I Love New York Because . . .

Otherwise Preoccupied

2011-11-04T04:03:00.005-04:00

Protests are not sexy. In fact, they can be downright disgusting. As I approach Zucotti Park in lower Manhattan the day after the bizarre October snowstorm, a trail of dirty gray slush leads me to the surprisingly small commune of protesters. Tents cover patches of the park, alternating with trash bags of dirty laundry. A makeshift kitchen seems to be the center of activity, folks grabbing a bite before the 7pm General Assembly begins. Wary bystanders like myself remain on the periphery - but cannot hear the main speaker standing in the center of the park. Like a massive human echo, her exclamations spread to the fringes of the crowd by people simply turning around and repeating her words.

As an impatient and freezing citizen, I decide to walk around instead and talk to folks one on one. The first stretch of the park feels like a trade show of grievances - a booth and flyer for every cause. Signs protesting racism, hydro-fracking and corporate crimes all cover the side wall of bushes. One man guesses my Indian roots and hands me a pamphlet about the fate of Kashmir. Not two feet from him, a man cycles in place to generate power for a water filtration system. I marvel at both his endurance and ingenuity.

Rounding the corner of orange cones, media vans and police offers, I make it to a lively group of people engaged in a ‘mic check’. A thin black man kicks off the process and calls out “They can take the power”!

Others repeat it back to him, “They can take the power”!

“But we own the hour!”

“But we own the hour!”

I would later learn that Zucotti Park allows neither bullhorns nor microphones, so a mic-check cues folks to loudly repeat the speaker’s short information statements so others far away can hear. This mic-check seems like more of a pep talk, but perhaps needed in this weather.

This side of the park boasts double the amount of signage as the previous. The incorrect spelling and questionable grammar of the signs break my heart, reminding me of Nikolas Kristof’s op-ed to “Occupy the Classroom”.

A mural of “Wanted” signs follows, featuring the Wall Street cronies who facilitated the demise of our economy, and covers the majority of the wall. Friedman’s not-so-funny joke about the bankers reverberates in these pictures.

The signs end and I come upon a shivering teenager, collecting donations for a laundry run. She sits with another vocal gentleman who catches me eyeing their table. His smile invites a discussion. I sheepishly admit, “This is my first time down here”. But I quickly add, “I strongly believe campaign finance reform is the ticket, but I wanted to come see everything else … I wasn’t even sure who made up the 1%.”

He grins, “Don’t feel like because you have a job you can’t be a part of this.”

Somehow this man taps into my question of “what is the qualification for being in the 1%”? I fear my private university education, great job, health insurance and Upper West Side apartment made me the enemy. Turns out the 1% consists exclusively of billionaires. I have nothing to fear.

The man continues, “Look at Bloomberg – he’s a billionaire who promised my part of Brooklyn a new school. Instead, he built a juvenile detention center. You’re telling me he doesn’t want to institutionalize certain populations?” I stare blankly as I have no knowledge about this. I don’t find the mismanagement of our public school system a shock, but make a mental note to check on this later. I’d heard about the Joel Klein controversy and remembered reading about the 4,600+ teacher layoff of NYC public schools in February of this year. This couldn’t be too far from the truth.

I ask if I could talk to someone about the mission of the protest and the man points me to the media booth at the top of the park. I find a table with some flyers about anarchy next to a line of protesters. More signs and more injustices. My fingers quickly approach numb and my headache from earlier in the day now dominates my thoughts.

I hop in a cab and we race along the West Side Highway. I muse about the state of affairs. I’d gone to the protest largely because a co-worker encouraged me to see it myself before dismissing it. My friends seemed surprised when I didn’t support the movement at first. “They are only protesting because they are now affected – what have they been doing all along for those less fortunate?” I argued. And truthfully, I was angry. Angry that many who champion OWS still don’t actively participate in their communities. Angry that people moaned about the lack of jobs, but did nothing to spur ideas that would create them. Angry that some of these people did not accurately represent what they purported to protest. How can you protest capitalism when it doesn’t work for you, but love its fruits when it does? I felt like Toby Ziegler arguing, “free trade stops wars”.

