It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood.....

My son's acting intensive started yesterday, and until we actually move their in July, he must commute.  Rather than have him take the train, I decided to drive him.  I had wanted to spend some time checking out the neighborhood where we will be staying in July, so I wouldn't feel so "lost" upon arrival. Some early observations of note:  this city is noisy and this city is crowded.

After sitting on a park bench near where our apartment is located for some quiet time to reflect on the upcoming trip, I realized that the possibility of ever finding quiet time in New York was zero. New York is a very noisy place. I come from a small rural town.  The only sounds of annoyance on any given day, are the birds who loudly gossip with each other at 4 a.m. in the morning outside my bedroom window.  On one recent day, so annoyed with them for not allowing me to "sleep in", I threatened, albeit sarcastically, that I was going to "take them all out".  After spending the day in New York, however, I have a suspicion that noisy birds will be the least of my problems.  Even more apparent, is the fact that if I even so much as utter the words "take them all out", I will not be spending my days in my quaint rented apartment in the upper west side, but instead in a cold, dank, barren jail cell at the nearest police station.  I will admit that the same fate I wanted to bestow on my birds, crossed my mind with respect to the dreaded "horn blowers" yesterday.  On more than a few occasions, I wanted to march myself to the center of the traffic and in my very own Norma Rae moment, wanted to jump on a car and shout "Do the people you are actually beeping at, do what you want them to do once you blow your loud annoying horn at them because REALLY PEOPLE, blowing your horn at someone isn't the proper way to ask anyone for anything"!!!!!  Freedom of speech in this country, yes, freedom to blow your horn at someone who didn't move their car up two feet in stopped traffic, NO!  Keeping quiet in the city is going to take everything I have in me.  :-)  I have to keep in mind that my family only has so much money to bail me out of any given situation.

As I previously stated, New York is a very crowded city, no matter what part of Manhattan you are in and the people here move quickly and with a sense of purpose. I also noticed that New Yorkers walk with  military style precision: eyes forward, arms down, moderately quick pace. It becomes obvious after watching them though, that even though they walk with such precision and purpose, that for the most part, they have no immediate place to be.  They walk this way strictly as a means to survive the crowded sidewalks; survival of the fittest at its best.  The crowded city life will prove to be a problem for me only because I don't like being in congested situations.  For a number of reasons, I find them to be especially unsettling.  For starters, I always feel that I have to keep moving while in them.  I am somewhat vertically challenged (OK, seriously vertically challenged) and I always feel that if I stand around in a crowd for any length of time, some tall person will decide my head will make for the perfect armrest.  Don't laugh, it has happened before.  :-/  It is the fact that I live with this mentality, that adapting to this particular way of New York life shouldn't be a problem for me. Nope, I can move with the best  of them. Truthfully, it's the horn blowers I'm most concerned about.  :-)