Comments on: New York, New York!

By: gratte

gratte — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 08:22:52 +0000

Rob! It was great to hang out with you. Hopefully someday you can come back to NYC with some more time and visit up where we live. You got to see the whirlwind-tourist-intensity side, but day-to-day life is actually really calm here. Or can be. It depends on your mood and adjustment level.

Fer example, today – a typical Tuesday – I had my breakfast while perched on top of a giant rock at the park a few blocks from where we live. Beautiful spring weather, the flowers and cherry trees are blossoming like crazy. Chatted with my neighbors out on our building’s playground/patio and said “Hi” or nodded to a half-dozen strangers on the street. People are plenty friendly. The tough Dominican manager chick at Dunkin Donuts calls everybody “baby” and is nice as pie. Went to the big gym in the afternoon which is right in our apt. complex. So that’s like a 2-minute walk door-to-door; no excuses.

And dude, this is Harlem! Da big bad Bronx is 15 minutes by feet away and it’s… damn pleasant. We go there to shop at Target and get some ice cream.

This weekend, I’ll take a long, relaxing subway ride to either the woods or the beach for $2.50 and get a lot of reading done along the way.

NYC is what you make of it – there are tons of options. Some people live their lives in crazy S&M dungeons and whatnot, and then there’s squeaky-clean nature enthusiast people like me. Texas was cool and all, but I rabidly love living here for the past ten years.

By: felix

felix — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 02:10:15 +0000

I’ve been to NYC once and had similar feelings as you. It is a nice place to visit and there’s plenty to do. But there is no get away because there are always people around and a buzz. I did like having all the different food choices and the long restaurant hours.

By: Dean

Dean — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 23:06:36 +0000

dat dat darr da dar….
dat dat darr da dar….

Start speading the news… Oklahomas not gay..
I wanna be a part of it. YU-KON YU-KON!

By: Tim Musselman

Tim Musselman — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 18:03:03 +0000

Life in large cities can be fun. In Chicago I went to Wrigley Field at least weekly. There’s just so much always happening. The things about big city life that get old are the little things. Waiting in rediculously long lines at grocery stores. The general air of rudeness (even if people are not ‘explicitly’ rude). It’s funny, but spend enough time in a big city, and you adjust. It just becomes normal life. But, if you are in a position to see the contrast between big city and smaller town life, you can see the contrast pretty clear. I think i mentioned this once in a message, but I worked for an airline when I lived in Chicago. I would constantly fly to Florida to visit family. It finally occured to me that when I was flying south to Florida i was overcome with relaxation and happiness. When heading back north to Chicago, I would be winding up and preparing for battle.

Now I live in Florida.

Regards, Tim M.

By: ubikuberalles

ubikuberalles — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 16:43:47 +0000

Let’s see, driving ten minutes in Oklahoma without passing a restaurant means the restaurants are a minimum of ten miles apart. Driving ten minutes in NYC without passing a restaurant means the restaurants are a minimum of, what?, 100 feet apart? :D

By: Zeno

Zeno — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 15:34:46 +0000

On my one and and only visit to NYC I was being coached by my wife’s friend whilst riding the subway into Manhattan on how not to look like a slack-jawed out-of-town rube. I ignored her, believing myself to be well-versed in the art of travel by virtue of my military and motorcycle experiences. Then we came out of the station, onto the street, and the first thing I saw was the Chrysler building. I had never seen a building that tall before. Boom. Instant slack-jawed out-of-town rube.

Still, while the city itself was a marvel, I found the gestalt of the place immensely hostile compared to my desert homeland. While I’m certainly glad I visited, but I could never live there myself given how the place goes against the grain of everything that has to do with civility.