But OWS does force a dialogue about injustice from the sub-conscious to the surface. While that will perhaps be its only success, it is an important one. To break through the pacification of media consumption is no small task during a month of season premieres and NFL pre-games. The movement’s widespread support and headlining Oakland activity stirs many from a coma of consumption and sets the stage for change.

As the cab approaches home, I ponder what protest signs would decorate my mental Zucotti Park. I’m pretty sure they would call for the end of state dinners, campaign expenses and hobnobbing with lobbyists. They would ask for a better allocation of our tax money to fund health care, public education, affordable housing for the homeless and a robust veteran re-entry program. I say this based purely on anecdotal evidence – so hold your fire.

My recent trip to the ER for an ear infection on a Sunday afternoon yielded the following costs:

1 Remove Impacted Ear Wax $ 369.00
1 Emergency Room Fee $1,429.00
1 Docustate NA (100 MG) $ 0.01
2 Ibuprofen (400 MG) $ 52.00
Emer Dept Serv by Dr. Robert -- $ 289.00
Grand Total $1,959.01

Considering my ‘doctor Robert’ was a female physician’s assistant who partially irrigated my ear instead of actually treating the infection and who prescribed me a medication that neither CVS, Rite Aid nor Duane Reade carried – I found these charges bogus. (Not to mention the ENT who actually fixed the problem was recommended through my office’s private health center and cost nothing thanks to the company policy.) My health insurance covered 90% of the bill. But I’m almost positive uninsured people get ear infections too.

For the past four years, I’ve joined a group of young professionals every Tuesday and Saturday to tutor middle students in math as part of the Top Honors program. I tutor two seventh graders in the care of social workers to help them learn which operations to use in word problems and recite multiplication tables. One student may outpace the other – and I simultaneously lose the attention of one while dejecting the other.

In my third grade, Mrs. Jenison covered long division with a group of students whose parents taught them to read before entering kindergarten. Now I’m exhausted after two hours of teaching two students. With the average class size in a New York City public elementary school now greater than 30+ students and dwindling parental support, our teachers face a seemingly insurmountable task.

Don’t get me started on homelessness in this country.

And our troops? Our troops return to a changed economy with physical and mental scars. What the hell are we going to do to support them? The documentary When I Came Home covers this topic far better than I could in a blog post, so I encourage taking an hour out of the day to watch.

I realize I still have a litany of complaints in my head: the malnutrition of our youth, environmental degradation and unnecessary wars … perhaps that’s why the OWS message is hard to coalesce into a single sound bite. My government, my guardian of public policies that intervene when the market doesn’t self-correct, is in a state of emergency. As my brother eloquently puts it, “People assume that if a company does something bad, consumers will punish the product. Not true. The majority of America, hypnotized by advertisements and distracted by daily life, has lost the capacity to think critically and hold companies accountable”. We as consumers are largely separated from the production of our goods, so we have no concept of a product’s actual value. We have no idea how to hold a company accountable. And as an individual citizen, I pay my taxes to have my government to help us out. But it seems my government often a) lacks the caliber of employee to protect us (since why would you work for a low-paying public sector job when the private sector will triple it?) and b) will sell its soul to the highest bidder because its own debt is just that bad.

Seems OWS should focus on campaign finance reform, where the government remembers that individual citizens constitute the greatest shareholders. We have to educate folks to think critically about this topic and help raise it to the forefront of our next elections. That will be my new cause. So thank you OWS and the friends/family who discussed OWS with me – you helped me target my anger and focus on a constructive solution.

The cab pulls up to my apartment. I’ve listened to U2’s Sunday Bloody Sunday on repeat the whole drive. No better words to summarize that particular Sunday night:

I can't believe the news today
Oh, I can't close my eyes
And make it go away
How long ... how long must we sing this song …
And it's true we are immune
When fact is fiction and TV reality
And today the millions cry
We eat and drink while tomorrow they die

Sunday, Bloody Sunday

The real battle just begun.

it has Brooklyn

2009-09-27T21:52:00.003-04:00

Pathetic - I haven't written in 6 months. I'm going to try to get back in the habit. I think my last weekend inspired me to get back on the ball because it was one of those weekends that made me feel just glorious about my life in this city. It started with a walk-a-thon in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden to support the New York Asian Women's Center (NYAWC). The organization supports battered women and their families, providing shelter and counseling. We walked throughout the garden and stopped at various points to hear stories from the survivors. So basically, walk cry walk cry walk cry. But it was just amazing to be walking with a group of fifty people and breathing in the revitalizing power of nature. These women had overcome so many obstacles - it was amazing to stand shoulder to shoulder with them.

