I'm a Stranger Here Myself

Leaving New York is always hard. When I lived there, I would have major anxiety trying to leave town. Traffic and asshole drivers and bridges and tunnels and a maze of highways and parkways and train and plane delays. Oooh. Wow. I'm glad I'm out of that. But yeah, emotionally, leaving for good was pretty hard as well.

It's maybe a little easier now that I don't have a life there. But still...this is where a great deal of good friends and good times are to be had. Trying to leave the city on a 60 degree day in December...that did not drive me back across the Atlantic with gusto.

I'm under no illusions that this is an easy place to live. It's not. It brings out neuroses in the calmest of people. Your whole week revolves around getting home in time to find a parking spot for alternate side for that car you never use, waiting in lines, coveting what everyone else has got that you didn't get lucky enough to get yourself. It's a dirty, competitive place where you are expected to work 50 hours a week, and people have a habit of not using their vacation time before it expires. The French lifestyle seems much healthier in comparison.

Ultimately, it's a great place to be if you have few responsibilities, and perhaps your commute is on foot. Speaking of the subway...while I was on the platform at West 4th on my way to meet a friend uptown, I found a $1 bill on the platform. That never happens! I looked around for an owner, made sure it was real, then hopped on the train that pulled up right then. Wow, how lucky is it to find money like that. It's too bad that train sat on the tracks in between stations for the next 25 minutes with no explanation. Karma will get you on your commute every time.

Plus, summers in New York are disgusting.

I even summoned enough tourist spirit enough to battle my way through Rock center to see the majestic massacred tree.

I know, I know...this is all very Manhattan-heavy. Brooklyn, I love you too.

I'm sure I will return. I always do.

NYC Summer

New York, in summertime, is not without its pleasures. While I prefer not to be here once the weather is nice, I do find little moments of bliss that adds up to make my time here good.



Despite having a brutal July here and pretty much everywhere on the East Coast, August has been much more pleasant. Less humid, more blue skies. Big late afternoon thunderstorms to entertain you and perhaps scare the crap out of you.



Plus, with all the earthquaking and hurricaining going on, you can't really feel disinterested in your surroundings.





I am lucky that my office is very close to Bryant Park. It's a very nicely manicured and managed bit of public green space. It's very popular with the lunchtime crowd, but they also have lots of events and concerts and movies going on every day after work as well.

It will be a cold day in hell when I decide to eat an out of season tomato. It's just so gratifying when they finally ripen into perfect fat globes of tart-sweet flavor. The Heirloom Tomato BLT from the 'Wichcraft kiosk is something I fantasize about all winter. It's just lovely.



They recently installed courts to play Boule or Bocci.



I know I talked about this last summer, but it's really fun to do yoga in the park.





Having a crowd around you of 500+ doing more or less the same thing is an interesting experience. It gets a lot of curious on-lookers and a few pervy photographers really intent on capturing you at your awkward worst, so I try to get a spot deep in the middle of the crowd. The class is free on Thursday evenings, with a rotating cast of instructors and styles, but it mostly seems like Vinyasa is being taught. If it's hot enough out, it's instant Bikram.



It feels like everyone there is taking a collective sigh of relief as they try to shake off their day at the office. Despite the city noise as a constant, you start to block out the sirens and jackhammers and just enjoy the sun and warmth and the grass under your mat.