100th Post

So...here we are at the 100th post. I can't believe it has been a year since this adventure started. Feels like only a few weeks. I have been procrastinating in writing this one, mostly because most bloggers I know seem to be able to whip up something creative and inspiring for their 100th post. Lately any creative and inspiring energy I might have has gone toward...well, sleeping. And baby growing, to be fair. I have decided that my relationship with New York is complicated. I can't list 100 good things or 100 fun things or 100 bad things. So it is going to be simply:
100 THINGS about New York
1. It feels like the center of the world.
2. When you walk into Trader Joe's you have to get immediately in line to check out, and shop while the line snakes around the store.
3. Broadway shows, as a genre, are an incredible thing to see.
4. Mice and rats here don't seem to be at all intimidated by humans.
5. When there are puddles on the sidewalk on a non-precipitating day, do not, under any circumstances set foot in them. Trust me on this. Think about it--at best someone just spilled their drink. At worst...well, we won't go there.
6. Dogs here are, on the whole, better socialized and happier than dogs in the suburbs. I am really surprised by this, but I believe it to be true.
7. Being surrounded by diversity lifts me up. I feel more comfortable than I ever have in interacting with people from different countries, different backgrounds, different classes.
8. It is absolutely worth it to take a taxi when you are late, it is raining or you have too much to carry.
9. Although it is an incredibly expensive place to live, there are loads of free and inexpensive things to do here.
10. Don't try to do touristy things on a holiday or a weekend.
11. The Statue of Liberty makes me cry. So does seeing the Manhattan skyline from a distance when we are returning from being away. Not sure why this is.
12. Rent prices range from a couple hundred dollars a month to upwards of $30,000 a month. Seriously. The range (even among people I know personally) is shocking. It seems grossly, categorically, universally unfair. But it is also this range, this diversity, that creates this place, so I can't really say that it should be otherwise.
13. Don't take backpacks to a Yankees game.
14. Amazing Place #1: Central Park.
15. It is loud here. Every day I hear sirens, screeching brakes, honking horns, people shouting.
16. The richness of the 4 seasons here is nice. It gets very cold in the winter, very hot in the summer. It leaves you satisfied that you have lived that season and longing for the next one in line. There is something really wonderful about that.
17. I don't mind not owning a car and enjoy using subways.
18. It feels like this place would be full of germs...but our family thus far seems to have been healthier this year than we were in Oregon.
19. The hot dogs from the street vendors are a really good way to keep kids on the go all day.
20. It is hard to find a decent bathroom here.
21. Amazing Place #2: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
22. China Town has the most interesting markets I have ever seen. I don't recognize much of the produce or the seafood. We have had dim sum and pho here and need to explore it more thoroughly, but it feels like being in a foreign country.
23. Ice skating in NYC is very fun. Strange to be surrounded by such tall buildings while skating but it is so festive.
24. Now that we have New York on the brain it feels like we see references to NY everywhere we look...in magazines, books, on packages...just everywhere.
25. Amazing Place #3: The American Museum of Natural History
26. Ground Zero is mind boggling.
27. The subways here are so dirty. Now that I can compare them to Washington D.C.--the NYC system is busy and efficient and easy to navigate but ridiculously filthy.
28. I like and appreciate the NY mentality many people here seem to possess--they say it like it is and it never leaves you guessing about what they are thinking. Kind of refreshing after the somewhat co-dependent NW, where people are much more concerned about hurting your feelings than saying what they really feel.
29. Amazing Place #4: The MOMA
30. Hmmm, I feel so lucky to have been in Amazing Places #1 - #4 all within the past week...and this was even during a week when we were out of town for much of it.
31. It really feels good to downsize. We just got rid of some more piles. Our place is getting more liveable, and truly we don't miss anything that has gone out the door.
32. The taxis are all starting to accept credit cards. Funny thing, the drivers don't want to use them so they pretend their credit card swipers are broken.
