Top Nine Things I Miss About New York, Part One 1

I realize it is still early into our trip, but since Humpty and I were talking about it the other day, I thought it would be interesting to post this now and do another list like this towards the middle of the trip and then one at the end of the trip. One caveat – while the title is things I miss about New York, some of them fall under the more general “things I miss about home” umbrella. But since New York was home for so many years, and since a couple of the items from the list are truly New York items, the title stands. Second caveat – I got stuck after nine things so rather than invent a tenth item, I decided to stick with nine. So with no further ado, I present to you my top nine things I miss about New York.

9. Randomness – New York is a truly random city. Random in the types of people you see, random in the actions said random people take, random in the types of activities you can do, random in the conversations you have, and random on most any topic you can think of. It can be overwhelming at times, but when you dial it down, you start to miss it. Of course, I feel that way when I visit my folks in Texas so it is not a US/non-US thing, it is very much a New York thing.

8. My Routine – There are people that love new exciting adventures in life and there are peoples that like their routines. While I have always liked to think of myself as the former, I am coming to realize that I have settled into the latter. I enjoyed hoping on the train in the morning, getting a solid 30-40 minutes to read, grabbing my breakfast, heading to work, going for a run after work, grabbing dinner with Humpty and/or with friends, and getting another 30-40 minutes of reading time on the train home. There has been nothing remotely routine about our days so far and I realize this is now the norm. So you can say I am going through “routine withdrawal.” Now breaking habits from time to time is healthy, but some things should be part of a routine. Humpty and I need to strategize on what to keep in routine and what to discard but I think a daily dose of reading and running should be reintroduced.

7. Amazon.com – I like to read a lot of books and was a bit concerned about that before we began our journey. Concerned because I did not know if I would have time or a routine that would allow me to read regularly (ask Humpty, if I don’t get time to read regularly, I get grumpy) and concerned that I may not be able to receive books I want to read. I downloaded a bunch of free classics before leaving the US and have been happy to learn that I can still buy Kindle books while traveling as long as I still have my US Kindle account. But for the folks here in Turkey, no Amazon delivery and even no Kindle content with a Turkish account. A life without Amazon sending me whatever I want within two days seems so hollow. Maybe I have stumbled upon a business idea?

6. Cable/HBO programming – Along with reading, I like to watch a lot of TV (although not watching TV does not make me grumpy). For the past several months, I was getting plenty of use out of my Netflix subscription, watching TV series after TV series (this could be a top ten list in itself, but I will just present a sampling of the shows Humpty and I watched: Breaking Bad, Sons of Anarchy, Parks and Recreation, How I Met Your Mother, Damages, The Wire, man – I sure did watch a lot of TV!). But the journey does not seem to be very accommodating to massive TV consumption and I can see myself going through TV withdrawal at some point too. I do have to admit though that we did buy the Season 5 pass for Breaking Bad on iTunes – so once a week, in the evening, we sit with the laptop and watch Walt slip further into his self absorption, Skylar turning into a barely functional zombie, Jesse struggle between angst and winning Walt’s approval, and now an interesting dynamic with Mike.

5. New release movies – The fact that the new Batman movie is out and we have no way of seeing it is driving us nuts. We of course are saddened by the events in Colorado and our hearts go out to the victims and their friends and family. But we are anxious to see it as soon as we can. The movie comes out on July 27^th in Turkey, and we are super excited about finding a theater where we can watch it in English. If we cannot, we might book a flight back to the US for a few hours just to watch it! And if you have seen it, DO NOT tell us anything about it.

4. Not visiting an ATM for two weeks – I tried to do this a few times in New York and found myself quite successful. Everything can be charged, from the juicer for breakfast, to the cab ride (of four blocks), to the salad for lunch, to the kiosk to buy movie tickets (or better yet, Fandango), to open tabs at bars after watching the movie (actually, this is not a great development when you finally make your way to the bar at the end of the evening and see the damage), to the late night pizza, to the cab ride home, and then for another round the next day. Now, I am carrying all this paper currency around – it’s just so weird.

3. New York Bars/Restaurants – Humpty and I are in love with Turkey and Turkish food. However, our palates and stomachs have been conditioned to sample a variety of cuisines and so far, we have not been able to satisfy that requirement. In fairness, we have been touring the southern coast of Turkey so I am sure when we get to Istanbul, this desire could be alleviated – but I am also sure it will be alleviated only to a degree. New York still has the most incredible variety of bars and restaurants of any place I have been to. Specifically regarding bars, I certainly miss being able to select from over 400 tequilas at a tequila bar versus the maybe one tequila option at most places here. We are not missing New York bar and restaurant prices though.

2. Pedialyte – For those that know, this is a miracle worker. For those that don’t, figure it out. And for everyone out there, you can probably guess what I did last night. By the way, when there is only one tequila available and you have never heard of it, take my advice and just pass on it.

1. Friends and Family – this is such an obvious one that it probably shouldn’t be listed; however, we do miss our friends and family. The 400 tequilas just taste better when shared with our friends. So all of you that are reading this, we miss you and expect to see you join us at some part of our journey! Just buy some quality tequila at the Duty Free shop. And bring some Pedialyte too.

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