so much city, so little time

Just when I’m beginning to get my bearings in the Manhattan neighborhood of my temporary home at The Gracie Inn, its time to leave. And like the last time I was here, I have been given just enough of a taste of this city to leave me wanting so much more. I’ll be back, that’s for certain. And hopefully for longer next time.

I’m so glad that I got to spend time catching up with a friend I haven’t seen in a couple of years and her sweet little boy. R, thank you for a fabulous weekend, for keeping me from getting lost and ending up in Jersey somewhere, for making me dinner, for letting me hang with you and O and for taking me around the city. I loved every minute.

I love so many things about New York. I love the dichotomy of being anonymous among millions of people. I love the diversity. Different food, different people speaking different languages, different architecture, different neighborhoods. Different everything. I love the crazy mad pace and that I can escape to my room and sleep the sleep of someone who is perfectly content to be where she is while the city that never sleeps keeps on going outside my first floor windows. I love that I can step out and join back in whenever I please and then return to seclusion at my whim. I love the feeling of independance I have here, the convenience of everything you could possibly need just down the block, the sound of jackhammers, cars, sirens, buses, trains, heels clicking on sidewalks, the jovial greeting of the doorman named Rocco, the shopping, the food, the festivity of Christmas lights being wrapped around trees outside high rise apartment buildings and so many other things about this place.

I also love the unexpected things you see here if you keep your eyes open and your mouth shut. I saw the sexiest thing on the subway today. New York is prime people watching and the train is the perfect place to catch brief glimpses of people’s lives as they are in between destinations. On a crowded train headed to Soho I looked over to see an attactive man catch the eye of an equally attactive girl sitting across from him. He was standing up, holding on to the handbar near the doors, she was sitting across the aisle from him with a couple of other girls. He caught her eye and smiled at her. She smiled shyly back and looked away quickly. I kept watching them, hidden safely behind an old lady doing the NYTimes crossword. Long black lashes slowly raised to catch his eye again. He grinned and I read his lips as he asked her to “get off at the next stop with me”. That coaxed a less shy, more coy smile from her lips and several more flirtatious glances passed between them. The 6 train stopped, doors opened and they disappeared from sight. I’d like to think that they met on the platform and headed into the night for a drink or a stroll under tonight’s captivating New York moon. That’s what this dreamy romantic girl hopes for them.

I leave tomorrow afternoon so I still have a little more time here. I’ll hang with my friend tomorrow, have lunch somewhere cool and then head for the airport.

Until next time, here’s Frank…