Well, after a year and a half hiatus from the big apple, I finally moved back this September. Back in the Great White North, everyone wants to know how it's going. "OMG how is NYC?? Is it fabulous?"
The truth is, it is fabulous, but it is also exhausting. It is an extremely hyper-active city, which means that your perception of it can depend on your state of mind. It also means that as a reaction to this hyperactivity, I've noticed that New Yorkers tend to carve out very definite routes for their lives. This makes sense, since if they didn't, they would be swallowed up by the city. But it does mean that moving here has been harder than anywhere else to develop a normal social life. People have very specific schedules, they are incredibly busy, and they traverse specific neighbourhoods. Getting them to move outside these parameters is very difficult, and getting them to include you in these habitual routines can be hard as well, which makes sense because they're, well, habitual. These routes are not easy to carve out, they take time, and so people have very strong emotional attachments to them. So they're also not really rational. A friend says to me: "I never go to that pub on our block."
Me: "Why?"
Her: "I dunno. Just don't."
Anyway, living in NYC has given me a new appreciation for certain things such as Seinfeld, which I don't think I ever really 'got' at a deep level until now. There's an episode (I haven't seen it in a while so the details here might be a bit sketchy) in which Elaine is dating some guy, and he somehow manages to get them blacklisted from the great Chinese take-out place on her block. As a result of this, Elaine has to break up with him. Now, ten years ago, I thought this was funny because it was absurd. Today, I get it: it's not funny because it's absurd, it's funny because it makes total sense. This isn't just about good greasy Chinese food. This is about life.