The rest of Saturday went into a shopping walk, dinner at Nonna's and great conversation. Then I spent the Sunday brunching at Cafe Citrane in the East Village, walking over both the Manhattan Bridge and Brooklyn Bridge, chillaxing in Central Park and ending with a sumptious meal at Candle 79. The sun warmed the entire city and not a cloud in the sky disrupted the whole weekend. Can a girl get any luckier?

you can attend a taping of The Daily Show for free.

2009-03-11T21:50:00.001-04:00

Jon Stewart? Free? What else do you need?

It has everything - and it has the BEST of everything.

2009-01-26T02:27:00.002-05:00

Whether food, music, theater, art, education - New York has it. And it has every single flavor of it. I'm not sure what else to say. I could ramble on with examples, but just open New York Magazine or Time Out New York and the pages of weekly goings-on say enough.

It's never finished.

2009-01-19T14:23:00.000-05:00

Orange cones, iron scaffolding and subway re-routes: all indicators that construction is in progress or something is being fixed. That’s New York – it’s always in a state of some self-improving change. Whether erecting a new building or new subway line, the stagnancy that plagues most of suburbia never hits this city. That need to constantly improve, to always stretch a little further to reach the next degree of excellence – it emanates from New York and New Yorkers alike. No one moves to this city because she’s tapped out and already operates at full potential. We move here to be challenged, to find new ways to shape our mind and interact with fellow human beings. Like freedom, like intelligence – New York embodies a concept of incremental perfection* that we constantly strive towards. Everything can be better. We come here to find out how. New York is more than a location; it’s a lifestyle of constant improvement on one’s self – a process which is never finished.

*Concept from The Big Picture, by Jeffery Scheuer

It's the best place to fall in-love.

2009-01-06T21:57:00.002-05:00

If you're very lucky, you'll meet someone that changes your life. Changes the colors, their brightness and their intensity. You'll meet someone who puts a spring in your step, makes winter more bearable . . . the city becomes your playground and you can make plans for a dozen weekends in a row - each unique and special. New York just envelopes you that way.

you don't need a car.

2008-12-29T23:51:00.002-05:00

When the gas price spike hit this summer, I barely felt it. My attitude? Walk. When the auto industry tanked this Fall, I didn't know what to say. Did people really think this kind of life was sustainable? That we could live in our individual pods and not have to work for our existence? A la Wall-E? Today, I walked to a salon, the dry-cleaners, grocery store, hardware store and my apartment - all within the course of a block. After a 10-day stint in the suburbs of Texas, nothing made me happier.

I love SAYING I'm from New York.

2008-12-25T19:41:00.003-05:00

You turn native once you've had the three key New York experiences:

- You have an Insufficient Fare on your MetroCard when you're in a hurry.
- You stop gawking at celebrities.
- You get splattered by a bus driving through a puddle, fall in the snow on a corner or have any other painful experience with precipitation in a crowded area.

After those rites of passage, I'm like a proud mama of New York: it's my baby. I can scold it, but no one else can. When people ask me where I'm from, I'm all too eager to shed my Texan skin and claim a New York heritage. People exclaim, amazed that I've made it 8 years in the city without being shot or mugged (a very 80s stereotype). It's always regarded as a great place for young people to live. (Which I find so odd considering all the little old ladies I see with their walkers in Central Park. Or the generations of families that plant roots in Queens or Brooklyn.) People give their two cents about the city and their experiences. I take pride in being able to have a CONTINUOUS experience in New York. And I love it.

It's the perfect backdrop to achieve your dreams.

2008-12-16T21:02:00.013-05:00

New Yorkers develop a penchant for reality the moment they move here. When forced to navigate through 8 million people each day, there's very little room for fluff. Which is why you'll often see, hear and smell things in this city that you won't anywhere else:

Back talk on the subway ads - Any public space is up for grabs. Television, print, online media, product placement - companies advertise anywhere for the chance of a sale. So it's a little refreshing to see devil ears on the gorgeous model in Guess jeans. It reminds you - the ad nor the lifestyle it claims are NOT real. Bet that guy never takes the subway.