33. There is a post office here that is open 24 hours a day, every day of the year.
34. The piles of garbage that are generated from crowded apartment buildings is truly scary.
35. I think if you go to inexpensive places it is the same price to eat out or go to grocery stores here.
36. The educational and professional backgrounds of some of our friends are ummm, enough to make one feel inadequate--I asked a friend the other day why she gets the Journal of American Medicine. Turns out she is a doctor. From John Hopkins University. And she taught statistics at Columbia University. Wow. Never would have known.
37. Likewise the travel and language backgrounds. We are in the minority of those who really only speak one language. Many of our friends kids have tutors to teach them Spanish or Japanese or French. Even our doorman--his 3 year old speaks 3 or 4 languages.
38. There is something about being a part of NY that makes you feel like the world is small and manageable and yours for the taking.
39. Always a flip side...there is something about NY that makes you feel also small and not very significant.
40. So, both of these together...summed up by Rumi, I believe? "You are nothing but a grain of sand...and the whole world was created for you." I like the symmetry of this.
41. A lot of people come through NY...Can't believe how many visitors we have had the past year!
42. For how cold it is outside, you wouldn't believe how hot our apartment gets.
43. People are pretty patient here about crowded, ridiculously small stores...but every once in a while you can enjoy the guilty pleasure of watching someone else lose it. It is usually quite validating, as whenever it happens I also found myself with the urge to yell out or push someone or get mad that they "cut" in line when the rest of us were suffering through our wait to our turn. The deli counter in a grocery store is a good place for this to happen.
44. I can't believe how much I paid for a tiny box of chocolates last week in SOHO. They had silkscreened art work on the front and were delish, but still...
45. The stonework on old buildings--I love it.
46. We got a memo about bedbugs in our apartment building. Keep your fingers crossed that they don't find their way to us. Apparently they are a real problem all over the city right now.
47. Matzo ball soup
48. Bagels
49. Did you know that Bono has an apartment on our street? In a building that also houses Steve Martin, Demi Moore and Steven Spielberg? Granted Central Park West at 109th Street is very different from Central Park West at 74th Street...But still, that is a trip.
50. It feels much safer here than I ever imagined that it would.
51. You really feel like you fit in better if you have foxy boots here. I don't have mine yet, but will be working on it soon.
52. FAO Schwarz has a rad ice cream shop in the basement.
53. We tried organic dry cleaning. We really did. But things came back with spots they didn't have when they were dropped off. I am going to give it another try with my suit. But I don't have my hopes up.
54. The Garment District. Way cool, but intimidating for a non sewer such as myself. Met people shopping for fabric to make costumes for Broadway shows and window designers for Ralph Lauren. Spent a lot of money on fabric for Maya's little projects...probably would have been better off with JOAnne Fabrics, but this way was funner.
55. I love how there are little districts for everything here--like Diamonds, beads, theaters, restaurants, whatever...you walk down a street or two where everything on that street is the same type of shop. It is so cool.
56. Street musicians and dancers are a lot of fun to watch. Especially the guys who break dance on the moving subways.
57. Real Estate in the rest of the country is going down, how come here it keeps going up?
58. The NYPD people are way cool. I love seeing them just standing around--in subways, in parks, on the street. Have discovered that they are a good source of info.--like if you need to find a bakery in some neighborhood you don't know, the cops tend to know the area inside and out and can point you in the right direction. I used to think of cops as something to avoid so you wouldn't get a speeding ticket. Here they make me feel safe, they are friendly and cool. Plus they have safety fairs with free hot dogs and potato chips sometimes. And coloring books that my kids, inexplicably love.
59. Turtles in the Central Park ponds.
60. The universities here--Columbia, NYU, Barnard, the Pratt Institute, Fashion Institute--I love walking around them. The usual university-ness is there, world class staff, programs etc. But it is all jacked up because they are surrounded by this incredible city. We do chorus on the NYU campus and have playgroup in the summer at Columbia.
