The Beginning

Today I am reveling in the West Coast-ness of the weather. It's blessedly cool for an August day in NYC, blustery winds, a light but constant rain that just feathers down onto the city. How very Oregon. And the breeze sneaking in through the storm door and the open window is lovely. A breath of fresh air in my studio apartment, which has been gasping for breath in the humidity of the last week.
I feel like I should say something introductory about myself since this is my first post. What to say, though? How about a little summary. I'm an Oregon girl living in the wilds of New York City. I've been trying to bust into the publishing industry on multiple levels for a while now, and last fall I got my first "real" job. I work in the production editorial department of a major publishing house in the city, and I love it. I'm also trying to get published, which is a whole different game. It helps to work in publishing in the sense that I understand much more of what goes into a book now, but working where I work is not going to get me published. My writing has to stand on its own two feet. There's still a ways to go before I get published but I feel like I'm getting there. Let's see, what else? I'm also a musician. I currently spend quality time with my instruments alone in my apartment. I keep meaning to find a community orchestra or a rock band, but I just haven't gotten around to it yet...
Well, that's enough of that.
Last night I went to the beer garden with my boyfriend and several work friends. We had a great time, as we always do at the beer garden. Then we came home and promptly got into a fight. I'm not even sure what it was about, really. It started out as an innocent conversation and morphed into something much more sinister. In the middle of it I got a text message from a friend who we'll call K. K and her boyfriend were among the revelers at the beer garden an hour earlier. Her text said this: "He just dumped me." WHOA. So I put my argument on hold and called my friend. She was crying in a bar. I couldn't just leave her like that, so I made up with my boyfriend and jumped in a cab. Twenty minutes later, I was at the bar with K, drinking more beer and getting wept on. We talked for a while about the stupidity of her now ex, and cursed him up, down, and sideways. Then something peculiar happened. K asked if she could kiss me. I was NOT expecting that! But I let her. (Please don't jump to any crazy conclusions here. My b/f and I actually have a kissing rule, because we have friends we kiss hello and goodbye. So, it may be by technicality only, but there was nothing wrong with letting K kiss me.) Then she told me that she's attracted to me and she's wanted me since one night when we hung out a couple weeks ago. This was quickly moving into dangerous territory... I managed to shift the conversation back to cursing her ex and whatnot, thankfully. And we went back to her apartment shortly after that, where there was a lot more crying and a little more beer drinking. Then, since I had already told her I would stay, I did the safe thing. I waited for her to fall asleep before laying down on her bed.
This morning there was a fifteen-minute rush to get out the door, and she thanked me at least thirty times for coming over and making sure she was all right. No weirdness, no further mention of attraction, nothing. Thankfully. That could've been awkward and/or complicated.
So here I am at home, short on sleep, loving the weather, wishing I had the energy to go on a walk in the rain. Maybe later. What a night!