NY. NY

A weekend in NYC reminds me of the depth of the adjustment I'm making by living on Cape Cod. Friday had been a fun and very heartening day here, I had no sense of having made the wrong choice. Saturday I got a very early bus and was at my quilt guild meeting before it started. It's a big and inspiring guild. I enjoyed the meeting. Then for next 30-something hours I saw people I care about and walked a lot here and there, all in quite a small portion of the city, also saw a new movie, A Single Man, and had wonderful food, mostly cooked by Ellen, my hostess. I made a brief stop at favorite store as well.

The return bus ride was a great time to do the Sunday Times puzzle and to contemplate how much I had enjoyed the brief trip. I decided that I miss all the things I did, talking a lot [patient Ellen listens and chatters back], having a great choice of new movies [at increasingly exorbitant prices even for seniors], having a convenient restaurant just around the corner for excellent take out food, having a huge choice of stores where I know just which ones have the bargains I am seeking. But most of all I miss the streets. This was the somewhat gritty, a little bit dirty Chelsea section, but the sidewalks were all cleared, walking was no problem. And the people -- the endless variety of people, the constant visual stimulation of stores and apartment houses, of traffic both pedestrian and vehicular, the skyline ... all of it seems wonderfully interesting and very human to me. I know some people hate the crowding, the less than pristine piles of garbage waiting to be picked up, the occasional down and out person, ill dressed or dirty, the noise ... I miss it. I miss going out my door and being amid all that.

Yes, going out my door and having a green - or snow covered -- lawn, lots of trees, a lot of sky is a pleasure too. Perhaps it's the Gemini's personality, the enjoyment of opposites. I do enjoy them both.