I’ve had at least one friend from out of town tell me after a NYC visit that she could never live here because we walk too much here in the city. Admittedly I do tend to drag visitors on long walks — I firmly believe you get to know and orient yourself in a city best when you’ve seen it on foot — but she wasn’t wrong that there’s a fair amount of walking as part of normal NYC life. The subway is great, but you have to get there to use it. But if you focus on tourist-centered walking or utilitarian daily travel, you miss out on one of the greatest joys of NYC walking: wandering.
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I’ve been meaning to see Matilda on Broadway for ages, but I only got around to it a few weeks ago. It was a no-brainer that I’d see it eventually. I loved the book as a kid – what book-loving kid didn’t love Matilda and all her books, not to mention her telekinetic powers? But while I’d heard it was a fun, I didn’t have an urgent need to see it, and I figured it’d run long enough that I’d get around to it.
I was talking about theater versus television and movies the other day with coworkers and I mentioned that while I usually want my movies and TV shows (and books!) to be fun and relaxing, I don’t mind it if the theater productions I see are more challenging. I joked that it’s because I usually live with a book or a show for longer than the two or three hours it takes to see a show, but there’s another reason. I mostly consume books, TV shows, and movies alone, but I almost always go to the theater with friends. When you see something that challenges you, it helps to have someone to process it with. On Saturday I went to see the new musical Allegiance alone, but I had already talked about it with a number of people and was meeting a friend who’d already seen it for drinks afterward.
Hello friends! Happy New Year! I’ve been a bit quiet over the last few weeks — the holidays were very busy and I’ve been getting back into the swing of things at work. I hope to get back to a regular posting schedule soon! Between a visit from my best friend (during which we saw three shows and went to some museums) and more theater coming up this week, I will definitely have some things to write about. But we’re also descending into colder weather here in NYC, which makes me even more of a homebody than ever!
In the meantime, enjoy this gorgeous picture I took from the train along the Hudson on my way back from Christmas vacation. It was a long ride, but what a lovely view!
Hope your 2016 is off to a great start!
Excerpts from “What Christmas Is as We Grow Older”
By Charles Dickens
Time was, with most of us, when Christmas Day encircling all our limited World like a magic ring, left nothing out for us to miss or seek; bound together all our home enjoyments, affections, and hopes; grouped everything and every one around the Christmas fire; and made the little picture shining in our bright young eyes, complete.
It’s been unseasonably warm here in NYC. I’m not complaining – I spent a couple hours wandering in Manhattan on Saturday afternoon and it was lovely – though I am of course worried about the environment. But in a less cosmic way, the warm weather is throwing off my sense of time passing. The last six months have sped by for me and I’ve been making an effort over the last few weeks to stop and enjoy each day of the holiday season.
For me that has meant decorating my apartment, lighting candles, singing Christmas carols with two sets of choir friends this past Saturday, watching Muppets Christmas Carol (and some sappy Christmas romcoms that shall remain nameless), buying cards and making and buying presents. If I can find time – more likely to happen after Christmas than before – I want to visit the origami tree at the Natural History museum and the angel tree at the Met. I think I’m going to swing by Rockefeller Center on my way home from an event this week, just because.
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