I had a chance to get out of town for the weekend and see my good friend Mr. K., just outside of New York, across the river in Jersey. He’s one of the first people I ever shot with when I was first getting more serious about bondage photography and has offered a lot of encouragement over the years. We had a great time and I got tied up nicely several times.
Then later Sunday night I went into the city in boy mode on the PATH train and got some dinner. I lived briefly in New York for about a year in ’94, so I went over to check out my old neighborhood around 2nd Ave. and 9th St. I had dinner in this Russian diner called Veselka. It’s a good place and very popular. Unfortunately I had one of those experiences where you order something in a restaurant and then immediately realize that you’ve made a bad choice. I should have stuck with the omelette, but at the last minute I changed my mind and got some kind of chicken “sandwich,” which turned out to be a rather tough and mysteriously spiced chicken breast with two pieces of bread on the side. I actually like the restaurant, and have had excellent food there before, and perhaps if I were Russian I would have enjoyed it. But I found it, well, absolutely horrible, with some vague taste of garlic and lots of other unknown spices mixed in. So I had two bites, settled the bill, and took off kicking myself for my bad decision.
A couple blocks away I found another diner and this time stayed with the omelette. It was unexceptional but adequate and helped get the weird garlic taste out of my mouth.
Heading out of the restaurant I walked around the East Village some more. I was really amazed that I lasted as long as I did when I lived there. I actually really like New York. I think it’s a fascinating place and would be a terrific place to live if you were rich. But when I briefly lived there, my overriding memory was of being terribly depressed and lonely. I moved there thinking it would be an exciting adventure and then had a thoroughly miserable year. Now, walking around again, it was good to see the place, but finally it was getting late and time to jump on the PATH train back to New Jersey.
I have some relatives who are in Brooklyn that I visit regularly and your reaction to NYC is similar to mine. Nice place to visit, but not to live. It is an expensive place and can be very confining and oppressive if you don’t have the resources.
By the way, nice pictures!
When I visited NYC for the first time one of the things I like is how crazy people drive, as I used to be a cab driver and that kind of video game driving would be fun, if you didn’t have any passengers and a rental car (with the extra insurance :)
I also got sick and now can tell everyone where to hangout if you are sick in Times Square. Go to the 6th floor of the Marriot where there are botn nice bathrooms but soft chairs to sit on.
Lonely, that’s the word that struck me as well. Although the Doors thought LA was bad in the song “LA Woman…never saw a woman so alone…” , I think, as you say, without extra cash NYC would be much worse.
Then for some reason(it happens occasionally when I’m ill), I was having anxiety attacts when ever I had to wait. I loved the subway but it freaked me out while waiting for it. Opps I’m supposed to whine on my blog :)
I was reared in Minnesota, (no not that kind of rearing) and we had 300 days of sun, so now I like a lot of light. I actually think all the blazing spot lights I get in my eyes on the weekend helps that lack of brightness depression that folks get
B
I love those leather hotpants you have on.