Monday is just feeling grateful ...a few days late and a dollar short, but there you go

[shadowkat]

Leg and knee didn't hurt as much today as they did on Saturday, making me think arthritis may be a factor, and sigh shifts in the weather.

The Super decorated the lobby of the apartment in style - we have poinsettias, a tree, a mechanical elf climbing a ladder to decorate the tree, and a carousel on top of the mail boxes, among other things. It's quite festive. Never thought I'd say this?? But I actually prefer a pre-war building of 77 units to a brownstone. Also the building is older - it's 100 years old, and quite sturdy all things considered.

And Momma got a Xmas present for me - today - I know what it is - she got it on Cyber Monday before it went up in price. It's an 8-in-1 Steam Oven with Air Fryer.

I just hope it fits in my kitchen - it was the most compact and smallest one I could find. I have to put it on my wooden island, and move the Ninja Creamer or move the tea. I'd been eyeing it - but uncertain - because - of the where to put it issue. It's both a steam oven and an air fryer. I'm a little worried about that. I've limited counter space. I could probably put it on the second wooden island.

Hopefully I'll use it. I have an Instapot that I'm afraid to use.


I did partake of Cyber Monday. Got shoes for $22 on Lands End, and a pair of pants fo $21. And some underwear via Amazon. Yesterday at Walgreens I bought a cup warmer for work - worked like a dream. Plugged it in and it kept the cups warm. My tea, decafe coffee, and matcha lattes kept getting cold fast. Now they stay warm. It was only $5.

I'm embracing my love of my city and neighborhood. I love NYC. I was talking to Breaking Bad today, and describing how my entire family is spread around the US and lives in suburban and rural areas (ie. you need a plane and car, or in the case of my brother, a train and car to get to them).

Breaking Bad: So you're the sole urbanite?
Me (I think about it): Yup pretty much. I like cities.

I read on Calm or somewhere recently that anxious folks tend to prefer walk in city streets or places where they know all the threats instantly than a nature walk outside of the city. They feel safer. I mentioned this to Breaking Bad, and he agreed. It made sense. In a city you are surrounded by people and less likely to get attacked, while in a rural area someone can randomly hit your home and kill you, and no one will know, while in a city - they'll know and try to help. This is true - I've had that experience. Also, you're never completely alone in a city.

I just feel safer here, than pretty much anywhere else. Odd, I know. But there it is. I've always loved cities. As a teen, I fell in love with Paris, in my twenties, I fell in love with London. Cities have an energy to them. A vibrancy. Also, I'm a culture junkie - and whether I partake or not, it's there at any time. I don't have to go very far, and a lot of it is actually free.

And, there are books everywhere. Different foods. Diverse people. Different languages. In the elevator at work today, a woman was talking in either Polish, Russian or Ukrainian on the phone. It's one of the three - I just can't tell them apart. I love that.

My father once told me that NYC had ruined me for anywhere else - he wasn't wrong. I like the climate, I like the changes in seasons, I like the city, I like the public transportation...and the people. I just need to find other people who love it too, and stop becoming friends with those who hate it. They are all gone now, the folks who hated the city, so it's no longer an issue. There's nothing worse than hanging out with someone who hates the place I've come to love. (I admittedly have a love/hate relationship with NYC at times, but that's kind of normal?)

***

December Memage:

1. Do you use serviettes/napkins when you eat, or are they just for fancy meals/when you have guests?

When have guests or fancy. I rarely use them other than that. Don't have that many, and I can't find them?

Comments

[kazzy_cee]

Whenever I've been to NY I always think it's very like London, and I love the diversity and cosmopolitan flavour of both cities.

[shadowkat]

They are very similar cities, and I think the people who planned NYC borrowed heavily from the London model which incorporates a lot of green spaces, also the Victorian style cemetery - which you see with Greenwood Cemetery. It's very close to London and Paris in design. Unlike other American cities which tend to be more of a sprawl with inter-connecting highways. Boston also is European in design. Many of the Northeastern and Atlantic cities are - mainly because they were established in the 1700s and 1800s.

I'm a frustrated urban planner. ;-)

[mtbc]

Urban planning's really quite interesting!

R. prefers large cities, mostly because they feel anonymous there. I rather like the diversity that Glasgow affords (well, if we're going to be in Scotland) though of course NYC offers plenty more still.

In Boston we got on fine without a car, though admittedly we were Zipcar members which was handy for weekly-ish family shop. My employer bought me a transit pass for not using a work parking lot space (I got to work by bicycle or bus).

