what i miss about new york

1. dispelling all of the myths about the city that i learned by watching the movie, "big."  there is a large toy store, with a large keyboard, but you can't get a job there.  there are crazy people who yell at themselves and you, and you will hear strange sounds in the night, but it's not necessarily a reason to be scared.  you might fall in love with inappropriate people there who might change your life... but you won't have a time machine.  there are limos to be rented, but i never did see a trampoline.

2. having alisha in the next room.  watching every single episode of sex and the city when we lived there together.  eating pizza from downstairs at three a.m. and deli sandwiches from the shop on the other side of downstairs for lunch.  having items mysteriously disappear and then later reappear a week later from the laundry ladies two doors down (how could they possibly keep of track of borrowing my black yoga pants? they did.).  eating, drinking, dancing, walking, running, riding the subway, laughing hysterically, riding in cabs, riding a bus, paddling a boat, sunbathing, screaming (with no one noticing, in Union Square), screaming (while pillow fighting and having the neighbor yell through the wall "i'm calling the police!"), smoking hookahs, shopping, cooking comfort food, falling down and not having to be embarrassed.  

3. the ugly/beautiful orange chairs of the subway.  the ding of the doors closing and the harried anticipation of the next stop, everyone starting to lift or lean toward the door, even before the train stops.  the barrage of smells:  coffee, bodily filth, perfume, hair spray, leather, breath, plastic, metal, steam.  getting to ride the express train home.

4.  having every kind of food available at most times of any day.  having the freedom to walk all the way 30 blocks uptown from work to land at the bar at Luke's with a salad and some wine for lunch.  it was less expensive to order in than to go to gristedes and make the meal myself (not that i could, at that point in life).  h&h bagels with cream cheese and coffee.  papaya strawberry juice and a hot dog.  pad thai, sushi, soup and a sandwich, and 830 fabulous other meals.

5.  the springtime.  there is no such relief from harsh winter like the buds in central park at the castle in springtime.  it is an English garden heaven, complete with boulders to climb and ponds to peer into (with turtles).  fresh air among the blasts of subway steam and garbage piles and runoff grime on the street.  reading the catcher in the rye for the first time during the spring in new york.  the metropolitan museum in the (impending) spring.  i was lucky enough to live there when the gates were on exhibition by christo and jean claude (february, 2005).

Photo by Declan McCullagh.

it seems that i was surrounded by orange in new york, not my favorite color, but one that i must embrace.  it is not, however, what i miss the most.  that is, the approach of the new york city skyline from the air, at night, in all her glittering glory.