Tag: #NYC

  • ODDS and ENDS: William Holden Essay, Ted Lasso Season 2, and House in the Country

    “ODDS and ENDS” is my continuing series of random thoughts and follow ups…

    This morning when I was sitting in the car waiting for the street sweeper (No, this is not about parking in NYC) I read this really good essay in today’s NYTimes. It is called, “The Many Deaths of William Taught Me How To Be Anxious,” by Alexander Aciman. It made me laugh out loud, and I could identify with trying to raise a kid, and make her aware of the dangers around her, without trying to scare her. What it also reminded me of was, towards the end of summer, a particular awful thunderstorm rolled through the City. Hell, it might have been the one that caused all the flooding. Anyway, in the morning, I was walking the kid to the local park, and as we passed a row of trees, I heard this great crunching and crashing sound. I grabbed the kid’s hand, and we took off running, and what collapsed behind us was a huge tree branch, that I am sure if it landed on us would have caused serious injuries. I tried to explain the danger to the kid, but she just thought it was fun. So, I understand creating an avatar of many deaths.

    I have started watching Ted Lasso, Season 2. It started out uneven, but seems to have righted itself. I mean, nothing can be as magical as that first season, but I am enjoying the characters and what conflict and growth can be brought to them. I was supposed to wait for my wife, but I know full well I will watch it all over again. It’s like watching a Marvel Movie; each episode is packed full of little details that are fun to discover.

    I have set a few goals for myself. Some I have achieved, others I’m still a million miles from. Yesterday, I said one out loud, and I think I mean it. I want to buy an old farm house, in upstate New York. And I mean, like a real old farm house; three bedrooms, one bath, and a root cellar – that kind of thing. It’s the first time in three years that I said that I want to leave New York City. I mean, it has to be good for the kid, as there is no point in moving to the middle of the woods if the schools suck and she has no friends. But, I have no idea how to achieve this, but I don’t see why that’s a barrier.

  • ODDS and ENDS: The Subway, Aaron Rodgers, and I’m Not Talking About Tottenham This Week

    “ODDS and ENDS” is my continuing series of random thoughts and follow ups…

    Riding on the subway sucks right now. I keep on thinking that I am going to get comfortable with it, but it still makes me anxious. Though I am vaccinated, I still don’t like people getting near me when I am in a car. And I especially don’t like unmasked people being around me. Then, the kappa donna is when I ride with the kid. I become super edgy with people, and try to get as far away from them as possible, in an attempt to keep my kid safe. I know that when she gets vaccinated, which will be soon, some of these feelings will ease up. But as of now, it’s like a necessary evil to get around the city.

    So… Aaron Rodgers was having so much fun because he was fooling everyone. Or he was all hyped up on B-12 shots. Either way, nice try Rodgers…

    Tottenham has a new manager, and barely got past Vitesse in their Europa Conference match. Sure, it was Conte’s first time leading the team, but looks like they have the same old problems that a manager can’t change. Spur’s defense is awful, and that’s where the fix needs to happen. I think between Lucas, Son and Kane, goal scoring is taking care of. They just need to stop the other side, and get the ball back on transition. (I sort of sound like I know what I am talking about.) Tottenham play Everton this weekend, and I don’t see them pulling it off. But… I’ll be there with my scarf on, watching them play.

  • ODDs and ENDS: Other Guy’s Parking Problems, Tom Brady, and Tired

    “ODDS and ENDS” is my continuing series of random thoughts and follow ups…

    I know I bitch about parking in the City often, and maybe I complain too much, but today I watched another guy flip out over parking. I mean, yelling and screaming. He lost his original spot because he refused to get out of the way of the sweeper, and when he did get out of the way, someone took his spot. Now, the guy who lost his spot was able to get a new one, because people, myself included, packed our cars pretty tight making a space for him. I thought this was one of those Magical New Yok moments where people from all walks of life work together to help someone out. But no… The guy, in his new spot, still bitched and moaned and yelled at all of us… Go, New York!

    I expected more from Tom Brady. I only got 21.98 points off him last night. Thanks a lot, GOAT.

    And I’m tired. I think I have been saying this I was 16, and when I think about it, 16-year-old me really wasn’t tired, I just enjoyed naps. I don’t remember when the last time was when I didn’t feel tired. And I started thinking that it has gone on for so long that there is no way to catch up and not feel tired. Like, there is no amount of sleep, or meditation, or relaxation that will exorcize this feeling from me. And I thought I was tired before I had a kid.

  • The Weekday Morning New York

    I do the grocery shopping for my family. I sort of like it. And when I say sort of, it is a taxing errand that has to be accomplished each week. Carrying two heavy grocery bags from the Upper West Side Trader Joe’s to Harlem isn’t the easiest, even with using the subway. My shoulders and elbows hurt. The part I do like is the time to myself, and I get to listen to my music. Little silver linings but necessary ones.

    As a stay at home parent, I do all of this after I drop the kid off at school. As I observed, I am one of the younger people at the Trader Joe’s. Sure, there are some young creative professionals there, as well as the kids who work at night, but really, the store is full of retired people. I would also say that this group covers a gamut of ages too; newly retired 65’s to one guy who had a WWII Navy Veteran ballcap on which lead me to believe that he was 90+.

    And now that the world is sort of getting back to normal, and I’m beginning to relax into this new life style, I am beginning to see the different people who occupy the same space in the City, but at different times. I had worked, pretty much, a 9 to 5 existence at my day job for ten years, so that was the New York City I encountered; Professional people commuting, eating, and commuting again, Monday through Friday. My Trader Joe experience used to be with other professionals shopping on their way home from work. Now I’m with people who don’t work. Same city, but different world.

  • Your Level of Bullshit

    If you ask most people, they will tell you that they don’t put up with people’s bullshit, or that they have a “Bullshit Detector,” or my favorite which is that they are a bullshitter and one cannot bullshit them. These are all lies because people put up with bullshit all the time, especially from our friends and family. Probably because we love those people, and we just deal with their little lies.

    So let’s just call it what it is; we accept other people’s bullshit all the time. No one exists in the world who calls everyone out on everything. That person is not real.

    But we all do have a threshold. A line, once we get pushed over it, we start to fight back.

    I was told when I first moved to NYC that I would have a moment that I would yell, “Go Fuck Yourself,” to a person for either a minor or great indiscretion caused upon me. And that was true. I yelled at a guy in his car who almost ran me over in a crosswalk in Midtown.

    But today, I crossed a new threshold, and I thanked the pandemic for it. My tolerance for bullshit is lower, but I no longer feel the violent reaction to scream and yell at people.

    See, I was on an uptown local, coming back from grocery shopping. I had got on train at 96th heading to 125th, and there was a homeless person on the train, which is common and I don’t have an issue with that. But when the train started moving uptown, the person decided that this was a good time to start urinating from their seat.

    Yup, done here.

    I didn’t make a scene, just got off at the next stop and awaited for the next train.

    Now, you might say, of course you did that as that is a right normal thing to do. But I retort with that I was the only person who got off that half full car. Just me, everyone else put up with it. That was my line, and I guess it wasn’t the same for everybody else. I guess to them, that’s normal.