Northern hospitality?

Sometimes (okay, most of the time) I miss the south. New York is just an entirely different pace. Granted, I am learning to appreciate this entirely different place, but it is not Arkansas — that's for sure. I feel like things were comfortable in Arkansas. Here people get irritated if you hesitate before exiting the subway gates or if you don't walk at a speed that implies you're already 10 minutes late to where you're going (I guess that would be 10 minutes late in Booneville ... because here it's just normal).

Earlier this week, I was trying to climb on a train during "rush hour" for my morning commute, and got pushed into the woman in front of me. I was ready to apologize to her (mind you for something I had no control over) when she turned around with an angry look and said "Could you not??" Sometimes I worry this irritation is could be contagious and will begin to rub off on me.

Then there's the friendliness, or lack thereof here. That's not to say that I haven't met friendly people — because I absolutely have. In fact, I want to say that I am pleasantly surprised with the friendliness of some of the people I've met. But New York lacks the overall friendly charm of the southern part of our country. People don't honk and wave. Smiles as a result of eye contact with a stranger are seldom. In fact, most people do whatever they can to avoid eye contact. This is hard for me, because I'm so used to living in a small town where either I know the person or I just might as well be polite and friendly and smile and say hi.

Reflecting on these facts of life as they seem, I can't help but think the two are related, maybe in a never-ending circle. That is to say, if people were friendlier, maybe they wouldn't be in such a rush or so irritated with the person standing in front of them (or in my case, behind them); and if they weren't in such a rush, perhaps they would have more time to be friendly.

On a lighter, entirely unrelated note, I finally bought a bed Thursday evening and had my first glorious night of sleep on it. And tonight I got some lovely coverings for it that I should be receiving by early next week at the latest. Next? A dresser, I hope.

It's snowing!

Not that that is at all a new or exciting sight for me, I just happened to look out my window and see this though.

So, not really feeling in an extraordinarily creative mood, but a little bit about how I spent my weekend.

Determined to pick up some necessities I'd been neglecting buying (read: hangers), I headed out Saturday morning to go to a Kmart I had spent a decent amount of time at on Monday while killing an hour or two before going to an evening event in Manhattan. So, Saturday I went back to pick up some things on a mental list in my head that I had been feeling a need for. Some of the things I purchased: trash liners for our kitchen trash can (we had been reusing plastic bags), hand soap, a cutting board, and about 30 hangers. The hangers were by far the most worthwhile purchase (although the cutting board is also very nice) since without any real furniture, my clothes didn't have a lot of places to go. Now I was able to hang up the majority of my tops and store the rest in an under the bed storage box left by a previous roommate (of course with no bed, it is just in the corner of my room). My next goal is to get a mattress and some bedding for that, and also a dresser. At that point I will be in pretty good shape.

Saturday evening one of my roommate's friends knew a DJ who would be at a bar in the next neighborhood over, so I tagged along with them where we ended up meeting three Australians. When explaining to one of them where I work and what I do, he replied, "Oh yeah, I think I've seen their ads on the subway." Which I appreciated hearing, because sometimes I wonder how many people actually read the ads on the trains.

And finally, today was a bit more relaxing (but still exhausting). I ended up checking out St. Patrick's Cathedral for Mass, which I think would be incredibly large to most people, but lately I've been playing a game where I think how many Our Lady of the Assumptions (my church in Booneville) could fit into a given church in New York. For example, St. Francis, the church right next to my office, I've decided, could fit somewhere between eight to 10 Assumptions. St. Patrick's could probably fit about 100. So I just couldn't get over how enormous the place was. I think I am going to keep exploring the city's churches though.

After Mass I forced myself to go grocery shopping since I had been just running to the organic store around the corner for 1 or 2 meal shops. So I decided I would stock up a little. Except that I have no car and it is about a 2 block walk to the grocery store. Granted, this is not very far ... but it seems much farther when you decide to buy 3 1/2 gallons of juice and milk, eggs, an assortment of canned goods and other miscellaneous foods. Thankfully, it managed to all fit into the two reusable shopping bags I'd stashed in my purse.

So now, I guess I'm ready for the start of yet another week in New York City...