Do I Have to Get On a Roof?
It's July 4th! And even with the sudden work implosion which kept me at work almost the entire long weekend, I am now done and free and feeling very liberated!
I have been spontaneously invited to a friend's friend's boyfriend's friend's party, which makes me feel very 16, although when I was 16 I was never in the cool enough crowd to be connected to anyone's open party like that. I'm still not in the cool-enough crowd, come to think of it. That's the nifty thing about being an old-timer such as myself. I get invited out by coincidence.
My only major trepidation when it comes to July 4th parties is that they have an awful habit of making me climb up a shaky ladder to someone's gorgeous rooftop, where I spend hours of happiness surrounded by stars, friendly people, food and fireworks, only to realize that I have to clamber back down.
Which entails the most frightening part of life--sitting on the blessed firmament of land (someone's roof) as my legs dangle, unprotected, vulnerable and all-too-breakable, in nothingness. That's as they swing hither and thither to find a ladder for me to shakily clamber down. It's a moment of putting your as-yet unparalyzed life at risk...or so it always feels to me. It's such fear as can be compared with little else that does not happen on a rooftop.
The Good Jody is looking into the rooftop situation.
No updates if I do not survive this terrifying party. :)
I have been spontaneously invited to a friend's friend's boyfriend's friend's party, which makes me feel very 16, although when I was 16 I was never in the cool enough crowd to be connected to anyone's open party like that. I'm still not in the cool-enough crowd, come to think of it. That's the nifty thing about being an old-timer such as myself. I get invited out by coincidence.
My only major trepidation when it comes to July 4th parties is that they have an awful habit of making me climb up a shaky ladder to someone's gorgeous rooftop, where I spend hours of happiness surrounded by stars, friendly people, food and fireworks, only to realize that I have to clamber back down.
Which entails the most frightening part of life--sitting on the blessed firmament of land (someone's roof) as my legs dangle, unprotected, vulnerable and all-too-breakable, in nothingness. That's as they swing hither and thither to find a ladder for me to shakily clamber down. It's a moment of putting your as-yet unparalyzed life at risk...or so it always feels to me. It's such fear as can be compared with little else that does not happen on a rooftop.
The Good Jody is looking into the rooftop situation.
No updates if I do not survive this terrifying party. :)
posted by ~R @ 2:11 pm
2 Comments:
At 4:08 pm,
World Traveler said…
I never knew about your rooftop fear...very interesting and quirky.
You go all jello-y I assume??
I hope a good time was had by all...did you meet any single men? (she asks in a slightly lilting Brooklyn Jewish mother kind-of-tone?)
At 5:04 pm,
~R said…
Yes. Real fear. It's fine and dandy until I realize I have to go home sometime, and then suddenly my jaw grows tense and my feet get wobbly and my heart starts running.
And then I promptly spend about 45 minutes sitting outside the hatch/trapdoor thingy with the ladder, summoning the courage to go down. I intersperse the time with moments of closing my eyes against welling tears, hugging myself, dropping my legs down the hole and lifting them back with yelps and spasms of terror, and crawling around the hole, watching other people make their ascents and descents as calmly as if their very lives were not at stake.
In fact, this propensity for sitting around in terror for 45 minutes is exactly how I found my current apartment. I would have left a certain party 45 minutes before another key guest arrived, had I not been terrified of leaving, and I was still sitting there when she ensconced herself, got a drink and some food, and then noticed me and asked me if I was looking for a place because she had a friend who was looking for a roomie. :)
So, neither procrastination nor deadly fear of heights hurts when finding cheap digs in New York!
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