New York Redux

I know, I know the posts are getting frighteningly more sporadic now.  I guess after living here for over two and half years, your observations just become...well, less so.

I am getting to re-live some of the energy of a new New Yorker through a good friend who just moved to town.  He is already going through the confusion of learning the subway, and the adjustments that come with your body being your primary mode of transportation.  Of course, to really learn the subway, you have to ride it, which he says he has not done yet.  I believe that will change once he sees the budgetary impact of taking taxis everywhere.

So spring is coming to the City again (not soon enough), and you can feel it on the streets as people flock to cafe tables and wander aimlessly on sidewalks just to get outside. I have always been a lover of winter, but one thing New York will do to you is change that.  I do still love a good snow, but now, I am also a lover of warm weather vacations in February.  In fact, warm weather vacations are now on my list of New York must-haves.  As are good, old fashioned rain boots, which I recently invested $36 in a pair.  Walking to work on this crazy,  crazy rainy day without having to circumnavigate around every corner's puddle makes this purchase long over due. If you are moving here, I suggest you get a pair as soon as you can.

So I promise to become more observant again and post more frequently.  Thanks for sticking with me.

Talking to Yourself

I am talking to myself a lot these days.  Several times walking down the streets of New York, I have recently found myself talking to myself. I usually outline the things I need to get done that day, or I prep for a conversation I need to have that day at work. Whatever the subject, it is definitely a new behavior and it is definitely something I attribute to a walking-centric life in New York.

Don't worry, I am not going crazy like those other people talking to themselves on the street. I keep it to a whisper, and I am not yelling about getting money from people or other nonesuch.  I see it more as the walking equivalent of  singing out loud to your stereo when driving somewhere.

I feel like it is actually a good thing, a way to maximize my time by multi-tasking walking and clearing my head.  When walking these streets as much as I do, I want to maximize that time.  I cannot really whip out the smartphone and get stuff done without running into people (though I do that too), and I am not one to wear an iPod everywhere...so I just end up talking in my head...and at some point, sometimes, out loud.

But softly.  So no one thinks I'm crazy.

V-01-ting

So, how long do you have to live in a city before you can start longing for the "way it used to be"?  Apparently, a little over twenty four months.

Yesterday, the city of New York announced the passing of its old voting machines. I had the odd joy of using these machines in two elections, one to elect Obama and one to re-elect Bloomberg.  The old metal behemoths felt special.  After, all when else do you step into a full sized machine like that?  When you registered your vote by pulling the very large mechanical lever, the machine would heave and whirl like a mystical metallic prop from a Harry Potter movie.  I really felt like I was doing something different than anything other activity  in my life, and I felt like my vote was captured, recorded and counted.

Like nearly every other state, though, New York finally traded heavy metal for silent 0's and 1's, and went to digital voting.  Don't get me started on the fact the new digital voting machines don't print out a confirmation of your vote, or even let you see your vote after it is recorded.  What I will really miss is the uniqueness in the experience of the metal voting machines.  They showed me that voting was special.  Now, with the digital machines, voting is more like making an ATM withdrawal or rating an online video.

Needless to say, I will continue to vote.  I will have to trust that my votes are going to be captured, recorded, and counted with these new machines. Nonetheless, I will miss my short romance with New York's mechanical voting booths.  Glad I got here before they became the equivalent of a 1998 Ford Explorer in the government clunker program.