I Miss N.Y.!

I saw this photo and it reminded me of time I've spent in New York, which is where I grew up. One of the things about the photo that struck me was the summer rain. I miss that. Where I live now it only rains during the winter months. Now that may sound good but going six or seven months without rain gets really monotonous. And also I love the rain, especially at night. It's so cozy to fall asleep to the sound of rain.

The second thing that struck me was that I recognized the street. It's in Greenwich Village, which is in lower Manhattan. As a teen my friends and I used to do a lot of walking around in the Village. It was a lot of fun. There were great little inexpensive restaurants and off beat stores. We always ended up at Washington Square Park though. The park was people watching central. We would just sit for hours watching people or listening to whatever street performers showed up. Sometimes comedians, sometimes singers, jugglers, you name it. And then we would walk some more. There were times when we'd walk around until the sun came up.

New York, especially Manhattan is very walkable. Unlike many cities here in the west which are too spread out to walk or just not designed with walking in mind. I lived in Las Vegas for a bit and that is the worst city I have ever seen for walking. First there is the obvious thing, the heat. But if you walk in the morning that's not really a problem. The real problem are the streets are as wide as freeways! It's really ridiculous, it's so daunting to stand on one side of the street and look across at how far it is to cross.

Back to N.Y., It's funny I haven't lived in N.Y for years. And during most of that time I didn't give the City a second thought, much less miss it. I think I'm having some sort of delayed reaction from September 11. Just the thought that such an integral part of the City is gone seems so unbelievable.

Also I don't know a heck of a lot of people here so that's probably another reason. Whatever the reason, I miss New York.