ny state of mind

it's been about 6 months (already?) since i moved to new york. i've been meaning to jot down some thoughts for awhile now but had been putting it off. this article, which was tweeted to me by my old roommate michael, finally got me going.

inevitably when i see or talk to family or friends again for the first time since i moved to new york, i get a barrage of questions of what it's like to be living in new york now. one thing that almost always comes up is the pace of the city. new york city comes with a perception that it's bustling fast-moving city, and to survive, you better keep up. but you know, i don't really see it. well ... i do see it, but i don't really feel it. i actually feel quite the opposite. since i live so close to work, i walk to and from work everyday, and there's something about walking, which just slows everything down (and i don't mean that literally). walking around with my pandora on blast usually gets me into my own world, filtering out the hustle and bustle of the streets, and allowing me to enjoy the walk. as far as i can tell, i'm not walking faster and rushing everywhere, but i do notice myself weaving in and out of people sometimes ... but then again, that's how i used to drive.

speaking of driving, i don't have a car here and thought i would miss my car a whole lot more than i actually do. that has nothing to do with high gas prices either. i enjoy walking around and taking the subway everywhere. the only time i really did miss my car and driving was on a long drive for our camping trip on long stretches of highway (though part of that may have been because of the driver of the car i was in). i'm getting familiar with the subway system; however, i occasionally make mistakes here and there, like thinking the D stops at 14th St. my iphone and the city transit app help for those moments. i still think it's cool seeing people of all races, walks of life, and social status crammed together in one train.

my apartment is in a great part of town. i don't think i could be anymore in the middle of manhattan. my apartment is easily accessible to four different subway lines. there are a bunch of good restaurants nearby, including an awesome chicken and rice cart right downstairs (i swear i grab food there at least twice a week). things are open late. best of all, i'm REALLY close to columbus circle and central park. i had an epiphany a few months ago: it would be a sad sad thing if when i eventually leave new york, i realized that i lived so close to central park and didn't make the most of it. now, i sometimes grab lunch and sit under a tree in the park. if i have nothing to do on the weekends, i often grab a book or my laptop with a blanket and sit in the park for a few hours. just being to chill in the park like that also contributes to the fact that i think my life has slowed down since i moved here. columbus circle has also become a hang out of mine. it's like my new sproul. sometimes on my way home from my work on a nice sunny day, i'll just sit in the circle and just watch people go by.

in terms of social life, mine hasn't been the greatest but not that bad either. i also expect it to improve. a couple friends were gone for the summer but are now back. ol' dirty is moving to brooklyn soon, which should make for good times as well. i've seen a couple hip hop shows, and the fact that they were new yorkers (immortal technique and talib kweli) made them even better.

i do have a few gripes. first, it's not even winter yet, and i'm still adjusting to the weather. in my 6 months here, i've probably seen more rain than i did in my 3 plus years in sd (maybe that's why we had fires so often). i'm sure by the time january rolls around, i'll be crying ... but i'll get used to it. second, watching sports since i've been here is tough (and not even because of the way boston took out the lakers in the finals). i usually have to be awake till about 1am watching lakers games. now with the start of football season, i'll probably complain some more. in cali, i was used to waking up around 10am on a sunday morning, rolling out of bed to the couch, and sitting there watching football all day. here, i'll have to wait till 1 before any games start. oh well.

but if the weather, which i expected, and having to adjust my routine for watching sports are my two biggest complaints, i guess you can say i'm enjoying it here. i used to think that the window of opportunity for me to live outside of california sometime in my life had long closed. of course, things changed, and i'm glad they did. i know i will eventually move back to california, but for now, i'm very happy that i'm living in ny.