New York: Random Impressions and Thoughts

Dirty, noisy, gritty. Diverse to the max. ALIVE! Concrete jungle with a couple of trees. Expensive. Almost worth the price.

Standing in line at Starbucks I watched a scary looking man carrying a shopping bag walk through, then out another door, then back in. He looked around, specifically at the busy barista, then stuffed a stack of New York Times into the shopping bag and quickly left. Bet he was selling them on the street minutes later. Criminal or entrepreneur? You make the call.

Walk walk walk I walked everywhere. Three days here and I did not get into a vehicle. Walked fifteen blocks from Penn Station to my hotel, walked several blocks to Museum of Modern Art, walked to Central Park, walked to a neighborhood a few blocks outside of the tourist zone. Next day walked 10 blocks to the meetings I was here for, walked to the Empire State Building, walked back to my hotel, walked back to the previously-mentioned neighborhood for dinner again. Today walked to stalk the Today Show, walk walk walk.

Walk/don't walk lights are suggestions. Red lights suggest that taxis stop. Honk honk!

I was the only English language speaker on the Empire State Building elevator. Except the first voice on the speakers welcoming us.

Starbucks every other block.  Heaven.

Horn honking dumpster dumping, more horns. Tall tall buildings. Sun rises before 6 this week but streets are in shadow till much later because of tall tall buildings.

 

The neighborhood restaurant where I ate twice served Italian food and the whole staff spoke Italian as well as English. The row of restaurants surrounding this establishment included Mexican, French, Korean, Mediterranean and Irish restaurants. Asian market across the street. Sidewalk strollers included people with all of those ancestries and more. The United Nations building is just a few blocks away. Coincidence?

Song says if you can make it here you can make it anywhere. I believe it. Not sure if the three panhandlers I said no to this morning would agree.

Had a two-hour catch-up lunch with a co-worker from 25 years ago. Great to see her! Not just the chat and hearing about her incredible life but great to look at her. She looked good back in the day. She's twice as old now yet looks twice as good as then. More than twice. Jaw still dropping.

Got an insider's look from her at life in NY. Interesting perspective.

I used to say I love visiting New York but I couldn't live here. It has the few things I hate about my current city times ten (congestion, noise, rude people, blah blah blah).

But NYC is ALIVE!

The city is as much a living breathing entity as the people who live here! I think maybe I could live here. But I would have to make a lot of money. There is almost no chance I'll ever live here, no suitable opportunity is on the horizon. I have no plan to try and make anything happen here. But I can now picture a set of circumstances in which I would live here ... for a year or two anyway. Won't happen. Interesting thought though.  Very.