Spin around Midtown

So another new setting for this blogging entry.. I'm in the "living room" of a hotel in midtown Manhattan this time around, with radio news being piped in, this dude sitting on the couch behind me reading the paper, and me sitting here cheerfully blogging away as the traffic rumbles by outside, the gusty winds sweep across the island, and the city that doesn't sleep gets revved up for the weekend. I've always found New York City pleasantly overwhelming for about a day or so, and then annoyingly overwhelming after that. I think it's just me. It really seems like a love-it or hate-it kind of place, sort of its own city-state (at least according to New Yorkers, who generally seem to think of the world in two parts, New York and all the rest of it). It's always changing, yet it's also always itself, if that makes any sense.

Now it's a new month. Last one of 2005, already.. which is pretty stunning. I'm trying to get older as slowly as I can, even resorting to a somewhat childish lifestyle at times. Like today, for instance...

Why do they have to honk so much? The streets are reasonably wide, but it still seems it just wasn't really made for so many cars and so many pedestrians to be out there all at the same time. But whatchagonnado, anyway?

Got on the bus this morning (originally had thought of coming in later but then changed plans slightly). Rolled on down this way and got to the Port Authority Bus Terminal around 1 in the afternoon. Trekked over here and had to negotiate a little bit with the staff, but in a friendly way (almost seemed they were expecting something more heated), and everything worked out nicely. Since I hadn't been to NYC for a while, I decided to stroll around on a sort of self-guided tour of midtown Manhattan.. and it was a good one. Of course, I first had to warm up my camera with a picture of eight pigeons sitting on a ledge just outside the window. Not all that pretty, but hopefully artistic enough that I or someone else will look at it later and come up with a decent reason not to delete it! OK, so next up, went over to the ESB, then to Herald Square, then Rockefeller Center, then Times Square/the Ed Sullivan Theater, Carnegie Hall, 59th Street and the horses outside Central Park, down 5th Ave by the giant snowflake hanging over the street, over to Park Avenue and past the Waldorf-Astoria all the way through the former New York Central (now Helmsley) Building and the MetLife building, into Grand Central Terminal, then along 42nd Street to 5th Ave and past the library, and then back to this joint. My feets is tired. My soul is almost at rest.

Of course, that's one slightly modified saying that came out of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which all began with Rosa Parks's heroic deed 50 years ago yesterday. God bless her soul. Somebody had to do it eventually, and I honestly can't think of anyone better than her.

I spent a few minutes in Grand Central Terminal going through a little deja vu episode. For some reason I had pictured it hustling and bustling on a Friday afternoon in December, around 5:30 (which is when I was there), with the lighted wreaths hanging and the giant American flags. It was just as I had pictured it, and that was one little experience that almost made me feel like a child, for some reason. I noticed something else this time, though: the ceiling. I'd never really looked at it before, but it looks like it actually depicts six of the zodiac constellations - Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, and Cancer - along a line that represents the ecliptic, plus the Triangulum and Pegasus off in the corner. Not only that, but it has a line for the Celestial Equator that intersects the Ecliptic right near Pisces - the Spring Equinox! How 'bout THAT, I thought to myself? I thought I was the only one who thought that was kind of neat, but whoever did the ceiling must have thought so, too - or at least whoever commissioned it. As I was leaving, I and the Grand Central congregation were treated to a laser light show on the ceiling featuring the constellation, snowflakes, and other designs dancing around on the ceiling, set to holiday music - the last piece of which was Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Overture. After that, it was time to head on back. Now what?

Someone's waiting for this computer. She looks like she could probably kick my ass if she wanted to, especially with the menacing boots she has on.. so I guess I should go now. Anywayz, now the goal is to make the most of it one day at a time and see where I wind up, trying to learn from past mistakes and build on strengths and attack weaknesses and appreciate the little things that add color to the relentless march of time.

Looking forward to it.. unbridled optimism might seem naive at times, but let me tell you this: it can go a long way if you give it a chance! And I'm going to give it a chance, as best I can, hoping that it will lead in a friendly direction.