61. While commuting, even while only a few inches from other people, you are under no obligation to chit chat. In fact, most New Yorkers prefer that you don't. But it is nice...it is like you have an invisible space shield around you and for the duration of the subway ride or walk you are in your own space.
62. The strollers here are so high tech. I may be a stroller mom this time around.
63. Kind of like having laundry in the basement--can get several loads done at one time. The quarter thing, though, has got to go.
64. Macy's
65. The sound of ambulances at night was really unnerving at first. But I don't really hear them anymore.
66. Maya recently looked up the biggest cities in the world for a school project. While you can tally it many different ways, New York is way up there. The list we printed says that in 2005, New York is #2 in size, after Tokyo, with 17.8 million people. Tokyo, incidentally is in first place by a long shot, with 33.2 million people. The next 4 after New York (Sao Paulo, Seoul, Mexico City, Osaka) are very close in size, which is why in some estimates the order changes.
67. Fireflies in Central Park
68. The playgrounds here are great.
69. It is an incredible place to homeschool. Our calendar is so full of activities it is overwhelming.
70. The construction site at Ground Zero is sobering. Especially the view from Brett's office on the 33rd floor.
71. Construction here seems to take a REALLY long time to get finished.
72. There are Starbucks everywhere. Macy's has 4 of them in one store.
73. Amazing Place #5: Grand Central Station
74. Amazing Place #6: 5th Avenue
75. If you have kids, FAO Schwarz and American Girl Doll Place should definitely be on your itinerary.
76. Driving here is like playing a video game. I really like it, as long as I am not in a hurry or there are impatient little people in the back seat. It feels safer to drive more aggressively. If you don't, you get honked at or stuck while everyone else streams past you.
77. The going work mentality here is definitely toward the work-a-holic end of the scale.
78. The libraries here are big and full of all kinds of things you don't find in normal libraries--books in other languages, graphic novels, specialized research materials etc. But strangely, for what I use them for mostly (homeschooling materials), I could find more things on my list in our little suburban Wilsonville library.
79. There are lots of bad smells on the streets.
80. It is an enigma how so many people can be so impeccably dressed and come out of these old, dirty buildings and subways and clouds of exhaust. Perhaps my perspective is skewed, but the infrastructure seems at odds with the glossy image this city is capable of projecting, on many fronts.
81. Amazing Place #7: The Cloisters
82. Great bridges all around us.
83. Fall is gorgeous here.
84. I see why people say "out of the city". You are either IN the city or OUT of the city. It is not an accident that they don't say "out of town". It is different. Great to be here, great to take breaks every once in a while.
85. My ability and willingness to trust my instincts has greatly improved since being here. There is a definite need to be on your guard--some of those people on the street are crazy, and it is not worth it to doubt yourself or second guess when you run into run of them.
86. Coffee out here is excellent.
87. Carriage rides in Central Park: Overrated
88. Amazing Place #8: Ellis Island
89. Having groceries delivered is way, way superior to shopping with 3 children in a NYC grocery store.
90. Festivals/Streetfairs etc.: I would way rather do these in places that don't have 18 million people from which to draw participants.
91. Being able to do errands while out and about without a car is addictive.
92. Tall buildings make amazing wind tunnels. Not good when it is cold out.
93. Pinkberry
94. Love finding great throw aways on the street--it is pain to get rid of things here, so they are frequently left on the sidewalk for the garbage collection. We found a great Pottery Barn-esque chalkboard once and another time a bunch of brand new board games.
95. Loft apartments. We have one friend with a trapeze in their loft.
96. Changing a baby's diaper in NY is pretty dismal. Hard enough to find bathrooms...to find a place with a changing table is not common, and having to do it on the floor is nasty.
97. They stay "on line" instead of "in line". And when it is your turn they say "step down"
98. What the hell are all those round, black spots on the sidewalks?
99. I just found out that you are supposed to wash all your cans, boxes, bottles etc. after you go shopping--just in case there were rats or roaches crawling over things in the grocery store.
100. I am so very grateful that we have had the opportunity to call this city home for a while.

Stay tuned for the next 20...