new_yorkers misstree i get the impression that people from new york are crazy. between various customer service jobs and the dread that inspired for new yorkers, the crazy_nazi guy and his ilk (half the new yorkers i've met have been asses, the other half are very strange but usually wonderful), and the number of mental health claims i process from that state... jane, you are surrounded by crazy folk. just remember not to argue with anyone about who's *really* talking to jeebus. 031216 ... p2 yes we is 031216 ... jane its actually quite wonderful...imagine being able to wear anything you want down the street [including a tutu]. its utter & complete freedom. i used to feel intimidated but now i've tapped into the goodness of it. it's very cool. 031216 ... misstree paint me a picture of what it's like to live there? 031217 ... jaded p2 if could paint i'd paint a series of pictures because the city cannot be captured in a single image first picture: shiny skyscrapers with dark alleys and crowded sidewalks of people holding faceless masks streaming past all in a hurry to nowhere in particular second picture: inside an office everyone holds a mask in front of their face all the masks look the same some hold knives behind their backs some face you so you cannot see what's behind their backs third picture: person just coming home the coat rack has coats on it next to it is another rack with masks on it each labelled "office" "friends" "family" "misc" the miscellaneous mask has no facial features as seen in the first picture fourth picture: the street at night the streets are lined with bmws, mercedes, and the like young happy people are toasting at a lighted outdoor cafe three buildings down, in the shadows, a whino is slumped over clutching a bottle in a brown paper bag fifth picture: a dark bedroom at night a silhouette of a person sitting on a bed with his/her head in his/her hands through the window you can see lighted buildings and crowded streets 031217 ... oldephebe not sure if hemingway could have painted a better existential tableau heart rending (my spelling? atrocious!) 031217 ... sphinxradio are often lonely people. 031217 ... yerp i wish I grew up somewhere else. "mahattan is an offshore boutique" I don't know how to drive, I only know how to take public transportation. I'm cheap. people are out to get me. I hate myself. I don't like new york. 031217 ... p2 i don't hate new york and i don't hate new yorkers new york may bring out the worst in people but that "worst" was there in the first place and we are all capable of it stare at me and i'll stare right back smile at me and i'll smile right back it's your choice but it's true i don't know you and i don't trust you but if you lived my life you wouldn't either do not judge me you are not my peer i am a new yorker 031224 ... notme i love old photographs of new york my mom and i were talking about covering our living room floor with copies of old photographs,...especially new york and you norkers! 031224 ... egger very nice, p2 031225 ... celestias shadow most of the new yorkers i know are assholes, except my family. oh wait, they're assholes, too. how could i forget? actually, I know some cool new yorkers, but so MANY of them are assholes. and then there are the yankees... maybe it's just because i'm from boston. 031228 ... no reason you're going to inevitably find lots different types of people in such a big city, some assholes, some not. i didn't really notice anything different about the people of NYC than where i live, which is probably a product of where i live being somewhat similar to NYC. 031231 ... jane i think most of the time people find what they want to find in other people 031231 ... no reason i found that this time most ot the people i met were very friendly and very intelligent and very leftist i liked that 040704 ... ClairE I miss living somewhere where you are allowed to yell at traffic crossing the street, where no one thinks twice about getting a pie or eating lox, where no one goes out until eleven, where boys and girls wear pink stilettos to go grocery shopping, where poets are piled up like rotting onions, where life's awful dirt rises up bare and harsh in its beautiful glory, where my heart got lost. 060217 ... jane up until recently it hadn't crossed my train of thoughts, except maybe something like.. wish i could go out to sushi now but it's four in the morning. i missed bagels & pizza, & that was it. recently, & after spending more time with him, i've found myself reaching out for a hint of that coast, knowing i can't leave the faint smell of the ocean water behind, but knowing that there the water falls from the sky in small frozen petals, instead of pink from tree branches here 060217 ... ClairE The only lost love I can have back. 060620 ... god are awesome 060620 ... (z) (i am for most of my life) 060621 ... z people say that new yorkers are aggressive. as someone who grew up here i can tell you that this is basically not true. others mistake our candor and directness for aggression. it is the people from ohio, misouri etc who are badly behaved here. i believe that they have the expectation that they need to be aggressive in order to survive here and so live that way. in effect they become the new yorkers of their own worst fears. really, it's not us, it's everybody else. the masks referenced so adroitly above, however, do exist. i have always referred to them as my street face and my train face. i use them in business negotiation as well. but i'd bet that anyone who is street wise has a version or 2 of their own. 060825 ... bluethreads not aggressive? um, have you rode the subway lately? it's not the individuals fault for the aggression, it's just that there are soo goddamned many people that everyone and everything becomes impersonal when I walk along the street I start hating everybody simply because they are there and now I can't cross the street because that womans big ass hand bag bag is in my way and I can't get down the milk aisle because there are soo many fucking people in my way and I can't have a conversation with my friend on my way home from work because the construction work is drilling in my ear, on top of the regular subway noise overhead and I may soon suffer asthma because the pollution is so bad 060826 ... bluethreads not aggressive? um, have you rode the subway lately? it's not the individual's fault for the aggression, it's just that there are soo goddamned many people that everyone and everything becomes impersonal when I walk along the street I start hating everybody simply because they are there and now I can't cross the street because that womans big ass hand bag bag is in my way and I can't get down the milk aisle because there are soo many fucking people in my way and I can't have a conversation with my friend on my way home from work because the construction work is drilling in my ear, on top of the regular subway noise overhead and I may soon suffer asthma because the pollution is so bad 060826 ... australian highrise I wish I were one. 060828 ... cool means hool as with any other group of people, some of them are cool and others, not-so-cool. (whatever cool means) 060828 ... z bluethread: i'm going to guess that you did not grow up in new york. i ride the subway 5 days a week, 2 times a day. yes it's crowded, but for the most part it seems to me that people are resigned to the indignities (perceived or otherwise). occasional grumbles aside, i perceive very little hostility on the trains. perhaps as a new yorker i have a higher threshold for hostility than others. your comments above suggest your own hostility and some of it's triggers. perhaps you meant it to be a personal example of the hostility that people feel in response to the pressures of urban living. if my thesis is correct you probably moved to new york in the last 3 years or so. either way, i still think most of the aggression is perpetrated by people from elsewhere. 060828 ... z regarding masks, see: low_affect_cool 060828 ... ClairE I_want_to_come_home. 060915 ... z then do. 060915 ... ClairE Unfortunately (oh, God, look at me treating blather as a chatroom), I am home already. 060915 ... jane i want to wisit 070327 what's it to you? who go blather from