Cupid has shot another one with his New York City-tipped arrow. His latest victim is a friend of Tasha's, who is visiting from Idaho. On Tuesday, three women flew across the country to crash at our apartment, see what there is to see, and do what there is to do in the big city. They landed at La Guardia just before midnight and by the time they arrived at our apartment in Midtown, lugged their bags up four flights of stairs and collapsed on our couch, one of them was already gushing about how wonderful and exciting the city was. I looked at her and saw myself two years ago and glimpses of me today when I shift periodically into awed tourist mode or "how cool is it that I live here" mode, which can sometimes be a simultaneous action.
Seated outside last night at Puccini on Ninth Avenue, a few blocks from our apartment, Tasha's New York City-enamored friend leaned back and - motioning to our table adorned with Pinot Grigio, Bruschetta, and assorted pastas - she said out loud what I often think during distinctly New York moments: "Where in Idaho could we do something like this?"
After a quiet pause, one of her friends shrugged, "Olive Garden?!?!?"
A unified "no" and laughter resounded in response. While I have never referenced Idaho specifically, you can insert [anywhere you want] into that phrase and the answer will most often be: "No where."
We talked about all the things we loved about the city. The hole-in-the-wall restaurants. The trendy and outrageous fashion. The embraced individualism. The weirdness. Especially the weirdness. So when we passed the most attractive drag queen we've ever seen in the stairwell of our apartment building on the way back from dinner, I think it sealed the deal. I couldn't help wonder, "Where else could you see a man as pretty as that?"
It's the same for our friend Cassie, who planned to return to North Carolina after her nanny career ends in Connecticut. Cupid took aim at her last spring and she realized that if she want back to Charlotte, she would ultimately be sitting around one night at some bar or club wondering what the hell she was doing there and wishing she were in New York. Soon she'll be joining us as a resident of the city for a few years before returning to the South. But I know that whenever she does leave, she will always miss it.
That's the thing about true love.
"Things I Love" Thursdays are inspired by "I Love New York" (BNY, February 14, 2007).
A Year Ago Today: Phone Photo Ops - Monday with Marilyn
Two Years Ago Today: Converse High Heels, Cocaine, Central Park & Superman Wears Prada
5 comments:
Love the analogy to NY as a "lover." I love my boyfriend but I know ultimately I'll have to leave him for my true love: NYC.
I have to say, while it's cute you are so enamored with New York, it makes me wonder if you've ever travelled abroad (I imagine you've been to Philippines), or even to other cities in the U.S.. You speak of the city like it's a foreign country- and make no mistake that NYC is as American as you can get, notwithstanding the foreign presence. All of the stuff you talk about is not really a big deal in the least. New York has the most embarrassing and filthy subway system in terms of modernity. Every time I come back from Tokyo I am so depressed to ride such crap transit! America is so behind. Don't become complacent in demanding more from our country!
Anonymous,
Please accept my resume* of foreign experience:
Philippines (as you were so good to point out)
Bermuda (lived there from 1989-1992)
Mexico (studied abroad in 2001)
Spain (studied abroad and travelled throughout for seven months in 2002)
France and Italy (10 cities on a 2-week bus trek in 2002 because I was a broke college student and that's all I could afford)
London (twice; once for Odyssey of the Mind in 1990; again to visit Terrence in January 2008)
Antarctica (to study penguin migration with "blognameremoved.blogspot.com")**
*This list does not include exotic foreign locales patronized solely for vacation purposes
**Not really, but I did watch March of the Penguins and deeply believe that seeing something on TV is just like experiencing the real thing
List of U.S. cities frequented in alphabetical order:
Atlanta
Boston (not far from where you live in Cambridge, MA, right?)
Charlotte
Chicago
Las Vegas
Miami
New Orleans
Orlando
Philadelphia
Phoenix
Raleigh
Sacramento
Seattle
Washington D.C.
Never mind; this will take more attention than I'm willing to invest in the comment.
In summary, I appreciate your comments and understand that this blog would be of no interest to the general E! TV-watching public because I don’t spend $1 million a year on clothing and jewelry nor have I had sex with a President. This is a personal blog to record my own experiences and observations living in New York City, not a platform to regularly deliberate over my environmental or political interests, which I express in letters to my local governmental representatives and by researching issues for coffee shop discussions with friends and to better prepare myself to vote.
But if you feel that BNY owes the general readership more posts about worldly issues worth debating, where you can grandly reference your worldly experience in retort, (because I'm always ready to ultimately agree to disagree with someone in a friendly debate), see "becoming-a-new-yorker.blogspot.com/search/label/politics" since you only spent 11 mins and 20 secs reading my blog to come up with your assumption of my lack of foreign experience ... or go to BlogsAboutRealStuff.com for a list of more constructive reading.
Have a great day!
P.S. You are right about the NYC subway. It is absolutely disgusting in some areas. I have loved being able to walk to work since I moved from Harlem to Midtown in June.
However, you can visit http://www.virgin-vacations.com/site_vv/11-top-underground-transit-systems-in-the-world.asp to read up on the Top 11 underground transit systems in the world as ranked by Virgin, and then you can say stuff later, like "Sao Paulo has one of the cleanest and safest systems in the world" just to make yourself sound really well-travelled and super cool.
Anon: "All of the stuff you talk about is not really a big deal in the least" Damn, that's harsh. To be fair, your comment wasn't very thrilling either.
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