Auf Wiedersehen, German friends of 5 months!

It's 3:15am and I'm tired. I can't imagine I'll be writing anything but cliched sentimental garbage. We gathered at Porky's on 21st tonight to bid farewell to The Germans, Roland and Thorsten. Actually, I'll see Thorsten again on Sunday. It was more so a goodbye to Roland. Roland and I have had some good talks, starting with on the roof of Kate's beach house on Sept 10, talking about 9/11/01. His happiness at always seeing me is a nice thing. He finds me "fun" and interesting, which, of course, I am, lol. And while many get to see that side of me, I feel like many don't. I can be hard to know. Anyway, it's not often enough that you're genuinely made to feel like you've left an impression on someone. Never gets old. But HE'S left an impression on me, too. The fact that he and Thorsten have come from Germany to live in NYC for 6 months is hugely inspirational to me. Specifically, if they can do THAT...why can't I move to LA? Or anywhere? I feel like the whole recent "LA thing" has to some degree been blown out of proportion, though maybe not. Who the fuck knows. I KNOW I could do it. But do I want to? If I survived being dropped off in Bumblefuck, PA at age 18, knowing no one, and thriving, I can do fucking anything! Or should I even think too much about it? As Roland says, what's 6 months to a year out of your life? If I like it, fantastic. If I don't, move back. Win-win. He's right, of course. But it's more an issue of $$ and a vehicle than anything else. But I can work on that. Point is, if I ever move to LA, I partly have Roland to thank. The FUNNIEST thing is that as Roland again pushed me toward moving to LA, and sooner than later, Kelly Clarkson's BREAKAWAY came on. I was listening to Roland's heartfelt urging and Kelly's deafeningly loud lyrics at the same time. It was bizarre, like some John Hughes movie moment. I find it amazing that I now know 2 Germans lol. If I went to Germany, I'd have connections there! Maybe that sounds ridiculous, but I think it's cool. I hate goodbyes, so I didn't treat leaving the bar at 11:30pm as a goodbye to Roland. As he said tonight, the world is so global now...email, IMs, cells, digital pics...it's not like we can't communicate regularly. And I trust he'll be back in NYC some time. So a hug and handshake and best wishes and "it was great getting to know you." But no goodbye. I'd arrived at 7pm...the Germans around 7:30 I guess. It was a good 4 hours with them. I just wish I'd spent more time with them in NYC. They were a refreshing surprise. Damn the swift passage of time.