New York Minute
2 things to share:
#1 First Snow
Yesterday was the first true snow fall of the year in New York--over 5 inches in Central Park, according to the news reports.
It was my first New York snow, and I loved it. When I walked out the door, the street was completely covered, and a mom and her two young children were having a snowball fight on the sidewalk and laughing and screaming in delight. As I passed by, they smiled at me, and I smiled back.
It was so beautiful outside that I decided to walk the 20 blocks to work. The snow was coming down so hard that the huge, fluffy flakes soaked my coat and my hair. On the sidewalks, the women shuffled along slowly in their fashionable scarves, hats, and boots--why is suede so in this year, anyway? they lamented to each other as they picked their way over the frozen curbs and through the slushy crosswalks.
New York is not like Boston. In Boston, the snow builds up over time--it starts in December and it pretty much sticks around until February or March. In New York, when the snow comes, it comes hard, fast, and beautiful (just like everything else in the city), and if you're not paying attention, it melts before you even have a chance to enjoy it.
It's as if the city is so hot--heat from the subways, from the manhole covers, from the buildings and the concrete and the delivery trucks and the cabs and all of the people breathing and talking and laughing and yelling--that nothing sticks.
How can snow possibly stick in a city that is always moving?
#2 Something Small
Today I picked up lunch at the corner market. Everyone was bustling about and there was Christmas music playing and bags of roasted chestnuts on display by the door. A woman questioned the man working the cheese counter. A man plucked a single, perfect pear from the fruit stand. At the deli, a man yelled, "Number 68!? Is there a 68 here?"
In the air, there was a smell like cinammon and pine boughs and something powdery and I shuffled through the crowd with my basket and felt the simple joy of being part of something so small in a city that is so large.
#1 First Snow
Yesterday was the first true snow fall of the year in New York--over 5 inches in Central Park, according to the news reports.
It was my first New York snow, and I loved it. When I walked out the door, the street was completely covered, and a mom and her two young children were having a snowball fight on the sidewalk and laughing and screaming in delight. As I passed by, they smiled at me, and I smiled back.
It was so beautiful outside that I decided to walk the 20 blocks to work. The snow was coming down so hard that the huge, fluffy flakes soaked my coat and my hair. On the sidewalks, the women shuffled along slowly in their fashionable scarves, hats, and boots--why is suede so in this year, anyway? they lamented to each other as they picked their way over the frozen curbs and through the slushy crosswalks.
New York is not like Boston. In Boston, the snow builds up over time--it starts in December and it pretty much sticks around until February or March. In New York, when the snow comes, it comes hard, fast, and beautiful (just like everything else in the city), and if you're not paying attention, it melts before you even have a chance to enjoy it.
It's as if the city is so hot--heat from the subways, from the manhole covers, from the buildings and the concrete and the delivery trucks and the cabs and all of the people breathing and talking and laughing and yelling--that nothing sticks.
How can snow possibly stick in a city that is always moving?
#2 Something Small
Today I picked up lunch at the corner market. Everyone was bustling about and there was Christmas music playing and bags of roasted chestnuts on display by the door. A woman questioned the man working the cheese counter. A man plucked a single, perfect pear from the fruit stand. At the deli, a man yelled, "Number 68!? Is there a 68 here?"
In the air, there was a smell like cinammon and pine boughs and something powdery and I shuffled through the crowd with my basket and felt the simple joy of being part of something so small in a city that is so large.
posted by east side girl at 6:48 PM
1 Comments:
Great post. I too made myself get up and enjoy the snow. I don't work until 11 so hopped outta bed, put my skisuit on and trudged through Central Park for an hour enjoying the sites. Have to enjoy it when it happens because it rarely snows like that here.
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