Oh! The Mundanity!

After living in New York City for a solid two weeks, I have made one very startling observation that I know my dad will not believe - the people here are normal.

Now, I know what you're thinking. Everything you see on TV flies in the face of this statement. New Yorkers are loud and rowdy, have comical accents and are bad drivers, the conventional Texan thinking goes.

Well, yes, but. . . What I have been struck by the most has been the sheer normality, and yes 'mundanity' of the people and environment of living in New York. People get up, they take care of their kids, they go to work, they have lunch, they leave work, have dinner and cuddle up in their tiny apartments to watch Seinfeld. Sound familiar?

In terms of the personality of the folks I have met so far, there hasn't been a loud or rowdy one in the bunch. The folks I work with are a lot like, well, a lot like the folks I've worked with before - there are just more of them - 7,000 in this building alone!

They've been kind (see Expensive Lessons post), and frankly, kind of boring. Imagine being able to simultaneously 'drive' home' with hundreds of people every day. That's what the subway is like. People sleep, read, put on makeup, talk on the phone, get amorous - essentially the same activities commuters take part in everywhere. You just get to see it all on the subway - and there's less likelihood of car crashes.

Now, I can say that one colorful day I did happen on an older woman trying to take a discreet pee on the steps leading out of the subway. She looked well-scrubbed and embarrassed. (I can attest to the fact that it's hard to find a bathroom when you're out an about in the city.) I think she just had to go. As I bounded up the steps, a guy behind me said, "No problem. You gotta do what you gotta do."

And that, my friends, really sums up New York.