The value of space - 8 million people, 305 square miles. You do the math. So naturally, we live a little closer to each other than we'd like. We hear noises we'd much rather not, conversations not meant for our ears. But it keeps you in tune with how human we all really are - no illusions about perfection. And we're forced to be more forgiving about everyone's situations.

The smell of homelessness - Homeless really means without a home, not stowed in away in a shelter where you don't have to see it. You can't walk down a street in midtown without seeing a man living in a box. When you smell something foul on the subway, look around and you'll see a man or woman crouched in a seat who hasn't seen a shower in a while. You might spot a dog tag around his neck or a hospital band around the wrist. He might look at you, might not. Either way, you know that no one is immune to the cruel ways of the world - it could just as easily be you.

So perhaps it's the effect of the city, perhaps it's my age, but I've noticed that in the past two years, I'm less and less willing to disregard reality for the sake of feeling good. I'm less likely to keep friends that I like only with condition, less likely to stretch the truth to make myself feel important . . . less likely to inflate the importance of my actions in the world. I am, however, more likely to recognize the impact of my inaction. The emptiness of my stress - as a dear friend puts it - becomes glaringly apparent.

If I'm going to stress, it should be over the state of our education system - not over an extra pixel in a web page. If I'm going to work 90 hours a week, it should be for finding a way to stop domestic violence - not to make a wealthy corporation disgustingly rich.

I work in software development. Wednesday, I had a day where everyone 'cashed in' at the same time. Everyone suddenly wanted his or her project worked on immediately, wanted them executed in full scope - and wanted them done in Q1. In a fit of empty stress, I blasted off an email to say that waiting until the last minute meant some folks were SOL. In development, you have to split your time into three buckets: think, build and test. They may not all be equal, but they all have to occur. Usually, the bigger one is, the bigger the other two must proportionally be. And since we often back into deadlines, we often realize that we needed to finish something yesterday to launch it in time.

For instance, someone decided to reorganize the way we layout our online digital library. That's two and a half months to think, build and test. In a bubble, that doesn't sound like a big deal. But this is one change of 85 that we have to launch by March 1st - most of which are already underway. So now, it's not about just thinking, building and testing this one area, but about thinking of the ripple effect this change causes in the other 84 initiatives - some of which also affect the digital library. It requires ripping apart code that's already written to accommodate these changes. And it requires testing the new ways a customer can play with the digital library.

And I see my life in New York having the same dependencies. I've got all these milestones I want to hit by a certain age. But it's taken me until now to think about what they are. So now I have very little time to build and test. If I decided at the age of 17 that I wanted to be a lawyer by age 30, I would have had plenty of time to make sure I studied for the LSAT, prepared for the bar, etc. But if I make that decision at age 26, I've got just 4 years to study, get into school, get hired etc - all while supporting a rent payment, etc (things I've been saddled with along the way since I didn't get my act together in time).

So what now? Do we say no more thinking? Of course not. We live in New York minutes - we build everything a little faster. So even if our goals are a bit more ambitious, we don't abandon them. Luck is nothing but the intersection of Timing and Opportunity. Take whichever one you have on your side right now and go for it. The other will come. And when it happens, you'll know that you didn't sugarcoat your way to the victory - you did it the real way. The only way to do something in New York City.

It doesn't care about you, but feels like it was made for you.

2008-12-11T22:14:00.002-05:00

New York City has it all, so it's very easy to find the niche that suits you best. You feel like becoming a chef? Welcome to restaurant-heaven. You feel like never cooking? Again, welcome to restaurant-heaven. Feel like partying until dawn? The city is open 24-7. Feel like never leaving the apartment? Don't worry, this city delivers 24-7. But it isn't because it was created for you. It's because that's the spectrum of this city's population. It's amazing - and it's mine. It's yours.

It's the only place where I don't feel like multiple versions of myself exist.

2008-12-02T20:38:00.012-05:00

The cover of New York Magazine stared at me: The Loneliness Myth. Naturally, I had to know what part of loneliness was a myth. Was it the existence of the emotion? Was it the source?

The article went on to discuss the types of connections or 'ties' we have to one another. Without regurgitating the article, it boils down to how alone doesn't always mean lonely. And that we need various levels of connections with others to fulfill our different types of needs. Not everyone can be a close family member; not everyone can be an acquaintance. We need a little bit of everything to feel completely comfortable with nothing.

