finally arriving in the City that Never Sleeps.

Arriving in NYC via Greyhound bus is a world away from arriving via plane with one's uber glamorous grandmother.
I blinked awake as we were pulling into a loud, chaotic station. At that time , I didn't know what station it was, or where it was, or anything. My other trips to NY with Mary had exposed me only to the area between the fashion district and the theater district, with one trip to the Village to see 'The Fantastics'. In a cab. Mary NEVER took the subway. She considered it dangerous.

I exited the bus with everyone else pushing and shoving for no good reason, walked through the piss smelling station out into the bright sunshine of Manhattan in Sept. In less than a moment, I had all number of gypsies and hustlers trying to sell me stuff, asking me questions, giving me advice. I clutched Bruce's address tightly in my fist and made my way to what seemed like a legitimate cab.

Bruce Sinor was offering to put me up at his apt. on the lower east side, with the strict understanding that it was for 2 weeks and 2 weeks only.This had been worked out for me by my first big puppy love at Interlochen. Or maybe it was real love...who knows. Anyway - it was Chris Earl who hooked me up. He and our other friend , Eric were sharing a place with Bruce that they described as 'big and cool'.

By the end of my FIRST year at Interlochen, I was head over heels for this guy, Chris Earl. he was a dancer. A ballet dancer. His mother was THE TOP ballet instructor at Interlochen, and Chris and Eric were the 2 best male dancers there by a long shot.Eric looked (and still looks, I believe) like prince charming. No joke. He looked like prince charming, plucked right out a fairy tale. All the girls thought he was dreamy. Well, he was. And he was like the sweetest guy in the world, too. All my suite-mates were dancers, and they all had a crush on him.But my room mate, Michele, turned out to be the best ballerina and was the one that always got paired with dreamy Eric.Which was great - because she looked like a princess.

Well, of course I thought Eric was dreamy and sweet like everybody else - I mean he just WAS - but I never had a crush on him.
I had a crush on his best friend, and the OTHER great dancer - Christopher. Chris was dreamy, too.He had BIG, GIANT eyes, and eyelashes that were so long, they would actually get tangled up sometimes. He had great big McJagger lips, an amazing body (of course) which was often on display (just because of the ballet tights - he didn't walk around naked or anything), and a long neck, and a beautiful flopsy head of hair. And he was super shy.

I spent a good month going to watch my room-mate/best friend, Michele, rehearse for 'Alice and Wonderland' so I could be around Chris and watch him dance. He was so great. But he had a girlfriend. Our timing was not so good.We finally kissed in the forest the last couple weeks of school. He was a year ahead of me - so these were his LAST weeks of school. We wrote romantic letters all summer to each other, and then we got to kiss some more at the beginning of the next year - before he went off to the university of Chicago.There was some great kissing going on. Some of it in his mother's cottage, on her couch. She walked in on us - and i was so embarassed. She was MY ballet teacher as well - and she was so beautiful and graceful and cool.I didn't want her to hate me for the rest of the school year for making out with Chris on her couch!
So...that was our history. We never had sex, or got naked or anything like that. just a lot of making out, and lots of deep conversations. But I really adored him, and now he was taking care of me in the biggest way, by working this arrangement out
with Bruce.

So. Back to the 'legitimate' cab. I give him the address on Delancey Street, and hope he knows where it is.At this point, I have 100 bucks left from my paycheck. By the time we drive in circles for almost an hour to finally arrive at Bruce's apt., I have $20 left. That cabby took me for a RIDE.Keep in mind that this is the early 80's I'm talking about here. $80 was a LOT of money.

I got out of the cab feeling majorly stupid and screwed over. Also, I'm feeling SOOOO grungy, and not loving that this will be Chris' first sight,smell, impression of me, after not seeing me for so long. I take a long look at the big, brick building. It does look kind of cool, but the building across the street is burned out and scary.I took a deep, thirsty swallow, rang the buzzer, and waited for the boys....hoping for their mercy.