Living Alone

It took fifty-eight years but I am finally experiencing what it is like to live alone.  I must admit that I was apprehensive about spending my first weekend alone in a new city.  Yes, I have my kids and Jack here but I was very specific when I decided to take on the role of the granny/nanny for a few months that I would not be dependant on them for entertainment  on the weekends.  They are a new young family and have to bond as a unit without Grandma always being there.

The initial strangeness of coming home to a quiet empty apartment is somehow a bit less lonely as the days progress.  I should add too that it is never really quiet here as it seems to me that New York drivers honk their horns much more frequently than any other place I have ever been.  Do they really think that honking a horn changes the behavior of other drivers or pedestrians?  I seriously doubt it.  There are also endless emergency vehicles sounding sirens at all hours of the night.  After only one week this odd symphony has become just white noise to me.  I probably won't be able to sleep in the quiet of the burbs when I return home.

My  first weekend did turn out to be very enjoyable for several reasons.  First I have to thank one of my favorite young New Yorkers, and daughter of my best friend Kim, and her boyfriend for taking me to lunch on Saturday and getting the weekend started.  Erin is a very impressive young woman. She is beautiful, smart and very brave for coming to New York several years ago to start a career in advertising that has led her to much success.  We had a great lunch and also walked through a part of town that was very accessible to my apartment.  I have discovered that the best way to figure out this town is to walk it.

This may sound very boring but Sunday was a very satisfying day for me because it was my first day being totally solo in my new city.  It may sound mundane but I woke up when I wanted to wake up, went to Starbucks and sat there by myself reading the New York Times and then went grocery shopping. I had already taken my laundry in the previous day for the same day "fluff and fold" experience.  This is a wonderful thing that New Yorkers do.  You just take a big bag of dirty clothes to a cleaners and within a few hours it is ready for you to pick up all folded in a surprisingly small package.  I definitely do not miss doing my own laundry.

  After my domestic duties were complete it was about noon time and I had the rest of the day ahead of me. That is when the true magic began.  I took a walk.  By this I do not mean I put on the usual walking gear and walked simply for exercise, I mean I walked to Central Park and then down Fifth Avenue and simply marveled at the fact that I was in New York City with no particular place to go but so many things to see.  I walked past the Plaza Hotel and down to St. Patrick's Cathedral and then made my way to Rockefeller Plaza and stopped to watch the ice skaters.  I continued to Times Square and down Broadway and just kept walking.  Somehow it seems to me that you just don't get tired when there is so much to observe and you are under no particular pressure to accomplish anything or meet a time line.

It was a great day.  Then I went home to watch the Giants win the Super Bowl.  I am very glad that they won.  Don't get me wrong, I wish it was the Bears but if not the Bears this time the Giants are okay with me.

I must also mention that since I have been in this wonderful city I have had the most glorious weather.  I hear that this is unprecedented for February but doubt if my presence has anything to do with this phenomenon.