20’s: In Memoriam

 

Thank you all for coming today. I know these types of occasions **points to casket** are somber, full of reflection, you’ll probably get drunk. But I want to remind you that not all movings on are melancholy, there is celebration in watching an entire decade wither and die to the ticking of a clock. The memories of those times, a type of confetti, fluttering down around you mixed in with those annoyingly sticky number 30 confetti pieces that I’ll find in sofa cushions for another ten years.

But pause with me a moment while I snatch a handful of confetti out of my brain to share with you. They are but tiny happenings in the stretch of a decade, but they are my happenings **blows confetti in your face, laughs, sucks confetti into my own mouth on an inhale**:

My lil Ridgewood apartment, my lil Astoria apartment, my Shakespeare troupe, the pizza place my mom and I went to our first few hours in New York that was coincidentally right outside that Shakespeare workshop theatre some 3 years later, Peter Pan donuts, Rosie in Socrates park, camping upstate with my favorite camping couple, perfectly drunken nights at The Continental, my first real job in a NY advertising agency, my second more awesome job in a branding agency (may she also RIP), walks through Astoria Park, beach vacations with said awesome camping couple, nights of New York talking with a friend who far exceeds this simple decade, summers on roofs with other friends who were lucky enough to have roofs, parties in random apartments, welcoming friends to New York, not crying until they’re safely in the cabs going back, days at the chocolate shop, family visits that swell my heart up, Kings of Leon/Black Keys/Muse/Alabama Shakes/Ting Tings/Fratellis/The Whigs/Hozier/I’m probably missing some, iced coffee and solo walks past brownstones, weekends with Heinz, adapting to bubble tea, welcoming my spit fire sassy weirdo donut hole into this world, Alligator Lounge and lil pizzas, meeting The Whigs, experiencing Shake Shack with Erin (you don’t know joy until you see her there), being cool around random celebrities on the street, writing and writing and writing, reading and reading and reading, everyday soundtracks to sidewalks that evolved from Brand New and Bright Eyes to playlists from some cool person I know, park days watching my lil grow a friendship with her favorite lil, farmers markets and new brunch spots, laughs on a train-bus-sidewalk-restaurant-apartment-elevators because I acquired the funniest group of people in New York, having more friends from Texas in NY than in Texas, finding way more of me without realizing this was a treasure hunt for my soul… and I think for me, the most recent highlight of my 20’s was seeing my phone ring one random morning, seeing my best friend’s face as the caller, knowing throughout my whole body what she was going to say and that doing nothing to stop the rush of emotion- Erin is having a baby and I can’t wait to meet that lil no neck raisin baby as a distinguished 30 year old.

This was a damn fine decade, I didn’t always win, sometimes it pissed me the fuck off, but it was damn fine all the same because I’m right here- with all of you- with the biggest bi-state family I’ve had the pleasure of curating and nurturing. Don’t look upon this casket of a dead decade and cry- laugh first, pour one out for the 20 year old homies, sing a cliche funeral song and wonder how I paid for such an extravagant funeral for a metaphorical death.

TO 30!!!!! **refuses to wear bras from here on out**