In a New York minute...

Ok, so you had to know that I would get those lyrics into one of these blog entries at some point.  I apologize.

This particular entry has a bit of mixed feelings involved.  Let me preempt this post by saying that I DO enjoy living in NYC, and I am very glad that I live here right now. 

However...

This city can take its toll on a person at times, and I think I am just dealing with one of those times. Lately, I have been pretty grumpy.  This city is so full of people and so busy that we are all just on top of each other.  And sometimes it gets old.  You are constantly dodging people, dodging cars, dodging bikes, dodging crazy folk, dodging beggars.  Everything from grocery shopping to going to your friend's apartment is a chore.  You sometimes get sick of walking or taking 30 to 45 minutes to get anywhere.  It's expensive, and trying to find the groceries you need or the replacement screw for your dresser or an extension cord all can be daunting tasks.  I look at the middle aged women who live in this city, and they are the crankiest, foulest-mouthed residents you'll find, and I feel like I might be becoming one of them. Give me a few years, and I will be kicking at the cars, screaming at the bus driver, or getting into an altercation with another woman in Starbucks (yes, I have seen all these things happen).   Sometimes you just feel the urge to push someone out of your way or to tell them to quit being rude or to tell them to mind their own business or just tell them to quit existing. 

Deep breath.  I am working on finding my zen.  A friend at work suggested I find some sort of personal release.  He likes the gym.  I am not sure if the gym would be a release or a distress for me, but maybe I will find something.  The problem with that suggestion is that it would probably take as much effort to do this "me time" as it does anything else.  Eh, it's a work in progress, and any big move/change takes some transitioning.  I think I was so bedazzled when I first got here that I didn't really have time to be annoyed, and now it's catching up with me.  

However...

All this being said...in a New York minute, things can change.  Yes, this city is grating at times.  It can be difficult to live here.  It will take me a while to adjust.  But then I get an opportunity like the one I had tonight, and it just makes me glad I'm here.  It makes me want to put forth the effort to explore this city...to just suck it up and do what I have to do.  So what is this opportunity, you say?

I have quickly become quite the TV junkie since having DVR available to me (it's evil), and a couple of the shows that I have been avidly watching are Ellen and Oprah (it's the Farewell Season of Oprah...you should jump on this train by the way).  So I'm watching Ellen, and she starts raving about this new documentary that was showcased at Sundance called Catfish.  She makes the movie sound so appealing that I want to run out and watch the first showing of it taking place that night at midnight.  I managed to tone down the impulsivity (which is difficult for me) and wait until I could see it with a friend.  After assuring Laura that the documentary was indeed not about catfish, she agreed to go with me this evening.  It doesn't hurt that she thinks the main protagonist is hot, but I digress.   

She and I both loved it.   It is only playing in select theatres (which was perk #1), but if it is playing at a theatre near you, please check it out.  It is just so bizarre and so heartbreaking.  Do not read the reviews or anything else about it because it might get spoiled for you.  The best thing to do is to go see it without really knowing more than what I am going to tell you now.  I will only say so much as it is a real documentary about an NYU filmmaker's little brother who gets caught up with a family that he essentially meets online, including one of the daughters in the family with whom he starts a relationship.  The movie wraps it up after he eventually goes to meet this family in person.  Not only did Laura and I both love the film, but an added bonus was that the director (who is also the roommate of both the filmaker and his little brother) was actually at the film, as was the producer and one of the characters in the movie.  All of them were there to participate in a Q&A session following the screening, which allowed us to get even more insight into the film straight from the mouths of the people who made it. 

Can you see why this makes me feel okay about being here again?  I would have most likely not had an opportunity like this otherwise.  This, of course, is only one example, but sometimes you just need a little morale booster.  This was mine tonight.  Take it from me.  See the movie if you can.  If you hate it, then you can hate me and it would be okay.  But do it anyway...

These are the filmmakers.  The protagnoist (Nev) is on the left, his brother Rel is in the middle, and their friend Henry, the director and also a filmmaker, is on the right (he is the one that we saw at the screening).