Self-Indulgent Ramblings

So, now that I’m a workout person, I get the extreme honor of observing people while they’re working out. Last week seemed to be the skinny girl week. They were everywhere. Maybe there was some big event this past weekend that they had to prepare for by starving themselves and working out a lot. Often, there’s this middle-aged woman who comes in, does 2 minutes on a bike, then does a couple weight machines. Then back to the bike for 2 minutes, then different weight machines. She does that for a while. This morning was the very fit young man who seemed to need to stare at himself in the mirror the whole time he was working out. I noticed it while he was in the corner doing push ups just staring at himself, and then later when he was on the treadmill - he had turned off the TV on the treadmill and was just running toward himself. Weird. I myself just get pissy when someone else has the audacity to be on the weight machine that I was approaching - forcing me to throw off the progression of my weights circuit. How dare they?

It was a rough morning, I’ll say that. It’s been almost 4 weeks now… when does this start getting easier?

Maybe around the time that I’m not travelling all the time… and maybe sleep factors in somewhere.

Okay… I’ve been in New York on business since Wednesday. And I just keep making observations:

1) I hate it when people call New York “The City” as if there is no other city on the planet that could possibly live up to the title of “City.” I mean, I know we’re supposed to all be New Yorkers or whatever… but I just think it’s arrogant.
2) Everyone talks about how fast-paced life is in “The City,” but I have experienced so many things in the last couple of days that took SOOOO much longer than they should have. The service from the waiters in the hotel restauarant. The bellman who tried to find us a restaurant by looking through his Zagats guide for 15 minutes, then not giving us what we’d asked for either in cuisine or location. He wouldn’t let us leave, either. When I realized how damn long it was taking, I said, “Don’t worry. We’ll just look around.” But he wouldn’t hear of it. UGH! And traffic. Good God. I took the shuttle bus back to the hotel from the Book Expo yesterday… it took almost an hour to travel what would have taken 20-30 minutes on the Subway. The conclusion I’ve reached - this city isn’t more fast paced, it’s just more dense, so it LOOKS like things are moving quickly just by virtue of there being so much movement.
3) I LOVE my gay husband. And I miss him terribly.
4) Subways are disgusting, but incredibly convenient.
5) Doing something nice for someone is appreciated, but incredibly unexpected.
6) People keep asking me for directions… which is not that weird. I’m a logical person to ask. I’m not carrying a camera, and I’m pretty non-threatening. What’s weird is that they tend to ask me questions to which I know the answer. My first day here, I referred a woman to three different pizza restaurants in Brooklyn. And last night I helped a couple (who, based on their accents, were definitely New Yorkers) navigate the subway system. And I’ve been leading the way through all of my business excursions throughout New York. I don’t know where this comes from. Normally I have absolutely no sense of direction. I mean, in Greenville, drop me anywhere and I’m probably lost or will be within 3 minutes. But here - I’m remembering things from when I was here a year and a half ago. I’m looking at an address once and knowing exactly how to find it. I’m certain of the difference between latenight and weekday service on the various local and express trains. This is so weird.