There Is A Time For Us To Wander

It's possible that I'm becoming jaded to the never-ending supply of zaniness that New York always seems eager to offer. Last week, for example, I decided to enjoy the (rare. Oh, so very rare) nice weather that day and have a long walk. As I passed Union Square, it was crammed with people (Hundreds? Thousands?) armed with pillows. They waved them joyfully in the air preparing for what I discovered is the annual Union Square pillow fight. I did pause to take a picture, so I'm not a hopeless case. But I have to admit, I was barely even bemused. Eventually in New York you just kind of say "Well, ok. Why not?" to pretty much everything.

On that walk I ended up at the fanciest bookstore I have ever been in. So fancy, in fact, that I couldn't imagine buying any books there. They seemed to mainly sell gardening, decorating, and art books.

I went to Barnes and Noble on the way back to buy a couple of magazines. Very bourgeois of me. Fortunately I'm not a cultural Marxist (there's my education at work!).

On Saturday I got to see an AMAZING production of Company at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall, with a super star-studded cast. Neil Patrick Harris, Stephen Colbert, Patti LuPone, Christina Hendricks, etc etc. The ticket was a birthday present from my mom, and I had an incredible time. I loved the whole show, though the one who really blew it out of the water was Patti LuPone singing "Ladies Who Lunch." The biggest laugh probably went to Christina Hendricks, voicing the indifference of New York that I was talking about earlier. Describing her roommate, she matter-of-factly said, "He was born in New York, so nothing interests him."

I don't actually think I'm done being dazzled by the city, I think I'm just sulking with it because Spring refuses to arrive. Weeks of cold, one nice day, a week of rain, and then the cycle repeats. It's done it at least four times since I got back. I keep reminding myself that when I got here in September there were warm sunny days that were a joy to be out in, and that this is not the miserable weather capital of America. But I am impatient for the transition. It's got to be soon, right?