Bex in the City

The good with the bad.  The ups with the downs. The ins with the outs.  The slightest inconvenience has now become my daily “absolute nightmare”.  It’s a world of first world problems, where I miss the 8:02 and have to wait FOUR MINUTES for the 8:06.  The struggle is real.

I find myself being irritated with everyone who is not me, even when I AM those people half the time.  If I’m in a cab: “Pedestrians! Get out of the way!” If I’m on the street: “Cab driver!  Watch it!” I haven’t quite figured out if I’m playing against myself or the city in this game, but either way, I can’t win.

And now, let’s play the reverse match game:

Inconvenient: It’s 8:02 (or 8:06) on a Monday morning and I’m entering into a subway car that is the size of my bedroom but is holding the same amount of people as the entire cast of Hamilton, and it looks/smells like one of them has had Mexican for breakfast.  Once the solo artist pulls his keyboard onto the train as well, I’m so packed in that I can’t reach anything to hold on to.
Convenient: Look ma, no hands! No need for a core workout at the gym today, I just ride the express train with nothing to hold on to, in a vigorous battle for body stability.

Convenient: I’m running late for dinner and I’ve forgotten to bring flip flops to change into for the trek down to FiDi. (That’s Financial District to you small towners ;)) But wait, there’s cabs everywhere, and as long as it isn’t raining, they are pretty easy to flag down.
Inconvenient: Everyone else also seems to have forgotten their flats, every day, and now I could have likely walked faster.

Convenient:  IKEA! It’s here, in all its glory.
Inconvenient: Taking the 1 to South Ferry.  Walking to the pier. Taking the ferry to the IKEA dock.  Walking from the ferry dock to IKEA. Shopping! Fitting all your stuff into the blue bags. Walking back to the ferry.  Taking the ferry back to Manhattan. Schelping with your bags all the way back to the South Ferry stop. Taking the 1 all the way to the UWS. Enduring the dirty looks if you are traveling during rush hour and your bags are taking up subway train real estate.  Getting home. Putting the furniture together. Realizing you purchased the wrong light bulb to the IKEA-bulb-only lamp.  Going back again. Basically everything other than its existence.

Convenient: Being able to order a dozen cookies at 2 am. I am neither confirming nor denying whether this has happened.
Inconvenient: Being able to order a dozen cookies at 2am.  Not even the most vigorous of subway-ride core workouts can combat a dozen cookies.

Convenient: Having air conditioning.
Inconvenient: Other people having air conditioning. An air conditioner dripped on me for the first time the other day. I was relieved that it was only an air conditioner.  And then disturbed that I was relieved. It’s a merry mix of emotions around here.

Convenient: Not having a car or driving to work and having to deal with traffic, pay for gas, etc.
Inconvenient: Not having a car to store my various bags of stuff.  Gym bag, lunch bag, computer bag, after-work activity bag… I tell you, I’ve never missed a backseat so much in my life. Having to haul anything I might need across the city is getting old real quick.

Convenient: The express train!
Inconvenient: When you forget you are on the express train, watch your stop fly by as you reach out longingly and hope THIS will be the one time the express train stops at a local stop….. but it never does and you have to back track four stops.

Convenient: When it rains and pushes out the stifling humidity from the city a bit.
Inconvenient: When it rains and you didn’t know it was going to rain and you’ve forgotten an umbrella and you are wearing white.

Convenient: Restaurants that only take reservations.
Inconvenient: Restaurants that only take reservations.

Convenient: The humidity, and what it does for my skin.
Inconvenient: The humidity and what it does for everything else. I’m fully convinced that my body is no longer 70% water.  I think it’s down to a dangerous 50% because I simply can’t drink enough water to make up for the water I’m losing. Everything gets sticky; your entire body just feels swollen.  My jeans feel like they are going to burst around my calves.  And it’s not because I’ve been really working my calves on the stair step.  Only cold foods sounds appetizing, and there are only so many times you can have ice cream for dinner. No matter how breathable you think your clothes are, they Aren’t. Breathable. Enough.

I can’t count how many days I have commuted home from work on the subway, hauling all my bags while trying to maintain some sort of fashionable dignity, nearly drowning in my own sweat (and likely the sweat of others) and ignoring my fellow commuters like a true New Yorker.  I get off the train with all my bags and trudge Oliver Twist/vonTrapp children-style, single file, not speaking to anyone else, up the stairs to the city street.

It’s still hot. It’s still humid. It still smells like curry. But more often than not, I still find myself content.  And probably smiling that half-crazy Cheshire cat smile again. New York might be the most conveniently inconvenient city in the world, but I can’t help but to love it; it’s just the way it makes me feel.  I’m pretty sure it’s the same feeling that Justin Timberlake’s got. Inside his bones. So New York, you’ve still got me.  Inconveniences and all, I’ll continue to try really hard not to run up the subway stairs, spin around and throw up my hat, circa Mary Tyler Moore…. But I promise nothing.

XOXO