Thanksgiving

There are roughly three New Yorks. There is, first, the New York of the man or woman who was born there, who takes the city for granted and accepts its size, its turbulence as natural and inevitable. Second, there is the New York of the commuter--the city that is devoured by locusts each day and spat out each night. Third, there is New York of the person who was born somewhere else and came to New York in quest of something... the city that is a goal. It is this third city that accounts for New York’s high strung disposition, its poetical deportment, its dedication to the arts, and its incomparable achievements. Commuters give the city its tidal restlessness, natives give it solidity and continuity, but the settlers give it passion... each embraces New York with the intense excitement of first love, each absorbs New York with the fresh eyes of an adventurer... ~E.B. White

I love this quote. It was part of a subway advertising system aimed to make those of us who take public transportation smarter. Also included are the opening lines from Metamorphosis and quotes from “notable” New Yorkers. I’ve hesitated putting it in my blog because anything along the lines of lyrics to “New York, New York” clearly labels me a transplant. But as a true New Yorker told me this past week, I have to live here for at least eight years before I can say I’m a New Yorker anyway. Even then I might not earn that right as my crucial to my development as a person, high school years, were spent in the suburbs. So I might as well enjoy the glorified tourist status while I’ve got it.

Part of the fun of being a transplant in NYC is the joy of doing everything you possibly can, from scavenger hunts and 200+ person balloon fights, to pub crawls and local museums. Added to the joy of random sighting such as the guy who dragged his dead stuffed dog on wheels throughout the subway station. Questions such as “What?, Why?, Really? are very common but met with the attitude of: “Who really cares. It will make a great story.” It took me a while to realize that I live here so if I don’t head off to a museum or a meet-up event every weekend it will be okay. I’m not a tourist that has to fit it all in within a few days.

For Thanksgiving this year I got to host, sans the cooking portion. We saw the balloons get inflated (with barely able to move through crowds), the Macy’s Day parade (with crowds starting around 6:30 in the morning), Dave and Busters (dad got beat in almost everything), and Black Friday shopping (four hours of speedshopping and we only got through two stores). Hopefully next year mom will be able to join us.