easy enough

New York City is shockingly easy this time around. Although there are too many things to do this week, and jumping across the Atlantic is always a bit of a challenge, there's a strange sensation of weightlessness. As if switching from running in water to running in thin air, you get the feeling that you're flying.

I have such deep relationships with cities, and I'm wondering if so much of this place is just not suited for the very young, and now that I am grayer, all of the invisible obstacles that were so puzzling before are so easy to navigate now.

The only difficult aspect is seeing the many friends who are truly important to me. There just isn't enough time. Now friends and family span multiple continents, and I'm already starting to miss my Berlin people and really appreciating their slower, quieter ways even though it drove me a little mad when I had to live in it all the time.

There are just too many beautiful little moments here, so many little dramas and people. You can really read a lot out of all the men and women here by looking into their eyes and seeing into their souls. I like staring at the all of the myraid patterns of fabrics, especially in the suits and ties of all the men going to work, and then the bright colors all the hunky dredlock boys sport with their shiny new kicks. Inbetween doing a lot of important stuff and filing through papers and waiting in offices, it's these quick encounters that make me remember why I love New York City so much, as dirty and chaotic and moneygrubbing as it may be.

I made a late night fried chicken run down the street, and there was just something so Berlin when all the shaved-head Polish boys came in with their hoodies, jostling at each other. They reminded me of the German Plattenbau/project kids that would flood the techno parties, impossibly tan and blonde, or maybe their hair dyed black, getting drunk and yelling really crazy things to show off for their girlfriends. It's not that Poland is the same place, but it has the same sense of geography.

Even with the rain, America is so shockingly bright, the sun shines brighter here, and the bling blings more intensely. I can see how it would overhwelm a lot of people, but I'm embracing the liveliness, because I need it to live!