Which begs the question, what does 'lonely' really mean?

It's the sadness of being alone. The depression of being alone.

Living in New York City often takes the depression of out being alone. You can discover yourself without constantly relying on someone else to reflect your thoughts or validate your emotions. I say this from a comfortable place since I went to school here. Had I moved here after college and had to form a friends circle, I don't know I'd feel the same. I have close friends who migrated up here and still feel like they don't have a base of friends like they imagined. I'd like to think this changes as you sink your teeth into the city. What do you think?

I remember when I saw the film Crash, Don Cheadle's character said the following:

"It's the sense of the touch - any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In L.A., nobody touches you, we're always behind this metal and glass . . . It's the sense of touch - I think we miss that sense of touch so much that we crash into each other just so we can feel something." - written by Paul Haggis

And it's true. In New York, you constantly bump into each other on the streets, stand shoulder-to-shoulder in subway cars or sit in eavesdropping-distance of one another at restaurants. Thin apartment walls don't leave your neighbors' activities to much imagination. Constantly having to claim your three feet of personal space, the default struggle is to find time and space alone - not get rid of it. When you find it, it's joyous - not sad or depressing. That healthy balance keeps us on our toes.

When people ask me what I like most about this city, I always say that it's the one place where I don't feel like multiple versions of myself exist. I don't have to abandon one part of my being to fulfill another. All parts - the ambitious, the earnest, the caring, the peacekeeper, the entertainer and the cautious - form a system of checks and balances to make a stronger person. When I leave, I find one part overpowers the rest. In Texas, my home state, I feel more like a peacekeeper or entertainer. When traveling, I feel more cautious, less ambitious. But in New York, all parts find their own manifestations. And when the whole is greater than the sum of all parts - when the parts unify without dissolving - the sadness of being alone disappears.

I'll spare you the meta-physical jargon and leave you with the much more eloquent words of Brendan Francis, "At the innermost core of loneliness is a deep and powerful yearning for union with one's lost self."

Nonna is the best Italian place you'll ever find and it's here.

2008-11-23T09:29:00.006-05:00

Sometimes you seek out treasures, other times you discover them. My father and I discovered Nonna last year. It's a rustic, warm and welcoming place that seems to say 'life is great' the minute you walk in the door. The decor is like an Italian villa that's been re-purposed for a restaurant. Wine bottles trim the ceilings and old photographs of past guests cover the South wall. The waiters greet you with genuine smiles and the manager is always circling without hovering.

And the food. The food is delicious. I've yet to try something I didn't like. The rigatoni arrabiata, the eggplant parmesan, the pappardelle with mushrooms - all with a couple glasses of Chianti - you can't beat it.

But perhaps it's the memories created there that make it so special. The three-hour dinner with my father where we laughed, cried, argued and declared our eternal father-daughter love for each other. The times when my boyfriend and I abandoned best-laid plans and head to Nonna. The times when my boyfriend and I have no plans and head to Nonna. Regardless of how you get there (85th & Columbus), it's a treasure and hope get a chance to try it!

Top Honors is being part of the solution

2008-11-20T21:32:00.005-05:00

New York City public schools face some of the greatest challenges in the country. Overcrowded classrooms, freezing buildings, under-qualified teachers - our schools teem with kids who are falling through the cracks. Teachers often use closets for offices and students are often just passed through the system without mastering the fundamentals. The surge in charter schools disturbs some who believe you can't fix public education if you abandon it - but it shouldn't surprise anyone who's stepped foot in a P.S. ###.

