Four Days! and I Heart NY

I witnessed a classic New York moment last weekend while waiting for the 4 train to take me from Brooklyn to the East Village. I was standing on the platform, headphones on, mind all over the place, when another train pulled in across the tracks. Through the window of the closed train door, I spotted a haggard, crusty, crazed looking older man. I couldn't have really missed him - he was beating his hands up against the the glass, head cocked awkwardly toward the ceiling, mouth howling away. That sight entertained me for a few seconds; then my eyes scanned the other passengers in the car. Most were plugged into a book or an ipod, determined not to let the crazy crazy distract them. But then of course (of course!) there was the mustached white 50 something guy, who stared at the howling, beating presence with the kind of distaste and confusion reserved for mustached white 50 something guys. It was great.

It was a brief observation, but it made me happy for the duration of my own train ride, and has stuck with me this week. It wasn't exactly a profound moment of any kind, but it was the kind of moment that encompasses what I adore about this city. People walk down the street like people in smaller cities drive around in their cars, but it's all public. And nobody that's lived here long enough to get comfortable has a problem with that. Fights, tears, conversations with mothers about inappropriate subjects - it's all right there for anyone to see and hear. It's so real. The mustached guy's reaction to the crazy. So genuine and untouched.

I am in love with my city this week. Madly in love. It is an imperfect perfection of a place. Its every flaw delights me.

This Saturday, at 10:10 PM, I will be looking at my city from the window of the plane that is taking me to Buenos Aires, another city stuffed with people. They will just be speaking the Spanish, and I'll have to guess (at least for the first week, four weeks?) what they are saying. If I can make it in New York...right?

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Are you SO excited?! That is the question I am getting from everyone this week, and I have to say, of all the emotions I am feeling right now, excited is not in the top five. I feel like a much calmer, cooler, and collected version of my 18 year old self being dropped off at Indiana. I was mortified of the complete unknown then, as I am now. There are moments when the reality of what I am doing in four days hits me, and my stomach plumets, and I think, WHAT AM I DOING?? But my older self knows that I'll be fine, and that when my plane lands, excited is going to have moved to the top of the emotions list.

My delightful boss tells me that I'm going to come crawling back, and that I'm making the worst decision of my life. But he says it with his characteristic smirk on his face, so I know he knows what I know - it's going to be amazing.

In the meantime, I have four days! Two days more of work (wheeeeee!) and two days of play (wheeeeeee!). I am making lists in my sleep, frantically trying to finish a knitting project for a certain lovely couple, going crazy with last-minute projects at work, reading the history of Argentina (did you know the name Argentina comes from the Latin word for silver?), and having going away parties at all other times. Good thing I don't have to worry about learning Spanish!