City Slicker is no Superman

It's amazing how time flies when you're having fun. Or busy.

This blog has been left dormant for a number of reasons, most of which I will not go into on this forum. What I will focus on, however, is directly related to the New York life.

I just feel busier.

That's not a revolutionary thought. My new job is more consuming, both in time and mental energy. But I had a similarly demanding job in Boston and didn't feel as harried or exhausted when I came home. Similar job, similar commute, similar amount of sleep, so what's the difference? It must be New York.

The hubub of New York isn't just infectious, it's an unavoidable, overbearing burden for anyone who steps on the train platform at 7:30 in the morning. The crushing pack mentality, the evil eyes when you want that middle seat, the jostling trains (the delayed trains)-- all of that leaves you tired even before you get into the city.

Once you're there, the sights and smells and overzealous taxi cabs overwhelm the senses far more then in other cities. I remember when I would get off the train in North Station, I would go out and look onto the Greenway; I could actually see more than 50 feet ahead of me. Maybe that's it; maybe its the sense of confinement that midtown Manhattan and its skyscrapers and scaffolding and street vendors that make the body grow weary.

That confinement becomes worse when you get in the office. No one wants to go out into Times Square to fight with the picture snapping tourists and flyer-distributors to grab a sandwich. So you stay in, except on the rare occasion you need to run downstairs to Duane Reade for some gum or chocolate.

And then it's the same process on the way home, the bump and grind of people like me cutting it too close to get to the train. We all pile into the same car and fall over each other for the 35 minute ride home.

All of that leaves you exhausted at 7:30 or 8 when you finally get in the door and have to rustle up a meal and dispense with the daily household activities before crashing for the night. While there is likely a half-hour or so around that I waste away in front of the TV or organizing the pantry, I often value that mindless decompression over intellectual stimulation at the end of a long day.

It's going to be a real uphill climb when I start going back to school.

New Yorkers find a way, though, to fit it all in -- maybe it's sleeping a little less or eating a little more take-out. I just haven't found that secret Gotham City serum yet.