PROFILE IN THRIVE: Courtney "Fruitfly" Nichols

Dear Everyone:

          This week, Thrive Guide profiles an intensely unique woman who finds herself in an incredibly common situation.  The person: Courtney "Fruitfly" Nichols.  The situation: She's a straight girl who attracts gay men at an astronomical rate.  She documents her life with her big, fat, gay family on her personal website, FruitflyLife.  The introduction to her blog reads "My situation is not rare, and many college students are struggling to balance a boyfriend and a gay boyfriend.  Though I have yet to find a boyfriend, gay men provide me with what I need... and the rest I can do by myself."  Ms. Nichols has certainly done quite a lot for herself. At the ripe, young age of twenty she become the first female intern at Out Magazine.  Not only does she have a wonderful day job, a vastly interesting website, and a support group of some of the wittiest gay men in New York state-- she also knows how to thrive.  

          Courtney lives on the Lower East Side, but we instead meet at one of her favorite places in the city-- a hideaway named Apotheke located on a side street in China Town.  The lights might as well be out completely and candles cast an eerie glow on the establishment's inhabitants while a man with a strange hat and an uncanny resemblance to Martin Short offers tarot card readings.  The waitresses are talkative and the bartenders wear laboratory coats.  At Apotheke, you describe how you're feeling, or how you want to feel, and they serve you a potion to help.  We're surrounded by a few friends, some old, some new, and conversation is inevitable.    

Jordan: Give me one word to describe your thrive technique, or how you thrive in the city successfully.

Courtney: Spontaneity.  

J: Oooooh!  What's the best place to thrive in the city?

C: Bliss spa.

Courtney laughs hysterically, and the others do, too.  I'm missing something... and I LOVE IT.

J: Lovely.  If you could devise a drink especially for thriving, what would be its ingredients?  

C: It'd be a Jewish-themed drink, so if you could mix chicken liver, matzah, and manishevitz into a martini, I think that would work.

Our drinks have arrived.  Luckily, none of them resemble anything remotely close to Courtney's Hanukkah cocktail.  

 

J: So we're at a drinking establishment right now, yes?  Let's go off of that for a while.  How do you balance... well, first, would you say that you're a connoisseur of alcoholic beverages?

C: Yes.

J: So how does one balance being a connoisseur of alcoholic beverages and thriving?  How do you get past the hang overs and on to the next drinking night?

C: Well.  My secret ingredient is Acanacia.  I take four pills before I go out, which makes me not hung over in the morning.  And I also don't discriminate... like, I'm able to tell what's a very fine champagne but I'll also drink a four dollar bottle of wine.

Four dollar bottles of wine may be the secret to thriving.  Now, it must be noted that Courtney is not a rabid alcoholic.  The atmosphere simply begged for the question.  All right?

J: I want to discuss Out Magazine, I think.  Tell me how it happened.

C: My friend was working there and they tyically throw out women's resumes, and he said "Hold on, keep this, she has an amazing website," so I'm the first straight woman and woman in general to ever be an intern at Out.  And it's incredible.

J: Do you plan on staying within the company?

C: No, I'm actually moving back to San Francisco in July... I'm going to grad school at San Francisco Art Institute for curatorial studies.  I want to start a museum of sex on the west coast.

J: Oh!  Discuss sex and thriving.  Is it essential to thriving?  Or is thriving essential to sex?

C: I am a very sexual person without having a lot of sex, and I think that's why I consider sex to be such an art form rather than a necessity.  Like, I really love studying sex-- I've taken Writing Erotica at the New School and I'll be taking History of Porn.  I just feel like I'll hit my sexual peak at the age of 35.  I'll be a heather Locklear.  

J: How about this, then-- not intercourse, but just being a sexual person...

C: You HAVE TO BE A SEXUAL PERSON TO THRIVE.  I think that sensuality goes hand in hand with confidence... not necessarily sexuality but sensuality.    

All right, you heard it from Courtney "Fruitfly" Nichols first.  Sexuality is synonymous for thriving.

C: I believe the essence of thriving is not sacrificing your friends.  Keeping people close to you.

J: What do you do with enemies when you have thrive on the mind?

C: I, for a long time, accepted them as friends, but I recently decided that... fuck you to everyone who sleezes out, I'm not going to deal with it.  So it's really important not to think of your life as a social ladder.

J: SO GOOD!  I woke up in the middle of the night... this interview is not about me, it's the only thing I'll say about myself in this whole interview... I woke up in the middle of the night and thought of this.  Tell me if it makes sense.  "New York is not a playground, so stop trying to climb the jungle gym."  Does that make sense?

C: I love that.

J: I think that people think that the secret to thriving is networking, networking, climbing, climbing.  It's not.  I feel like you'll fall off and bruise your knees, I think that's what will happen.  So, divvy it up in percentages.  How much is thriving about you, and how much is thriving about the people around you?

C: If I picture myself like the solar system, I am the sun, my best friends are the planets, my outerlayer friends are the moons, and those really superficial people that I keep in my life just for purely knowing jobs and such are the comets that are going around the moon.  

I never thought I could be so okay with a person who refers to themselves not simply 'like a solar system,' but as the sun itself.  You can mark me on this: I will always appreciate a good metaphor, no matter how self-indulgent.  Genius is genius!  I promise.  

It should be noted that Courtney is an outrageous dresser.  This evening, she wears a yellow dress with silhouettes of excitable, dancing figures on the skirt.  There is Chanel, very big hair, and good lipstick.    

J: So, give me the aspects of an outfit proper for thriving.

C: More is more. You can never have on too many accessories.  And, mix-matching prints is important.  Whoever said that zebra and leopard cannot go together was seriously disturbed.  And, leggings are not pants.

J: Lady GaGa!  Don't tell her.

C: Three: always include at least one piece of Chanel.  

Courtney proceeds to tell a story about an encounter with an Urban Outfitters employee.  The girl asked Courtney where she got her gigantic Chanel emblem necklace.  She didn't know how to answer the question without seeming, well... she was simply at a loss.  

C: Also, I think it's a waste of money to spend your money on lingerie.  I think what's important is what you wear on the outside.  

Apotheke is lovely, however expensive, and Courtney insists that we go home and cook a late dinner with friends.  Brussels sprouts, sausage and shell pasta are served-- all of it delicious.  We have a few bottles of wine, draw on the walls with chalk, play Two Truths and a Lie, and I ask a few more questions regarding her lovely home at the Ludlow on the Lower East Side.  

J: So what are the keys to making your home thrivable?

C: The keys to making my home thrivable are... guests lists, writable walls, and a large collection of DVDs.

J: If a bunch of people came over to your home expecting to be fed, what would you make them?

C: I would make them popcorn, and then soba noodles with seaweed on them, and a soft boiled egg.  

J: So you have all these people over for dinner.  What music do you play?

C: Thrive Music is Lotus with a sprinkling of Madonna.  

J: Okay, so, last question.  Someone came over to your home and says, "We're clearing the place out."  How would you continue to thrive if you could never leave your house, and you have no earthly posessions in your house.

C: If I was in my house alone, I think I would thrive quite well, because I would have all this extra time, and what would I do with it?  I would write and _______. And really, what else do you need?

J: My mother reads this blog, so I don't know if I'm going to include the _______ part.  

Best,

Jordan