I Choose to Be In Love.

I remember when I lived and worked in LA and people would be out from New York on business I would think, "How glamourous. They actually LIVE in New York.  What must that be like?"  Well, now I know.  I have lived here for 3 years.  And it is like living anywhere else in some respects and like nowhere else in others: there is laundry, grocery shopping, and the gym.  Except here everything is much harder and more expensive! But, no matter, I love it. And then I forget and I just exist in it.

Whenever I feel like I am taking living here for granted I put my ipod on RANDOM, make life into a musical and go.  This morning I was heading to the subway for work listening to Sinead O'Connor and I passed by St. Vincent's Hospital.  This hospital is now sadly closed due to bankruptcy and will be more luxury housing. It almost seems ironic, if it weren't so shameful. Anyway, I don't want to kill my buzz here.  But as I was passing and the snow was gently falling I recalled how this very place took in Titanic survivors, 911 survivors and was one of the first major AIDS hospitals in the world. It was humbling and moving.

Down I went into the subway. A system like no other and I was happy to be in it among the masses.  My music made it so much more palatable. 

I alighted at 50th Street and just as Madonna's Vogue started I walked across the street to behold bright and shiny Times Square.  Lately I have had nothing but disdain for this gaudy, tourist-infested tourist trap, but this morning thanks to Madonna I was empowered and inspired by it. 

It all boils down to perspective. New York is either a crowded, expensive, filthy, crime-ridden dump or it is a bright, exciting, never to be outdone metropolis of possibility. Or both.  I choose today to be in love.