a little perspective

On Saturday, a friend and I hired a car and embarked on a mini-road trip to visit Woodbury Common, a Truman Show-esque village of outlet shops somewhere in upstate New York where one can unload the entire contents of their credit card on a variety of fashion and household goods that they don't need. Sounds like a blast, right? Well, it would have been had New York and it's surrounds not received pretty steady snowfall all throughout Friday night. We awoke on Saturday morning to find a city covered in white, it's sounds and sights muted by the soft marshmellowy cover. Those initial few hours of Saturday morning, before the crowds mustered the bravery to leave their homes and the snow melted into brown mush, were no less than magical. That is, of course, unless you were driving on the I-87 upstate, in which case they were no less than perilous.

We survived, however (though our credit cards were badly damaged) and I found myself enjoying the opportunity to be out of the big smoke. It sounds so cliched, but after only a week in the city I already needed a bit of space, a small reminder that the world does not begin and end, like in the Truman Show, at the edges of Manhattan.

The following day we squidged around the streets of Williamsburg, our breath clouding in front of us as we took pictures of cool graffiti and admired the awesome view of the Manhattan skyline. The city looks so small from over there.

When I returned home my housemate, in response to my exclamations about how much fun we'd had in Williamsburg, replied with a scowl, "Brooklyn? Ew. I never go to Brooklyn. Why would I need to?" and reality set in again. Who was I kidding? The world really does begin and end in New York.

Well, at least to New Yorkers it does.