29th Mar 2004
The Buzz, and The Beach
Outside my window is a WABC news truck. Nothing is going on though,
so relax. I’m in the Starbucks across the street from WABC TV in New
York.
A couple of tables over sits Meg Ryan’s twin. How she looked 10 years
ago.
One taxi after another darts down Columbus. #2834 is double parked.
Wait, now it’s about to tangle with the WABC news truck.
A mafia type parks a big black Mercedes in front of the fire hydrant,
leaving the motor and lights on. Struts out to meander up and down
the sidewalk, puffing away on whatever cigarettes are in supply after
this afternoons hijacking (in broad daylight, of course) of an RJ
Reynolds truck. Ok, I made up the part about the hijacked cigarette
truck. This isn’t one of those hard-boiled detective novels.
You see, it would be exhausting to give a blow by blow of just sitting
in New York. This isn’t a particularly active location (67th and
Columbus) or time (9:45 pm, on a Monday).
But that buzz is there. It is all around, in the air. That “staying
up late and getting stuff done, bustling down the streets” buzz. The
people out for dinner buzz. They didn’t stuff enough over the
weekend. It’s too early to quit. Maybe by Wednesday. So many restaurants, so much wallet, and so little stomach.
But I’m going to take leave of it for a couple of weeks. I’m going to
California! You know, that other place I live. House and everything.
Time to throw on a Hawaiian shirt and fire up the Weber. Take my
family to the beach. Go for a hike. Go chill at the local brewery
(Dempseys).
But I’ll be back in New York after a couple of weeks. My contract got
extended until the end of June. And I don’t yet know where I’m going
to be living. Fun, eh? Well, it’s most likely going to be Manhattan
or Brooklyn.
Will I miss the buzz?
You know, I think not.
There is the undeniable excitement of living in Manhattan, of access
to so much, of losing so much sleep because it’s so easy to stay out
here. There’s always something new to discover, to explore.
And I’ll be back soon enough …
But damn - I miss my family. I miss my friends. I miss being in my
own house. I miss the California ease of striking up random
conversations with strangers. There’s some New York stuff that I
clearly don’t “get”, and I know that in time, I just may. There’s
also some New York stuff that I’ll perpetually laugh at (little dogs,
the pretentiousness of some, the overly agressive types that have just
got to get on the train before others have gotten off, just to rattle
off a few).
Buzz or not, living on my own for the last few months has been one of
the tougher things I’ve done in my life. It makes me appreciate, all
the more, the role that friends and family play.