So where do we start to fix this? Where's the solution? It starts with the tiniest of steps. It starts by not being overwhelmed. Top Honors, a New York City non-profit organization that offers a free math tutoring service, has taught me that. It starts with one student one day a week. It's a maddeningly small task - you would think. Then you sit with the student and realize that you have very little in your arsenal to illustrate the decimal system or how cube roots work. Forget about calculus - try teaching fractions. We take for granted our knowledge, which makes it increasingly difficult to spread. But Top Honors uses real-life applications to help middle school students learn the core concepts of math. I discovered this great organization a year ago and won't be leaving it anytime soon.

the MTA still beats it all

2008-11-17T22:46:00.004-05:00

I once tried to jump the turnstile at a subway station. Yes, I was the 24-year old idiot who didn't feel like walking the extra 30 feet to the entrance to refill her card at the kiosk. Instead of doing the right thing, I gave into peer pressure. Shame on me - I know. You'll be happy to learn I got a $62 ticket as I waited for the station manager to give me back my ID. With all the imbeciles who do this throughout the year, you'd think the MTA would be overflowing in cash. Not quite - our great transit system flounders just like any other entity trying to stay afloat in this economy. Say what you will about the conditions of the A, C, E or moan about the G train - it's still one of the most impressive and elaborate public transportation systems.

I'm a bit more biased towards the subway system instead of the bus, etc. But there's no feeling like catching the Express train just as it pulls into the station. Or the relief when you've trudged in the snow and find an entrance a block closer than expected. I guess I'm just grateful for a city that invests in public transportation system that knows its value comes from its passengers.

the cab drivers let you weep in peace

2008-11-13T22:37:00.002-05:00

New York often breaks your heart. Sometimes you come to New York because your heart already is broken. Tonight, I went to the new 92Y space in Tribeca for a screening of the film Salaam Bombay! Being the bad Indian that I am, I'd never seen it before - and I wasn't adequately warned. Mira Nair weaves this soul-crushing narrative about the street children of Mumbai - and you just leave feeling empty, sad and hopeless. They have no chance. And what are we doing about it?

The rain and my somber attitude nudged me to hail a cab - where I proceeded to weep all the way home. The cab driver glanced at me through the rear view mirror, but didn't interrupt. When you pay a cab driver in New York, it can either be a detached experience or something more poignant. When the cab driver turns around to take the money - and looks you in the eye - you glimpse the silent kindness that you thought didn't exist in this city.

Central Park is beautiful in the Fall

2008-11-11T23:15:00.002-05:00

The movie 'Autumn in New York' came out August 2000 - just when I moved to the city. I thought "Great! It's like they know I'm coming!"

Then the movie came out and stained the phrase 'Autumn in New York' forever. Now, anytime I want to exclaim over the beauty of New York in the Fall, I'm painfully reminded of the mediocre movie that tried to do the same.

So I will suspend belief for the next few minutes to act as if the sentiment is still pure and joyous. Autumn brings its own energy - the air crisps, jacket collars turn up and everyone walks a little faster. No place is more beautiful than Central Park though - the trees find the perfect hues of red, orange and gold. Couples hold hot coffees in hand as they link arms and walk through the Mall. The early darkness stops no one from enjoying the park - New Yorkers enjoy every last drop of good weather no matter how late.

Menupages.com has it all for us

2008-11-08T08:16:00.003-05:00

It's not the most glamorous site, but it does its job - and it does it well. If you live in New York, this is a digital bible for finding restaurants in the city. Any cuisine, any neighborhood and any price range - it has them all. The reviews are more candid (and recent), the pages are cleaner than CitySearch and you always find what you need. I know some other cities have this - but only New York has the best restaurants.

Times Square is here

2008-11-05T21:30:00.007-05:00

New Yorkers have a love/hate relationship with Times Square. We love the collision of art, commerce and technology - but not that of tourist, peddler and native. We love the size but loathe the crowds. But if love, in its truest sense, is to accept both peeve and perfection with equal enthusiasm, let me share the good, the bad and the ugly about Times Square:

The Lights of Broadway - When you stand exactly at 45th and 7th avenue, you can see the the marquees for the Booth, Plymouth, Jacobs and Golden theatres all lit up on the left - the Music Box and Imperial on the right. It's a sight to see. The magic of live theater can't be measured in wattage, but Broadway gives it grade A effort.

New Year's Eve - Everyone knows about this. It doesn't need any further description. But after one time, you're done. Anyone who lives in the area heads out to Brooklyn or somewhere and doesn't attempt to return until the morning after. The good workers of NYC go about cleaning for the following week. You know, because no other part of New York needs cleaning . . . call me a downer, but the colossal waste of time and money seems strange these days.

