Turning 30 in NYC
The church choir season has ended, air conditioners are being re-installed, the ferry is as busy as I have seen it and I have officially turned 30 years old! Besides the seemingly apocalyptic air quality of a week ago in NYC (the out-of-doors was fully yellow), things have really been lovely as the weather has taken a turn for good. I have been walking to the Brooklyn Peace Center to practice, and teaching from home quite a bit in the afternoons and some evenings. I continue to work, brick by brick, with my colleague Emma to build up a peace-making recital. I went out to PA for my sister Grace’s birthday and got to sing a few of OperaDelaware’s Pop-up operas at schools along the way.
And I planned an epic 30th birthday weekend. My friend, Katelan, had made the suggestion to create an itinerary of events for a birthday weekend to avoid schedule conflicts: a collection of places and times of where you will be and when so that as many people as possible can celebrate with you. This was wonderfully successful! More people joined my festivities than any party I have ever thrown before :-)
I split the festivities into two days and two boroughs: Saturday, June 10th in Manhattan (ruling out the excuse of Brooklyn being too far) and Sunday, June 11th (my actual 30th birthday) in Brooklyn- a great excuse to try out some things near my apartment. On Saturday, June 10th, we got the party started with a grand picnic in Central Park. It was just three of us for the first hour and then others arrived in a delightful gamut of my life experiences- from a 14-year friendship started at music camp, to Vienna, to new friends in NYC. All too soon, a handful of us had to depart for the scavenger hunt. So we packed up our picnic and headed to the train, balloons in tow.
The East Village Scavenger Hunt was the thing I had been most excited to plan and execute. I came up with 13 prompts for my friends, in teams of 3 or 4, to complete in video format. I love the East Village! I think that it retains some of its original neighborhood grunge while remaining trendy, unlike some of the better coiffed tourist-heavy areas of Manhattan. There are so many fabulous restaurants and shops that I grew to love when I lived in the Menno House during grad school. I was also excited and proud of my custom-designed prize bags, crafted with an obnoxious design of numerous Maries surrounding a bowl of matcha that announced the occasion of my 30th birthday, printed onto iron-on patches and ironed onto bright pink tote bags by yours truly. Yes, I did buy an iron just for the creation of this craft. I put such love into the creation of these bags and was delighted when others laughed at them or expressed interest in wanting one :-)
Because I wanted to be a part of the Scavenger hunt but I did not want to chose my own team, I choose three team captains to perform a schoolyard pick of team members, but in a Survivor-esque twist, the last person to be picked would choose their own team by stealing one member from each of the other teams. When my dear cousin, Emerys was given the crown of final team chooser, they selected a lady from every team- including the second team’s captain, and me! Our team of four was such fun, and we managed to enjoy each clue prompt, all while giggling and getting to know one another better. I was as delighted to see these three friends enjoying the time together as I was to be a part of it! Once we had completed our lists, we all reconvened in Tompkins’ Square Park, where we found a place to sit and present our top three videos and vote for the winners. It was fun to see the creativity of the other groups, largely strangers to one another before that day and see how they interpreted clues differently. And then to see how people voted for the winners. It was nearly unanimous, though we regretted giving the crown to the team with the most pretentious team name (Team Juilliard) :-) Our group could have kept laughing and chatting for another hour, I think, but Mary and I had a concert to catch at Lincoln Center, so we headed back to the Upper West Side, where we had started our day, to end day one of the massive celebrations.
I have thus far neglected to mention the great joy that was my dear friend, Mary Castello, flying to NYC from Nova Scotia for my birthday. She will argue that it was not just my birthday, but also that she had been wanting to squeeze in a trip to New York and having a friend to stay with made that easier. Whatever the reason, I was deeply honored that she would make such an effort and celebrate with me. After she arrived on Friday, we enjoyed a wonderful foot-tour of my neighborhood in Greenpoint, followed by a ferry ride to Manhattan, a walk to Times Square through Midtown and going to see Chicago on Broadway!! This was only the second musical I have seen on Broadway and it was such a delight! I was, of course, analyzing the whole time: how different the experience was from going to the Met or an opera in general; what aspects of performance are valued more highly in musical theater vs opera; the amount of singing; the intermission, the hall- all of it.
