Chilling in NYC

I miss the simplicity of the things we used to do, me and my friends, to just “hang out.” We went to each other’s houses, played cards, watched movies, played sports. Here in NYC, you have to “go out” to be social. Buy drinks. Get ice cream. Go for coffee. Shop. In short, you have to spend money to be social. Sure, you can talk with the people in your company while you are doing these things (or, rather, shout mostly—at least in bars), but you have to be somewhere. You can’t just chill. You can’t do what would be qualified as “nothing.”

I took what would be considered pretty much a “nothing” day yesterday and spent it by myself. I spent my early morning catching up on email (using my suitemate Lindsay’s computer, which she let me borrow) and then took some paper outside and sat on the Columbia Library steps to write several letters that have been long overdue. After that, I went running in Riverside and Central Parks. (I recently discovered that Riverside Park actually provides a nice “path” down to Central Park so that I don’t have to use all of the main streets to get there and only have to go over a few blocks to enter at 96th Street.) Then, I took the most recent issues of EW, Time, and People (all of which we receive for free as soon as they come out!), my phone, and a water bottle, and sat in Riverside Park until it started to thunderstorm—at which point I hurried back to my dorm. (All the while—I must add—talking on the phone to my old Rochester friend Matt. Much to my chagrin, I am becoming rather accustomed to this cell phone device!)

The most “social” part of my day came when I returned to the dorm and discovered that my suitemate Ebony was making a trip to the Target in Harlem. She invited me to come along, and I agreed to accompany her in order to buy groceries. Thus, once again it has been a money-spending excursion that has brought me together with real people here in NYC.