After we checked our bags it began to snow outside. Little tiny snowflakes falling down diagonally landing on the sidewalks and streets of Manhattan. We sat inside Ben ash, a great place to eat where a burger costs fifteen dollars but easily will feed you and your kids, and your kids' kids. I mean, these things were huge.
We stayed at the Wellington, an aged hotel that seemed to have some stories to tell. We were a brisk walk from Times Square and two blocks from Central Park, but far enough from the park to escape the smell of the horse drawn carriages. Upon arrival I heard the tell tale honking of taxi cabs and city buses. Me and my wife smiled at each other thinking, "...we're in New York." Like a line drawn by the sound of car horns, buses, and the low hum of city noise, and tourist chattering, and foot steps, you knew that you've finally arrived.
It's easy to put New York in a box. You see it in movies. You see it on t.v. You see these landmark things that make New York what it is. This iconic city built on dreams. The streets are dirty but the buildings are gold on the inside. I grew up in the county and was far removed from any big city, being so, New York simply took on this snow globe image of the statue of liberty, the empire state building, the Brooklyn bridge, skyscrapers. Shake it around, put it on the mantel-ain't it cool? Well, yes, it is cool. It's very cool. I mean, we all see pictures of Times Square all the time. Everyone watches America's famous ball drop on t.v. on New Year's Eve. We all celebrate the moment. We kiss. We throw confetti and toast our champagne. We celebrate New Year's Eve with Times Square every year. Times Square is at every party, every year. It always shows up. It's never late. In fact, for central time, Times Square shows up an hour early! To stand atop the empire state building and look out at the city and see Manhattan spread out below you like a pop up book, a flood of memories came to me of standing in stores like Target and seeing this very scene but on hand bags, journal covers, and screen printed t-shirts. Here it was in person, and in person it is so much cooler than that t-shirt. I wasn't quite sure how visiting the city would affect me. I mean, would I simply shrug my shoulders and say, "Wow, it's just a big city." Or would I come away leaving a piece of me in New York with plans already made to go back there and get it.
My first view of the city was from the tiny oval shaped window of the plane. We flew into Newark airport in New Jersey and as the plane descended I looked to my right and saw dim in the distance this huge city. Tall buildings stretching high below us. The city was surrounded by a thin cloud and the distance made it dream like, almost a mirage. Which is what the city has been for me all my life. But to walk the streets of Times Square and see it's blinking lights and high rise advertisements. To ride the elevator up eighty or some odd stories and step off into a frigid wind and a clear cold night and see a million lights from a thousand buildings from hundreds of street lamps glimmering back at you, when you've only seen them in moving pictures and photographs...what can I say? It's like stumbling into Santa Clause in your living room while your parents are asleep.
