just a typical week in NYC?

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I’ve lived in a lot of places, and one thing I treasure about New York is its constant vitality. There’s always something going on, and the streets reflect that. Other cities just don’t have that same hustle to the bustle.

But sometimes things get carried away. For instance, this is what I did this past week:

  • Monday – attended The Civilians’ “Patriot Acts” benefit concert, where Sari & I enjoyed the musical stylings of Amy Helm, Girlyman, DJ Spooky, Mary Testa, and Jackie Hoffman
  • Tuesday – went to my mom‘s talk at The New York City Studio School, where I walked in halfway through the lecture and was pressed into service (along with my laptop) in enabling her to show a presentation of her work; and then later joined in a homemade dinner at the school on her behalf
  • Wednesday – helped my pal Stinky celebrate his 39th birthday with pizza at Lombardi’s and gelato at Bruno Bakery
  • Thursday – played softball from 6 – 8 as an emergency fill-in for the Plug Uglies down at Commodore Berry field, and then scooted up to Park Slope for my normal Thursday night basketball game from 8 – 10. That’s 4 hours of sports and equipment-lugging!
  • Friday – headed upstate with Sari & her parents for Mother’s Day weekend at 10:30 p.m. and didn’t arrive until 3:30 a.m. due to a shopping stop and weird traffic on the FDR

Week’s like that just wear me out. I mean, I’m not even mentioning (well, I guess I am) that I was working all week on three separate freelance jobs, including closing out issues of two magazines I’m the “art director” for. And my buddy Jake just left Sunday night after staying with us for five days…

Is this normal city life? Taken individually, each of those events was fun, memorable, interesting. But jammed together like that… phew.

Am I just getting old? man_size: how do you do it? you seem to have UNLIMITED reservoirs of energy for socializing, meeting new people, existing in the public sphere. ‘Cause this doesn’t seem like “life” to me, but just a series of public appearances. And weeks like this are all too common nowadays.

When does one pause to reflect, to unwind, to reclaim the creative spaces, to remember who you are and what you believe in?

0 thoughts on “just a typical week in NYC?

  1. You had a much more social week than I have had in years. Plus, I’m alone. I don’t live with anybody. So, my heart and soul desires a few morsals of attention. Wanting to love and be loved is what drives me.

  2. Whenever I see you (too rare) you don’t seem wired with energy to me. You seem pretty calm, really Zen-ish. Maybe you’ve just learned how to ration your energies and spread them evenly across your weekly spectrum. “Without haste, without rest.”
    I need to learn how to do this.

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