NYC - Twice Returned

It's been.. weird to say the least. Being back I mean.  Houston was an adjustment, and now I'm back in the City, it's like landing on the moon -- if the moon was divided into concrete grids inhabited by weirdos, the unemployed and walking suits.

I was at a bar last night, watching as the Mavs whupped the Rockets while the rest of the clientele, old, young, and new crowded around a screen laughing their heads off at the American Idol rejects.  At each obvious point where the producers edited the performances, the crowd alternately shrieked, gasped and sighed their incredulity, astonishment and surprise.  As if.

I miss the uncertainty of the road: the rebirth of each morning as trains, sights, and cultures conspired against my leaden-ed brain. Here, the subways run on time, the streets are numbered and straight, and everyone heads inside their swinging corporate doors.  Of course, there are uncertainties here – I mean, New York is outrageous!  But it's the feeling that everything can be deduced, that everything follows a plan, that is unsettling.  I mean, what can really happen tomorrow?

I can still explore villages, but trendy bars (East and West) have replaced thatched huts.  There are cultures, but they're more counter-cultures than traditional cultures.  A bowl of pho costs six times as much (as do the shish kebabs and curry bowl), and a night's out required planning days in advance.  Everything is spelled out, categorized, and simplified.

Ok, I don't miss the pollution and the crazy rickshaw/tuk tuk/taxi drivers. But man, that lightning in a bottle, the bang(!) in the crossroads of anticipation, discovery, and surprise of being on the road – it's being eroded by this city of straight and narrow lines.

But you know what? I love this freakin' city.  Cause people here still follow their passions – and have that fuck all attitude where their convictions are the only things that matters.