17th Jul 2004
Glass Wall
July. Heat. Humidity. But still bearable.
I’ve been in New York since last October, with a couple of months total spent back in California.
So, in other words, I’ve spent a lot of time in NYC lately.
A growing murmur in me says “forget it, cut your losses, go home to California, it’s not working out”. Reality stares me in the face, in the form of a 1 year lease, and some non-trivial bits of furniture I’d have to deal with somehow.
It is hard, financially, socially, and in other ways. I miss my family, I miss having some space, and a lot else. There’s one thing in particular about New York that’s swaying me:
It’s a Glass Wall
Where I work is extraordinarily cliquey. I mean, obnoxiously so. I think it’s the office where I work (in White Plains), and not strictly an East Coast thing. But where I live is also a sort of Glass Wall. After all this time in Manhattan, I still feel like an outsider looking in. People are hard to meet here, and I’m happy to know a couple of friends. The city confers upon its populace a sense of anonymity. This is all fine, well, and good, but New York takes it to an extreme. My hunch is that once you meet a few core friends, and start meeting their friends, things pick up. My other hunch is that I am not going to last that long to find out if that’s true.
So adding it all up, I’m nearly at zero. I’m having lots of doubts as to why I thought this would be a good idea.
