Being an event planner can be a pretty cool job. Lots of it is spreadsheets, budgets, and email. But when you get to go on-site for events and see the work of those hours of toil behind a screen, the job really feels like magic. I was so lucky to go on a trip to NYC this month. I got to do a bunch of cool events and meetings around the Tribeca Festival. I was surprised how much the trip felt like a homecoming, to the city itself and to who I am. I didn’t know how transformative it would feel after freeing myself from the expectations of my family earlier this spring.

New York City has always called to me. My very favorite aunt lived there. Childhood summers were filled with Shakespeare and New York. As soon as the Children’s Shakespeare Workshop I was in was done at the end of July, my mother would ship me off to the misery that is NYC in August.

Flo Ann made those few weeks before school magical. School clothes shopping at Bloomingdale’s, she bought me my first full face of makeup after letting me get it done at the Chanel counter at Saks. She understood the heart of a creative girl who small-town life did not suit. She was that girl 40 years earlier. She grew up in Indiana and fled to the city for college. She went to school for fashion and interior design. She and I saw each other every time I was in the city until her death.

This trip was the first time I didn’t get to sit in the Russian Tea Room and tell her all about the love and love lost in my life, what I was doing for work, or what side creative projects I was working on. I was nervous about how the city would feel without her. It was lovely. I saw so many old friends, met my co-workers in person for the first time. I have been slightly depressed since returning to the very small world I have here in Portland. After hitting the ground running from the red-eye, I managed to make it all the way through the day of setup and run our first event.

On Tuesday morning, I got to have an early morning meeting in Manhattan. The cafe was the perfect place to talk about the magic of new games.

Oh, the stationery stores of NYC are perfect. I visited the West Village location of Goods for the Study. It was such a beautifully curated collection of pens, notebooks, and stationery. I am very lucky to live in Portland, where we have the incomparable Oblation Papers and Press. But just seeing someone else’s curation of Japanese and American stationery staples was fun. I also lucked out and found the highly coveted and newly released Traveler’s Notebook in Olive. So of course, I had to snatch it up.

Tuesday night, I got to see one of the most amazing talks. Sam Lake from Remedy was talking with Mike Flanagan about building horror and suspense in Alan Wake 2. I am such a huge fangirl of Remedy games, so to see these two horror titans talk about my favorite genre was so much fun.

Wednesday was just magical. If I’m honest, it may be one of my favorite days in the city ever. I started the day with breakfast at Chelsea Market with one of my oldest friends. She and I used to work in events together in LA. She was also working the film side of the festival. It was great to poke around Chelsea Market with her.

After a long day of meetings, I met up with some friends for a networking event before meeting up with another old friend for drinks at an adorable little bar in the West Village. Walking Manhattan at night, catching up with people who have come and gone from my life was just magical. I could not have asked for more.

So that’s the first part of my trip. We’re going to do a bunch of Camp NaNoWriMo prep this week. But I still have a bunch of memories and photos to share with you next Sunday.

❤ Spencer