Eat at Lindo's

Now listening to: Sonic Youth (Evol)

Well I have returned from the Big Apple without much ado. It was a decent trip, but short on anything of bigtime interest. Lots of hanging out with the guys, playing poker and drinking. Didn't really do anything tourist oriented, other than walking around Times Square for too long. Did that on Fri. and got the pleasure of dealing with a fine array of blisters on my feet for the rest of the weekend.

But I did have a good time hanging out, for the most part. By Sunday I was feeling a little cramped and needed some space, that I wasn't going to get. I think that's just a symptom of my need for a certain amount of solitary time. I have to get my "me time" or I go all crabby ...OK I go more crabby than normal.

My first-ever flight was significantly less stressful than I anticipated. While I do tend ot have a fear of heights, for some reason flying didn't bother me. The initial feeling of leaving the ground was a bit offputting but I got over it quick and went to my book. It felt a lot like being packed on a bus, just for a ridiculously shorter amount of time.

SOME THOUGHTS I HAD IN NYC:

1. The city makes you feel so small and insignificant. There are all these throngs of humanity walking around and you wonder what the likelihood of your life having real meaning value is. I was having a total existential crisis before Mike's B-Day fest on Saturday (I was not anticipating having a good time, actually). But it turns out I did have a great time. First of all hanging with Mike, Adam and Greg (and Shannon too) was cool. Then his friends in NYC were pretty cool as well (with many of them being ridiculously hot women.) A few beers in and my crisis was over and I was simply drunk.

2. With the internet and instant communication there is little real difference with the stuff you can buy all over. Every place I went seemed a lot more homogenized than the last time I was in NY. This sort of bores me and makes me wonder if there is any point to traveling. With the "kinder, gentler" tip New York has taken, Times Square has went so touristy it's obnoxious. Before there were the strip clubs, porn shops and nudie booths to give you some semblance of a seedy, big city vibe. Now it's like a mall. It just doesn't feel like the NY that Kerouac and Burroughs came from.

3. I hate being shoulder to shoulder with people on the subway. I'm a big fan of personal space and can't stand feeling crowded. If I were to live there it would drive me nuts to ride the subway all the time. Of course the Subway was a big part of this trip. It was undoubtedly the thing that stood out most. The upside to riding the trains is that there are a ton of attractive women riding and you can scope til you're heart's content.

4. Everything in New York is either brand new and built to the hilt or old and dilapidated. There is very little middle ground. This often provides a stark contrast, the biggest one I noticed was in Brooklyn (home of the dilapidated building). it was a Quizno's that had obviously just opened right next to a battered old hispanic grocery place that looked as though it would collapse. Of course these things were in the same building technically, but the difference was exceptional.

If I think of anything else I'll post it later