I lived in New York in my late 20’s to early 30’s. I thought I was too old to move here at the time but did it anyway. New York is one of those “too cool” cities. It is also full of tourists. If you live here you do NOT want to look like a tourist. You must perfect your “I’m too cool for that” look. Everything. Facial expressions. Hair. Makeup. Clothes. It is not easy to look like you actually live in the city. In order to do that you have to perfect the understated cool “I woke up like this” look. No one wakes up like that. It takes a lot of work to look like you just rolled out of bed and achieved the perfect messy hair with a touch of makeup and clothes that are supposed to look like you just grabbed whatever was at the top of your laundry pile. I spent years here avoiding all of the tourist traps. I’m visiting all of them this month. Except Times Square. It is terrible and makes me break out in hives.
I am currently sitting in a room with portraits of old people who lived in the 1700’s. The room is full of people quietly working. It is freezing in here. The New York Public Library. It is really a beautiful building. The ceilings are really high. I have no clue how high, but really high. Someone just slammed a book and it echoed like…well…like a library.
Working from the library is one of the only things I’ve done so far that is FREE. That and crossing the Brooklyn Bridge with a stranger. I met Rob, of Robs10kfriends, last week and walked across the bridge with him while sharing stories about life. Rob is trying to meet with 10,000 people. Very cool project and even cooler guy.
Back to New York. I am exploring the city in a very different way than I did when I actually lived here. I came up with a list of things to do to push myself to not only get out of the apartment every day, but to also get out of my comfort zone. I went to a cool digital art exhibit yesterday and spent two hours there. I don’t really appreciate or get art or museums, but I stayed there long enough to get it. Well…the really nice guy I met there explained it to me and then I got it. If I didn’t speak to strangers or rush through things like that I would have missed out on a great experience. I’m learning to slow down in a city with the fastest pace of life.