Peter and camera guy (Eric…? I think) looking insconspicuous at Washington Square Park for the first stop of the day.
Peter and Michael and a tourist prepping for the last stop. This is the place I got trampled on. It was fun, in a not-really sort of way.
The event was held that night at the Empire State Building, from the top of which you could see absolutely NOTHING.
Peter turned a year older that night, too!
The next day I had off, so I walked the mile and half from the hotel through Central Park and to the American Museum of Natural History, where I spent 5 hours seeing and photographing EVERY. THING. I wish I were kidding, but I still am sitting on a memory card full of boring photos of taxidermy and ancient ritual dolls. Highlight: the dodo skeleton. This is basically why I weaseled my way into this job. I really, really needed to see this dodo skeleton. My life is closer to being complete for it.
After I’d run out of things to see, I spent the rest of the day in Central Park people watching and bug hunting. Then, I had a bit of a moment. This was the end of the campaign, I’d met a bunch of wonderful people I would not be able to see on that regular of a basis once we wrapped and I got real bummed. WOMP WOMP. Big sigh.
But I’ll be back, New York. On days when it’s not 90 and 80% humidity, though. You really should reconsider that.