How Do You Not Fall in Love with New York City?

I had family matters to attend to outside of the city. Actually it was technically outside of the country. I dashed up to Canada on Friday and returned on Sunday night. I wanted to be home in time for the handing out of bronze statues to famous people. Watching The Oscars in Canada doesn't quite have the same appeal as doing the same in New York City. At work this morning it was one of only two subjects discussed at the office. The other being the New York Knicks.

I was very eager to return home to New York City. I find it very hard to be away. I am not one who adapts easily to changes in my environment. I don't sleep well away from my bed, I get paranoid about not being able to return home, i don't trust other people's food and non New Yorkers tend to think and talk differently than we do. "But you are English," I hear you say. That may have been true some fifteen years ago but I now consider myself 100 per cent New York. I arrived at the airport a little early and changed my flight to one that left an hour earlier. I am very prepared for getting back to New York with as little hassle as possible.

I had already filled out the immigration card because i keep spares. I have a special pass that gets me through immigration without talking to an officer. They have an imprint of my eyes on file so all I have to do is look into a machine.
I have a credit card that gets me through the priority lane for the scanning of luggage. I only carry hand luggage. That same card gets me into the luxurious airport lounge for free and allows me to board the plane first. I fell asleep as soon as I sat in my seat and opened my eyes and looked out the window ten minutes before landing. This is what I saw when i looked out of the window and i took a photo. Why would I want to live anywhere else?

Why I Don't Live in Suburbia

The arrangement was to meet at 7.30pm at a Vietnamese bar downtown. I was very much looking forward to seeing my "used to live in the city but moved out" friend. We have many friends who have moved out of the city when they had kids because they wanted space, more affordable housing, better schools, and a back yard. I can't argue with any of their points. In an ideal world I would love all of the above but in the city.

Some of our friends moved so far out it takes hours to reach them. Some commute two hours each way. They miss almost a whole day every week just in getting to and from work. When they get home they are so exhausted they have to go straight to bed because they have to be up 6 hours later to go back to work. I just don't get it. I really don't. The back yard they pined for isn't used for eight months of the year and the schools they yearned for are great but the parents, if they both work in the city never set foot in it to see how good they are.

I am convinced commuting shortens life expectancy. Trains are late or cancelled causing blood pressure to boil. On some trains it is impossible to get a seat and so standing for four hours every day puts strain on the joints and the sheer fatigue causes a draining of energy levels. Live in the city and live longer.

At 6pm last night my friend who lives in a middle of a forest somewhere deep in Connecticut, just off the I-95 near the Hutchinson Parkway, close to route 684 and a stones throw away from The Connecticut Turnpike called me to inform me he was about to leave. He asked if we could meet at 8.30pm instead. He said that he had just listened to the radio and there was flooding somewhere, an accident somewhere else and a congestion at a toll a little bit further on. The crossings into the city were backed up because the automatic tolls were slow and then he had to look for off street parking. I was exhausted just listening to him.

I asked him what time he wanted to be back home? He said no later than 10.30pm as he had an 8 am meeting in the city the next day. That constituted maybe half a drink, a quick hello a semi hug and a fast ciao with no time for real chow.

I have a hard fast rule. I do not drink any alcohol if I am driving and I enforce that rule on my friends too. So because it would take my buddy four hours round trip to see me and then not drink anything I abruptly cancelled the rendezvous and stayed in instead. You just can't make arrangements with suburbanites midweek unless they are already in the city and take the train home. And I never want to be on the other side of this equation.