Take Two

So yesterday, I was in New York City and around 1:00 PM I was presented with a couple of choices: a) I could get tickets to a Broadway show, have a nice dinner, stay in my very expensive hotel room and catch a flight home Saturday or b) rent a car, drive 500+ miles, eat at a Burger King somewhere in Pennsylvania, and sleep in my own bed.

I chose B.

I don’t know whether I’m traveled out or New Yorked (if that’s a word) out or what ever but the idea of heading to my house held fantastic allure.  Given the opportunity to choose again, I would still come home.  There is nothing like your own bed, seeing your family, and waking up to make coffee in your own kitchen.  I can sit at the desk in my office and type this post on a reliable internet connection.  Side note- you’d think you could get a good signal on a Verizon Air Card in New York City.  You’d think wrong.  Anyway, I kissed my wife as she left this morning and talked about college with Becky.  These are things New York doesn’t offer.  They are well worth an eight hour drive.

I’m glad to be home sweet home.

Image via Wikipedia

Excellent article today from the New York Times on people who move to the city and are either assimilated or broken.  As readers of this blog know, I do a significant amount of time in New York from my first trip last year to the most recent one a couple weeks ago, I have visited the city 13 times in the last eighteen months.  Side note- I’m going to be back there on September 8-10 and have already made great restaurant reservations.

The story notes that with each subject, there was a moment when they discovered that New York either was or wasn’t for them.  For most, it was when they discovered they had “gone native” for lack of a better term.  For me, that moment was in November (which was my sixth or seventh trip).  I noticed that I didn’t need the subway map, wasn’t worried about hailing a cab, and could give directions to tourists.  I also noted that my pace went up, my manner went down, and I needed to chill a little when I got back to the great middle west.  If you’ve every gone to New York, you will agree that it operates on a completely different tempo from any other city.  Like my former pastor Scotty Teets says, I love it and hate it at the same time.  I can’t wait to leave and can’t wait to get back.  Yep, that pretty much sums it up.

If it’s possible to be a mid-western New Yorker, that would be me.