So Mary and I also attended a New York Philharmonic concert the evening of the 10th and got to see the new David Geffen Hall, as well as a fascinating program of pieces (I was obliterated by the first piece on the program- Britten’s 4 Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes- so much color, and purposeful lack of color, and emotion and lack of empathy- just brilliant). I had forgotten that I know a few members of the orchestra, so seeing them from our seats (and then at the stage door) was really fun! It was not too long of a concert, so Mary and I decided to treat ourselves to a cocktail at my go-to Upper West Side cocktail bar, Lilly’s.
Sunday, June 11th was the day for the lower energy birthday events in Brooklyn, with fewer friends, but still high quality. It began with me forgetting the brunch meeting time of 11 (thinking it was the same as the picnic the day before, at noon…), but we weren’t too late in arriving :-) The Bluelight Speakcheesy is a casual breakfast and specialty coffee shop in Greenpoint running out of my friend Jake’s brother’s alcohol-free bar, Getaway. When I met a NYTimes food writer there a few weeks before, I figured the food must be as good as the specialty drink that I had ordered and sure enough, as on June 11, 2023, I can confirm that the Sunday Bunday breakfast sandwiches at this establishment are phenomenal, as are their highly creative specialty drinks. We had a fun little group and then we ventured out to the pier before several of us made our way south to Williamsburg for a dessert omakase at Patisserie Tomoko. This, my friends, is a splurge worth making at least once in your NYC life! For those who are not familiar, an omakase is a tasting menu with several small courses set and created by the chef for a set price (prix fixe). Usually one finds these special events at restaurants, but in this case, all three courses were delightful, delectable, gorgeously and creatively crafted Japanese-inspired French-technique desserts. If you think that sounds right up my alley, you are correct. I wish I could tell you what each was… but as there were four of us there and four options, we ordered one of each and passed them around. There was so much to taste and consider and so little time that it is all a bit of a blur, but I can tell you this: each one was exceptional, not remotely boring and each elicited the gasps, groans and the silence of one experiencing something truly magical. See pictures below. 10/10 would recommend, would go again, will go again with you when you are in NYC, etc, etc. And great company!!!
At this point in the weekend, Mary and I are exhausted. Our social batteries are very low, but we had one more event that evening. We ventured home, laid down for a couple of hours, ate some leftover chicken and chickpea tagine that I had made earlier that week and finally, when the hour arrived, we roused and righted ourselves to head off to the Greenpoint Beer and Ale Company several blocks away. They have a wonderful rooftop seating area and though it was a strange group (not the people, just the chemistry of the group), but still fun, and with that, my planned festivities came to a close.
Mary and I had one final hoorah with cupcakes, candles and balloons on Monday before we parted ways, but it was an epic celebration. I am not sure I could have cooked up a better, more-Marie 30th birthday. Thank you SO much to all of my friends who showed up, called me, wrote to me, etc, because I feel so loved and so good about entering my 4th decade of life. I know this one will be more full and more free than any before and in all the best ways. I wish my mom were here to see me and how well I am doing, the efforts I have made in the last few months to conquer my fears, my impatience, my depression to find the value in this time and place and stage of my life. Or maybe I should say that I wish she were here so I could see her see me, because I know that I am living her legacy. And she lives on in that. I laughed so much this past weekend that my voice was ragged as I drove up to Vermont to help work the pre-season at Marlboro (I am not attending the festival this summer, but it felt like a sneaky way to get out of the city and into the mountains with some fun and inspiring people for a week). She lives on in my laugh, and there was so much laughter all weekend. I loved making my mom laugh and she lives on in my ridiculous puns and pranks. Her youngest has now turned 30. My mom loved a big birthday party, so she lives on in this weekend’s celebration, too. Thank you, Mom, for birthing me 30 years ago and for cultivating these legacies (among many others!) in my life.
Now back to making beds, sweeping floors and rearranging furniture in Vermont for the week.
Marie in NYC
