It has been four months since I last visited New York City. I had decided to give the city a pass. I didn’t want to spend more than necessary time in a cold city, considering I was going to be in Paris, Berlin and Munich, all cold and somewhat gray cities in the winter. I … Continue reading New York Bound
Through some strange turn of events, I am leaving New York and heading to San Francisco on March 23rd. It was this very same day, nine years ago, I left the city I called home from the minute I came to the united States.
In nine years, the city has changed. Never did I imagine there will be an Olive Garden on 23rd street. Or that the grungy meat-packing district where I would go for Mutiny parties, is the downtown equivalent of the Fifth Avenue. There are billion of changes, some observed and others that went unnoticed.
As luck would have it, we experienced an unseasonably nice run of weather, which according to experts was freakish and a direct result of climate change that is causing upheaval across the planet. The unintended consequence — trees were blooming. White and pink flowers everywhere, their fragrance masking the smell of millions of bodies compressed in an land mass that is actually smaller than all the space taken-up by WalMart stores.
It is amazing how much fun and work one can pack in a week when in the city that never sleeps. Between hosting our Structure Data conference and meeting my friends and spending time with my colleagues at paidContent, I managed to walk nearly 3 miles every day. I did some shopping and while I was at it, spent time catching up with my literary agent Stephen Hanselman and my watch muse, Ben Clymer (sorry dude for not being able to attend your Royal Oak bash.)
The thing is that I don’t come back to New York often enough, so I had to cram too much into the limited time I have. It can be too much. Of course, the other option is to spend more time in Big Apple!
Also, it is so, that I feel a twinge and certain sadness when I leave New York. Like today! As my flight noses its way to San Francisco, I wonder if the lesson of New York is change – moving forward, and sometimes glancing back to know how far you have come. The week was just that glance.