[shadowkat]

Boston is apparently a nightmare if you drive, and not the best without. Or so I'm told. Also apparently people either love Boston or love NY for some reason? I've not really ever been to Boston. Just Harvard Square.

[mtbc]

I liked Boston and was near Harvard Square, I sometimes used to change at the station there on my commute. If I had to live in some New England city then it's a decent choice (I also liked Providence, RI, except the public schools sucked) and when I was briefly unemployed then MA paid me generous benefits in the interim. However, what I really like about living in the US is the areas that are a lot less cramped, where large houses are affordable, car parking is easy, etc. which, er, isn't Boston. However, Boston's intermodal public transit is great, I suspect NYC's is good too. Boston was also good for bicycling around. For instance, most of my commute by bicycle was by quiet road or segregated path, and the last bus home for me at night from Harvard Square would wait for the last train to come in along the red line. It also worked fine to use the subway to get across from Harvard Square to the airport. (Back before everybody used their smartphones,) there was also a neat paper transit map one could buy that mapped the city with special attention to how to use the buses, rail, etc. to get around. And the commuter rail still issued paper tickets that worked wonderfully as bookmarks.

However, to drive around Boston, yeah: I had to be more aggressive than anywhere else I had lived, pushing my way into traffic without the help of traffic lights, etc. When I moved from Boston, MA, to Dundee, Scotland, I had to tone down my aggression plenty: what got me anywhere in Boston, sneaking into whatever little gaps I could, got people honking their horn at me in Dundee. Unfortunately, the Glasgow buses are expensive and unreliable, also they never finished building the planned motorway network: we have things like https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/history/story-behind-glasgows-infamous-ski-23066522 nearby, fortunately at least I live near a Glasgow subway station.

[shadowkat]

Now I'm reconsidering Boston as a retirement destination. Except it's colder than NYC. NYC is more temperate - mainly because it's an island. So it doesn't get as cold or as hot as more landlocked locals. It's also, oddly, cheaper or so I've been told. Although I think MA property taxes are lower, not positive.

I've different needs than most - I don't want a house. The appeal of a house, I've slowly come to realize is lost on me. Too high maintenance. Too much space. Too much upkeep. Also too big for my needs. And I like having people living around and near me. I like feeling that energy nearby - I find it comforting? I lived in the suburbs and rural areas, I can't do that again. I don't like big open spaces. And I can't drive nor ride a bike - so I need a local with excellent transportation by train. NYC is the only place in the world that you can literally just go everywhere for the most part by subway or rail, and the two connect. I don't have to take a bus or car anywhere. The only time I am in a car - is when I go to the airport, and fly elsewhere, and that's maybe once or twice a year. Also, since I work in transportation - I don't pay anything for the rail or subway - so it's free. It's also a lot cheaper - because I work in transportation so it's free?

[mtbc]

NYC has a lot to commend it. Especially, having so many different things within such close reach? Hard to beat, at least in North America.

Boston winters are miserable. They go on for many weeks with persistent snow piles, bad enough that the city is actually trucking accumulation out to sites where it can just sit and someday melt. Boston's public transit and bicycle network are good but you also don't need a car in NYC and there is so very much else there too.

[shadowkat]

We also have a better bicycle and transit network - I know this from folks who've lived both places for lengthy periods of time. Boston's just doesn't go as far. NYC? You can hop on a subway, switch to a train, and then a ferry. Or take a bus. Or bike. There are citi-bikes everywhere and bike paths. Plus lots of parks.

It's a very pedestrian friendly city. And much milder climate. We barely get snow any longer.
And it's a slightly more culturally diverse. NYC is a global city, which distinguishes it from most cities? It's more like London, Paris, Prague, and various European Cities because of that. Most US cities aren't really global cities. Boston isn't, nor is Chicago or LA.

But it can be overwhelming at times, and you can disappear in it.

[mtbc]

Yes, NYC's truly global. Part of the attraction for R. of large, dense cities is that one can disappear in them.

[shadowkat]

It's weirdly safer to be able to disappear, particularly if you aren't the sort of person who "fits" in well?

[mtbc]

Yeah, R.'s very happy to just matter-of-fact do their business then move on.

[wendelah1]

I loved visiting New York so much, and could imagine living there when I was younger. Now that I'm old and my bones hate cold and damp, and walking has become such a problem, well, I am happy that I remained in LA. It's an easier place to age in place.

[shadowkat]

Unless you can't drive, then NYC is a whole lot better. ;-) Also, I don't like California - too dry and too hot. I was discussing this with BB, and we both agreed we were happiest in NY. It's closer to my immediate family.