5:30 to 8pm, M to F - Rush hour. Everyone's catching a train, a bus or a play. Tourists stop walking in mid-step as they stare at lights and posters. Commuters shove them in pursuit of their imminently departing train. It's madness. I'm waiting for Bloomberg to institute two sidewalks - one for people who need to keep moving but are too awestruck, another for people who are just passing through.

August 2003, The Blackout - This city may never sleep, but the blackout was pretty close. We lost power around 4pm that day. I was working at Broadway.com at the time, so had tons of customers who couldn't user their tickets because, of course, the theatres were dark. Around 10pm that night, my then-boyfriend and I walked to Broadway and stared all the way down the avenue. It was pitch-black - the city had gone dormant. We'd never seen a giant stilled so suddenly.

Barack Obama Gets Elected - This recent election will go down in history books for multiple reasons. And New Yorkers know that to witness history, you head to Times Square. The roads were full as everyone watched the nation elect the first African-American into presidency - the darkness of the blackout firmly behind us.

we're a Blue state

2008-11-03T22:32:00.005-05:00

When I was in Texas this weekend, I saw more McCain-Palin signs than I ever cared to see in one lifetime. So when I came home to New York, I was deeply relieved to find a YES WE CAN sign hanging in Gray's Papaya. I was delighted to find Eleni's Bakery selling Barack Obama cupcakes. I tuck into bed happy knowing that New York puts the blue in the red, white and blue.

the little towns have the biggest souls

2008-11-02T20:17:00.005-05:00

Jon Stewart recently went off on Palin's comment about real values existing only in small towns. He said that New York City is a bunch of small towns close together. And that reminded me of the Alistair Cooke quotation "New York is the biggest collection of villages in the world." And it's true - only here can you turn the corner and be transported from China to Italy. If you travel up to Jackson Heights in Queens, you'll be in Little India. You turn go around the block at Herald Square and you're in Koreatown. Once when walking around the Upper West Side, I commented that I loved 'how Jewish it is'. Now - I guess it came out incorrectly - but I meant that I love that another religion could be so dominant in the usually Christian country of ours. I love the synagogues the young families I see on Columbus avenue. I love that Yom Kippur is a recognized holiday in this city. I love that the Empire State Building was lit up specifically for Diwali. I love that avenues shut down for the Domincan Republic parade. New York City is a microcosm of the rest of the world with small town values on the grandest scale possible.

the Chrysler Building is unparalleled

2008-10-31T23:36:00.003-04:00

It's amazing what you miss about New York City when you're not actually there. I'm writing from Dallas tonight - visiting the folks. And all I can think about is the view of the Chrysler Building I had on Sunday afternoon. When you're on 42nd Street and walk from 5th to 6th Avenue, just stop and turn around. Glorious, gleaming - the Sunday sunlight magnified every wonderful art deco detail of the building.

You can Wikipedia all the fun facts about this piece of architecture. The story of how it was the tallest building for a short span of time is well known. How it incorporates the elements of a 1902s Chrysler automobile. But it's that view - the one that makes you stop and take notice - that I miss tonight.

it has great Mexican restaurants

2008-10-28T21:02:00.005-04:00

Look, I know TexMex - I'm from Dallas. But that's not what I need anymore. Mainly because I don't want my arteries to turn into tubes of cheese. So I recommend these instead:

El Cantinero - 8 years and still going. Salsa is off the hook. And get a strawberry maragarita.

Tacocina - Yum. Discovered vegetarian tamales and the freshest guacamole in town.

Mercadito - Cactus tacos and the cucumber/lime margaritas.

La Palapa - Ginger margarita with chili salt.

Just go already.

the semi-celebrity sightings are just as exciting as the big ones

2008-10-28T20:52:00.005-04:00

Usually I get annoyed when people fly through the subway doors just as they're closing - forcing us to wait an extra ten seconds as the doors recalibrate. But today I didn't mind so much. I'm there - bopping along to some old Green Day - and Kristin Schaal zoomed in with a coffee and a copy of the New York Times.

For the blasphemous few that don't watch The Daily Show, she's one of the few females who challenges Jon Stewart and does a mean face off with Samantha Bee. Check it out:

So I'm ok with missing Jolie and Pitt prancing around the city - I'll stick to my lesser known, more talented celebrity sightings!

you can be covered in rain and still love this city

2008-10-28T20:06:00.004-04:00

I thought it ironic that the day after I start a blog about how much I love this city, my least favorite weather washes over the island. My aversion to all forms of precipitation threatened my new kick to find something positive each day, but I continued to hunt for the silver lining. And I found one.

