So I badly needed a change of pace from sunny San Diego, and I booked a trip to New York City!
The last time I was here was when I was 17 years old. Things have changed quite a bit over the years!
When I left San Diego, the high was looking to be about 77 that day.
The first day in NYC was the day after a huge blizzard. They called it a “weather bomb” where tons of snow fell in a really short time. The high was about 26 that day!
I didn’t come to New York for the weather. I’ve been wanting to visit this place for over a year. And this was perfect timing to change scenery and do something different, farrrr different from San Diego and my normal routines.
I’m a warm weather person. When I lived in Austin, TX in 2010 and 2014, I quickly adjusted to the hotness, often over 100 degrees for several days in a row.
So NYC is quite a shock to my system!
And not just the weather.
The pace here is so fast. Everyone seems to be in a hurry. Off to work, off to do something. No one is strolling or taking their time.
The horn honking is off the charts. At one point, sitting in my hotel room it sounded like a truck was just laying on it’s horn for about 2 minutes straight.
I guess they don’t realize that if you honk like that, it loses its effectiveness. People just ignore you.
The first night was a Wednesday, and my friend and travel partner Kevin G & I went out on the town in the Times Square/Theater District. The temperature had dropped down to about 24 degrees, so we stayed close by. Pretty brutal with the wind, but the places we went to were only a block or two away.
I’m so impressed with New York so far. See, in San Diego, on a Wednesday night, in perfect weather, at best there will be one bar in town that will have any kind of gathering. If even 3 drops of rain fall from the sky or the temperature is below 60 degrees, even that one bar will be dead.
And these two bars were lively, even though this neighborhood is not known for its night life!
Coming from San Diego, I thought NY was going to be super expensive. For housing, it definitely is. But food, drinks, coffee, it’s not much different.
This city is so much about the “hustle”. It’s a word I dislike. What is hustle? Working hard, grinding it out, moving fast and not stopping to smell the roses!
I don’t think I have much hustle in me.
Or perhaps I think of it differently.
I like work. I like accomplishing things. I like building things. But I don’t think I hustle. I’m too interested in too many things. I actually like balance. I like to get enough sleep, get enough exercise, experience a lot of stuff, and be comfortable.
I believe some people like to purposely make their life difficult. Live in brutal weather. Take on huge challenges just for the sake of accomplishment and maybe bragging rights. Live in a box and pay thousands of dollars in rent every month.
As for me, I’ll take the path of least resistance most of the time. That’s not to say I don’t have goals, plans, and desires to do great things. But life is so short that I want to maximize many areas, not just accomplishment and getting more money.
As Ferris Bueller once said,
“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
I caught up with my cousin Laura yesterday and her Fiance.
So far, the cold weather is still a novelty. It’s supposed to warm a bit for a few days this week.
Time to hit some museums and eat more food.
