A breath of fresh Air..

Most people, when thinking of "fresh air" would think Yosemite park, Montana, Colorado, just somewhere in the woods. But me being me Of course I do not think the same way.
When I think of fresh air I think, "New York City".
I have been so stressed out with not getting results in lab and tests, and classes, and professors and God only knows what else that finally, my husband decided I needed a weekend in New York. It had been more than a year, near 2 years, since I had gone HOME. I was going crazy. Infact it sort of felt like I used to feel when I was little and a long time had passed since I had visited St. Domingo.
I would feel like over the years, I had slowly lost little pieces of myself. Pieces that somehow allowed me to be the real me the happy me. Yes, I know, you are not supposed to be dependent on places in order to be happy but thats the way it felt and thats the way it went. When I was little, going to DR was a spiritually electrifying experience, every single time.
I kind of lost that some years back with DR. Now I have it with New York.
So! When I was in the airplane I decided that I would try and be as objective about NY as possible. I would try my best not to idealize it and in the process condemn San Fran even more than ever. So I did it. I tried to see the goods and the bads. Here is a list of them.

Bads first:

• New York is dirty.
• The Subway system has deteriorated even more than when I was there.
• There are no street signs indicating where the nearest subway station is.
• The subway stations don't have subway maps anymore.
• I don't understand the purpose of having people working behind boxed windows if they are not at least going to be capable of keeping track of maps and hand them out.
• People are just plain pist off in New York.
• The village looks as bad as Harlem and yet it is 10x's more expensive.
• The Rockefeller cafe needs to add a lot more to its Brunch menu, it is pathetic really.
• Park Ave is going down the drain.

Some of the Goods:

• New York is just practical!
• New York is a very tight community in that the city is always doing something Artsy and always includes the whole population of the city in it!
• New York is a city that inspires you to be creative to READ! I say this because the whole time I've been in California I never really felt like picking up a book for the hell of it. In New York, as soon as we checkd into the hotel and walked out I felt I needed a book. I know the reason for this also, it is because when you go to the subway you see atleast 5 people in a car with a book. And when you go to the book stores in New York, they display a lot more of the cool front cover books. The city feels like it is a book club. Some how they make you feel like it is cool to read.
• The architecture is just PHENOMENOL!!!!!!!!!!!!
• Shopping is 10x's easier. This is probrably just me, cause I know where to go and why.
• The beggars are polite. I had never in my life met so many rude and violent poor people as in San Francisco and especially Berkeley.
• In New York, if you give the beggers money great if you don't it is okay. You can actually have a conversation with New York bumbs. They'll actually give you directions. In Berkeley you give a quarter and they'll spit at you. Which is very bad cause now I've grown resentment towards beggers.

Things I did in New York:

I met up with my cousin, Carol and her husband for dinner at this small Spanish restaurant on 19th Street called Sala. It was just as delicious and even more hip than I remember. The food was great. Specially that fried goat cheese (from Heaven). My cousin and I had fun talking about everyone in the family and plans for the future and the present state of our lives. That was fun. I went shopping all over the city. We almost visited every neighborhood, West and East side of SOHO, the village, 65th Street Lincoln Cntr area (My favorite neighborhood) , Union Square, around the Metropolitan Museum etc, East 33rd Street... We went to the Metropolitan Museum. Carlos says it inspired him. We saw an exhibition of black and white photos and some modern paintings. We also hung out a lot in our hotel room.... We went mostly to old restaurants that we already knew but we also discovered 2 new ones.

The first night I felt like a stranger in my hometown. It bothered me. It was a very uncomfortable feeling. I was afraid I had lost the New Yorker in me and had become a San Franciscan. Then I had a cup of wine and then felt better.

Carlos said to me, "You can take the girl out of New York but you can't take the New York out of the girl." I realized in the end how right he was. By the 2nd day I was walking just as fast and much as any New Yorker, I knew my subways and stops, I knew where to shop, and I was getting the New York cranky attitude. I was teary in the airport. The only thing that made me stop thinking of leaving New York and how miserable I felt was thinking about what the hell my next project was going to be.

The best thing about going to New York:

Not thinking of science and politics for 1 1/2 days! -PRICELESS......