As I got off the C train and braved the rain, I realized I was listening to the live version of "Covered in Rain" by John Mayer (right when he starts going crazy). And I loved the coincidence! Then it hit me - I love that because of how mobile this city is, you can really have your own soundtrack in life. With all the walking, you can actually plan your day around what songs you want to hear when.

Everyone moans that musicals are goofy because no one in real life breaks out to into song - I beg to differ. I've been known to bust out into song more often than not when blaring my shuffle. And I know other people do it. They think no one is around and belt out whatever song is currently shocking their eardrums.

So I say - who cares if it's raining? Find your song and sing on!

So why do YOU love New York?

2008-10-28T06:11:00.001-04:00

New York Magazine does this everywhere for their Christmas edition. I'm making it a year round thing . . . tell the world why you love this city!

you can walk everywhere

2008-10-28T00:59:00.007-04:00

It's amazing how far you can walk on an island. People in the flyover states have all that land and stay parked in front of their TVs. New Yorkers have a drop in the bucket when it comes to this country's real estate, but walk an average of four miles a day (I'm quoting Morgan Spurlock, so I might be a little off . . .). Top walking moments:

The best second date ever:

Meatpacking District to Hudson River
Hudson River to East River via 23rd Street
East River to Avenue B & 12th Street (go to Mercadito for the calabacitas and cucumber/lime margs)
Alphabet City to Madison Square Park
Madison Square Park to Times Square

it was a 7 hour date that you could only have in this city

The best Fall day:

Times Square to Columbus Circle
Getting lost in Central Park
Starbucks break on Columbus & 85th
Strolling down the Upper West Side
Times Square to Union Square to SoHo and then back home

UWS is all about the dogs and strollers. Families heading to synagogues dressed in their best. And they don't mind when bums like me in sweatpants walk amongst them.

The walk where I knew:

Brooklyn Bridge into City Hall Park
Chinatown to Little Italy, back up to Times Square

Manhattan Mini-Storage puts up great subway ads

2008-10-28T00:29:00.001-04:00

I often feel bad for the suckers who live in suburbia. Mass transit provides the most amusing forms of entertainment when en route from point A to point B. Advertising permeates nearly all media now: television, radio, film (the annoying commercials before the previews), print, online, etc. So I have no problem when someone scribbles on a poster that targets teenagers to join the army. Or when Josh Brolin has devil horns as he channels W. My favorite recently? The Manhattan Mini-Storage ads that wear their politics on their sleeve. Bravo for actually saying something - and being very effective!

On a completely separate note, the ONLY downside to this election is that when Obama wins, Tina Fey will no longer have such choice material for SNL anymore. But I'm willing to live with that. (And I will stop jinxing next week's election. Considering today's foiled assassination attempt, I guess I better be careful.)

genesis

2008-10-28T00:16:00.002-04:00

I'm a list person. So I'm going to side-step the flowery language and tell you why I created this blog:

I love New York. Yesterday, I had one of those perfect days you can have only in this city. After 8 years of living here, I'm still falling in love. Now, I'm qualifying my posts now with saying that I don't meant to sound like a New York snob. I do understand that life exists outside this ten mile radius. But here's the thing . . . New Yorkers don't think we're better than everyone. We just think this city is better than any other city . . .

I miss writing. I keep thinking that I want to write short stories, poems, articles etc. But I'm not giving myself the time to do it. And then I realized I don't have tap into my inner Shakespeare each day - just write. As Chuck Close says "Inspiration is for amateurs". It's about the process. So I'm making a commitment to write. Channeling some Brian Oberkirch now "Creative work is mostly showing up every day and enduring a million tiny failures as you feel your way to something a bit new." Two people that I adore and respect are writing like fiends now - and lit a fire under me.

I need to stay positive. After reading the news each morning - aka Gloom and Doom - I want to remember the reasons to be happy. If falling in love isn't a reason to be happy, then what is really?

I want to know why YOU love New York. I want to hear your stories - and get your restaurant recommendations ;-), so I figure I have to share first. Posts can be a sentence or a novel - just write.

With that - let the loving begin!