Day 2: I have to say, this trip has taught me something that I was not expecting to learn--New York City holds absolutely no fascination for me any longer. Now granted, it is winter, a nasty one, complete with near zero temperatures, record snow falls and continuous flurries. Also, I have gone out two days in a row without the sufficient wrappings to protect myself from the worst of it. Still, even when fed and warm, such as I was earlier under the surehanded draughting of Liam at the Perfect Pint, I'm still over it all.
When I lived here, and for years after, I regarded NYC as this sort of idyllic place, a mecca of creativity, freedom and wanderlust. For many, it remains just such a place. I'm sure of it. You can see it on the faces of the people hoofing it up and down the avenues. Their young faces. NYC is a great city for young people. As you get older, the exhaustive pace a brutal conditions (hot, cold, windy or just plain gross, depending on location and time of year) wear you down until very little is left but the raw animal instincts of self-preservation and hunting/gathering. This, I suppose, is why so many people here are jerks. At least initially. Once you establish yourself with them, it's like you are another part of the scenery, and they generally respect you.
Anyway, I've been cancelling plans to see people throughout the day, and am growing more and more antisocial, to the point where I don't even want to hear myself think. I've started reading 'Endurance' which is the tail of Shackleton's failed crossing of the Antarctic in the early 20th century. It makes my crosstown voyage seem like a trip to the spa. The fact that I still am fed up with the city and the weather is an even more compelling argument to me that I am well past my phase of big city living. Give me a warm climate, cold beer and my cats. The rest I can check out in books and movies, where all things extreme and uncontrollable belong.
This has been brought to you, thankfully, by the best draught of Guinness in the city (according to Liam).
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