Wednesday, November 27, 2013

The Post Season: Seventh Borough Updates

Back in July, I wrote that this blog would run a few posts for each of its 'season' and that the Summer 2013 'season' would be about summer itself.  And I got two entries in and Summer was coming to an end, Labor Day had come and gone, Columbus Day had past us, Halloween was now a distant memory, and here we are in November.  I had written an entire post for election day, and by election day, I mean the primary, which here, is early September, and scrapped it altogether.  And I was trying to write a post about Baseball, a beloved summertime game, and it was becoming an Albatross of an entry.  I couldn't get it out, I couldn't pin down how to fit the entire 100+ year history of America's past-time as it related to me personally, and with meaning and humor, into one blog post and not try to produce the "Seventh Borough's Encyclopedia of Baseball".  As we Met fans are all to familiar with the phrasing: Maybe Next Year for my Baseball summertime entry. 

However, today's post, Dark Chocolate, was churned out in under three hours, as it related to a discrete and recent event, and I think 1. Reopening the blog with the word 'Chocolate' in the title is a cheap (but effective, no?) gimmick to get your attention and 2. A direct parlay into the 2013 Fall/Winter Season's theme: Life in New York.  I gave you my first hand account of visiting Red Hook, Brooklyn (in apparently what was its off season) and the changes going on there.  And by Life in New York, I'm not referring to fancy 5th Avenue shopping trips and visiting the Statue of Liberty, that's tourist junk.  I'm talking about your day-to-day life, as enhanced when eight million people squish on to a few, closely-connected islands, I'm talking about an appreciation for mass transit, even when it smells bad, I'm talking about the strategy it takes to get to work in East Midtown when the entire UN General Assembly and their entourages and their entourages' entourage have blocked all your paths to the office, I'm talking about my loyalty to my favorite coffee wagon man, even though I have a back up wagon man, and yes, a back up to my back up wagon man, just in case.  Even though I've had the privilege (the horror?) of paying $40 for a parking spot and $70 for a cocktail on occasion, I'd like to use the next season to get to the guts of the people and places and events that have made this place what it is, and its residents who we are.

And I'm playing loose with this theme of  Life in New York, generally I mean the City, but then the title of this blog puts us out of its official jurisdiction.  Things are never so black and white, are they?  I lived in the Second Borough until I was 31, my parents lived in the Second Borough, my grandparents lived in the Second Borough, my great-grandparents moved to the Second Borough after coming through Ellis Island, and I went to school where at least 75%* of the class had a relative come through Ellis Island as well, I always wonder if I made the right decision to leave the city even if I'm still only a stone's throw from it's geographic borders.  But then, the Seventh Borough has got to be filled with at least 75%* of NYC transplants as well**.  And I wonder if they feel the same way.

So welcome to "Life in New York", or what possibly could have just been titled "Stuff That Happens Near By And Involves Highly Opinionated People Who Talk Loudly", but that's not catchy.  Definitely not as catchy as "Dark Chocolate".

(* my best guess, no documented proof behind these figures, but seems better than writing 'a lot')
(**just a quick one - I feel most of the NYC transplants here are from the Bronx.  It seems no one from Brooklyn ever relocates to Westchester.  Though there are at least three of us, Myself, My Aunt Jane, and of course, Jay-Z.)

But really, I'll leave you with a vignette about baseball:
In late October, Rob, Nick and I took a long weekend up to Boston and were in town right about when the Red Sox won the pennant and were heading off to the World Series.  A few day later, the Sox had won the Series.  I mentioned this phenomena to my boss: I said I was just in Boston, and the Sox win the Series.  In 2009 I was temporarily living in the Bronx with Rob while waiting to close on our house and the Yankees won the Series that year.  Where ever I go it seems to be good luck for that home team.  My boss looks me square in the face and says," Could you move to Flushing?"