New York Summer

Thank God for air conditioning. It is brutally hot. But I am making the most of it! I’m sitting here in my easy chair, watching the news at 10PM on a Saturday night. It’s cooled down from 95 degrees to a lovely 80. Tomorrow will be another great day to catch some rays on the Gershwin second floor deck and get caught up on biz magazines. The indoor pool and gym area is located just off the deck, so when the heat becomes unbearable, I step inside to swim my laps or just take a dip. This is one thing about the east coast that I did miss in Seattle - hot summers and swimming pools!

Watching the news is like watching “Third Watch” or “NYPD Blue.” The police commissioner is a regular speaker on the local news – I could easily recognize him if I ever passed him on the street. When I lived in Puget Sound, I used to tell family and friends, “There is no crime here.” The whole time I lived there I don’t think I ever knew the police commissioner’s name. There were rarely any murders or armed robberies or shooting deaths in Seattle.

But here in NY, violent crime is a daily occurrence. There’s a lot of dying going on. I’m just not used to it. This week the news reported the third different instance this year of a toddler falling out of a second story window at home. A hospital maintenance worker sexually assaulted a 60-year-old woman in her hospital bed after brain surgery. A generous, loving grandmother was shot in the head in her kitchen - but the police have no leads. There’s a serial rapist terrorizing women in Chelsea. Three young boys suffocated in a bizarre accidental death in Camden, NJ, this week, and a 9-year-old girl shot and killed her 11-year-old friend after a fight over a ball not long ago.

I don’t know how much money they are paying NY’s finest, but it can’t possibly be enough, even with the pay raise they are due to get in the near future, thanks to the mayor.

New York is very community-oriented. People who live here truly care about their community – including Mayor Bloomberg. The mayor’s voice is frequently heard, and his face is as recognizable as President Bush’s. He is always in the news – doing what he can to keep this busy city of 9 million people running smoothly. Even Donald Trump has tremendous influence in the community here. It was he who finally came forward and candidly announced we should rebuild the World Trade Towers just like they were before and forget this silly Freedom Tower idea. Just put it back the way it was, the Donald suggested. There is no doubt in my mind that most New Yorkers agree with this philosophy of his. I know how people here think. 9/11 still weighs heavy on many minds.

New Yorkers are very real people. They are passionate, intense, funny, proud, and honest. I'll tell you what - when I got my hair all chopped off, not one single friend or doorman I know hesitated to tell me they didn't like it! At least they told me the truth - (which explains why I am suffering through this horrible growing-out phase for the first time since I was in the 6th grade. I have learned that my hair doesn't grow down, it grows out). I have met very few unfriendly New Yorkers - none that I can even recall. Even my current favorite author, Augusten Burroughs, lives here in the City.

In Seattle, people kept to themselves. I never felt a sense of “community” in the seven years I lived there, with the possible exception of my last few months living in Valley Green when I had wonderful neighbors who quickly became my closest friends. In fact, I’m not even sure if the city I lived in - Bellevue - has a mayor, much less what his or her name might be. I remember Governor Locke, but that’s about it.

New York is the greatest city in the world. Just yesterday while standing on a subway platform, I momentarily felt like I was living in a dream. I was looking across the tracks at a stopped train, sort of in a daze after a hectic work week. The New York City seal painted on the outside of one of the silver cars caught my eye. For a split second I thought, “Am I really living in New York city?!” I had to pinch myself. It’s true. It’s an experience I’ll never forget.

By the way, the reason I was standing at the 2/3 track was because the 1 train car I'd boarded to go home from the client’s site didn’t have any air on it. So I had jumped off at 14th Street to catch the express to 42nd where I could jump back onto the next 1 or 9 train for the last 8 blocks. Funny thing is, at 42nd Street the train I jumped on also didn’t have any A/C. "No way," I thought. I took a look around and sure enough, it was the same car on the same train I had transferred from.

Talk about a full day today! I caught some rays, swam 50 laps, vacuumed and cleaned the apartment, did a load of laundry, got kitty litter and supplies for our Virginia trip, talked to my parents, did my shopping at K-Mart, worked 5 hours, and got some things packed for my big vacation next month.

That’s it for now. Off to continue setting up my new tablet PC for my work…. Gad, it's another Toshiba. Let's see how long the system board lasts on this one. God help me.