"My plug-in baby"

[nonethefewer]

As it turns out, I actually don't like New York that much.  I tested yesterday to see if I was letting past experiences or expectations get in my way, and nope.  There is constant noise (in the "signal to noise" sense), the flow of people is like trying to swim in a river, and the greenery feels grudging, honestly.  (Depending - I mean, the lilac tree-bush-thing next door feels more like it's going to leap down and consume a passer-by some day, but that's both different and awesome.)  I could barely keep my head together long enough to think.  There was too much, too much, all the time.

(For those keeping track, yesterday I was in upper Manhattan, Chinatown, and Little Italy.  I think.  So you have a frame of reference here.)

I way prefer Portland.  There's greenery everywhere, of both stripes.  (My god people throw out plastic things.  I died.  I am a revenant, posting to LJ.)  There's real air.  You can move quickly, but the vibe I get is more "Question why you'd want to do so" than "Getouttamyway!!".  (Once I walked like I did in Boston, against the light and as fast as possible, due to kitty need.  I felt really out of place doing so.)  There are bicyclists everywhere, that's so fantastic.  And there are actual shops.  Not wall-to-wall storefronts or apartment-fronts.  :(

I may get recommendations to go to this place because there's greenery, or go to that place because there are locally owned shops where they all recycle.  My point is, I even like Portland's downtown area.  I even like the financial district, insofar as there is one.  (It's kind of cute, honestly.)  In NYC, I'd have to go to places to get tastes of what I like.  That would be missing the point.

I am apparently more a suburbanite than an urbanite, as -ites go.  I'm glad New York exists, I guess, because that way people who like it here have a place to be, but I am way pleased there's a Portland I can go to.

Comments

[regyt.livejournal.com]

Woe!

Good thing I have to go to Portland at least once/year to visit novalis's aunts anyway.

Because, um, if it isn't completely obvious by now, being around you makes me really happy. (Also clumsy and stuttery and incapable of speaking English properly. ::sigh::)

[the-xtina.livejournal.com]

I recall you firmly stopping this giggling nonsense to return to the smoochins, and it working.  So you can be as stuttery and cetera as you like (as though I'm not, ha), and it's not an issue.

We are leaving aside, for the sake of this out-pointing, the part where I find it incredibly charming.

(NGIP!)

[tisiphone.livejournal.com]

I'm not crazy about New York either, and it's not at all that I'm anti-city in general because Boston, London, Paris, even Tokyo are A-OK with me, I love em. Just, New York feels really cold, and it seems like everything is harder than it needs to be. I'll dive in and out to visit a museum or something, but I don't like to stay.

[the-xtina.livejournal.com]

I can appreciate things about New York, like the wild variety of restaurants or the 24-houredness of places.  But yeah, it always feels like so much effort to do anything.

[hawver.livejournal.com]

You "tree people" are insane :) There are few things I love more than a well timed "Getthafuckouttamywayasshole" lobbed in my direction.

[the-xtina.livejournal.com]

Well then, aren't you glad we have places to go?  ;)

[hawver.livejournal.com]

I won't be happy until the entire continent is one giant megalopolis , Asimov style.

[glib-dichotomy.livejournal.com]

When my youngest sister came to visit me in NYC she had the same reaction to the constant motion and pace. I prefer my relatively tree-lined bits of brooklyn for coming home to, but yes, I like the baseline thrum of activity and aliveness better than suburban Detroit. Melbourne's still my favorite city so far.

[fitfool.livejournal.com]

I like that baseline thrum of activity too. I only get to visit NYC on occasion but when I do, I feel my body shifting into another gear of activity. Just entering the city feels energizing to me. Alas, I don't live there because I think I'd go broke living there.

[phaedra-lari.livejournal.com]

NYC was too much stimuli and too little green for me as well. I consider myself a city person, but I don't think it's a city-- it's a metropolis, and not all city peple are metropolis people :)

I really have to get to Portland one of these days and explore it.

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

New York's a nice place to be from.

Western Mass has really grown on me. It's got all the benefits of a city, plus all the benefits of nature. :)

[penghuin.livejournal.com]

Huh. And here, I was going to be surprised if you came back.

[the-xtina.livejournal.com]

Why on earth would you think that?