Brad Walsh

Woodstock ‘06

This weekend was supposed to be the BK Girls (Yadda Yadda) Tour 2K6 (Blah) across Pennsylvania and to Ohio in a fiery ball of glory and a dirty white Mazda, but when yet another broker fucked over Kathy and me by pulling an apartment out from under us at the last minute, we decided to stay in the city and find a new place. And by “we decided” I mean “we had to or else we would come back from our trip homeless.” So after we found a new place (more later), Anna and Hannah and I decided to go upstate to Anna’s hometown, Woodstock. On the way we stopped to roller skate in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of weirdos, and it was my favorite.

I was much better than I thought I was going to be for not having skated in over ten years. Didn’t fall once. I forgot about that feeling when you take off your skates and have to walk again with heavy feet; such a disappointment when you again have to get from here to there in thirty seconds instead of five.

When we finally got to Anna’s house, where she grew up, in the middle of the woods, nobody was home. We built a fire in the living room and put on some masks in the backyard cabin.

Her house is like a giant dollhouse. All the rooms are painted different colors, and most of the furniture looks like giant-sized wooden dollhouse furniture. Plus, it’s an old, big house. We raided her high school closets for outfits that she made and left behind, and had a small fashion shoot. Then Anna tried to braid my hair and couldn’t because it wasn’t clean enough. I’m gross!

In the morning we we sat in the living room like dead people for a while and then ventured out into town on foot.

We walked through a graveyard, a hippie Woodstock candle store with a 37 year old drip-candle sculpture that was bigger than me, and the girls found four leaf clovers and ate them for good luck.

On our way out of town we picked up Katie Love at her (also giant, beautiful) house (in the middle of the woods), and I got to meet her mom too! Moms are weird. I love them. We drove back to the city and Katie took a head out of the trunk. It was strange to meet Anna’s mom and Katie’s mom while I was supposed to be in Ohio with my mom on her birthday. I bought something for her in Woodstock and had it shipped.

There are lots more pictures here.

So, our new apartment. We’re moving at the end of this week. It’s in Park Slope (which is still Brooklyn). I will rumble with the Williamsburgers. It’s a two bedroom duplex (two floors) with two bathrooms, washer and dryer inside the apartment, two living areas, a big kitchen, and a private garden that’s just for the two of us. Basically, it’s perfect, and it’s directly across the street from Greenwood Cemetery, which is the largest and most beautiful cemetery I’ve ever been in. It’s amazing and I love it. Central Park was apparently modeled after Greenwood, and at the turn of the century it was one of the top three tourist attractions in New York City. The place feels like a home, and not a continuation of college life. It’s definitely not cheap, but we can afford it and I think it’s worth it. It’s off the F train, which means most of my friends have no excuse not to come visit.