Random Ramble Sunday!

It's been interesting meeting lots of New Yorkers these days, specifically, young, trying-to-make-it-in-their-careers-young-hotshots-from-abroad New Yorkers.

Everyone is a snowflake et cetera, but there is a vibe I've detected and I will now take the opportunity to generalize. New York makes it very easy for people to be super self-absorbed. Everyone is scrambling to stay afloat, everyone's got a hundred things they're trying to accomplish all at once and they're going over it all in their brain all the time, usually as they're multitasking by talking on their stupid ear-things and Crackberrying as they CROSS THE STREET.

These people would be laughed out of town in Toronto by the general disdain for naked ambition that drives me crazy there. But. Now I can admit that a healthy measure of the afore-mentioned attitude may have a civilizing effect, like co-ed versus single sex schools.

I can't help but compare the last few weeks I've spent here with my time in LA this spring. In LA, it amazed me how friendly and socially adept everyone was. Networking is an extreme sport and everyone is in good form. Everyone I met was so amazingly open and friendly and I just kind of enjoyed the cheerful warmth of it all. I mean, welcome to the party, right?

Well, New York is more like welcome to the jungle. I can hardly cut a path through people's giant egos. I have literally been in conversations with people who did not hear a word I was saying as lists, ambitions, their own sheer brilliance and their awe of it distracted them from...oh, huh - what?

LA and NY are both cities that people come to when they want to make it but there's something faster, harder and dirtier about NY, and something dreamier about LA. Maybe it's just the weather (not to be dismissed!), or maybe it's the cost of living (or NY's insane noise pollution!). Whatever it is, after meeting some of the yahoos I've met, it's kinda obvious why people burn out here. There are so many blowhard hot-air balloons that it's exhausting. You almost don't want their bubbles to burst because it would be of enormously catastrophic proportions. Blowhard or not, people here work their faces off in their careers AND on the side just try to stay head of the pack. It's no wonder why so many people work in NY in their 20s and then move somewhere more sane, while in Lalaland, you can grow old with dreads and your music/art/hippie pants/acting career until forever. Like, people laugh at Pinkberry here. It's just kind of mean, right?

Overheard today as I was walking by the Von Dutch store in SoHo, going over one wisecrack after another in an imaginary conversation with Kristine in my own mind (maybe I'm lonely): "Oh wow, they still have a Von Dutch store."

Now back to my rant about self-aggrandizement in NY. For the record, I've met some really nice people, too. Truly.

Oh, and let's end on a fun note. I went to Uniqlo today, which was the only shopping I really wanted to do at all while here - and that's saying a lot, considering that I'm in NY! I'm not really in shopping mode but judging from the streets packed with shoppers, it's just me. If there's a recession on Main Street and Wall Street, nobody told 5th Ave. It's like Americans can't stop shopping and I can see why - for some people it's their only recreation, their only hobby. After not shopping for so long, I will say that it has some crazy voodoo - I felt like I was in a spell. I ran around for awhile at the giant Uniqlo, grabbed a top and some perfect pants (that are hemmed on the spot for free?!) and then snapped out of it. Not a dollar too soon.

That's it for now.

xoxo from our crazytown loft where Isaac animates stuff all day and then we drink wine and watch crazy movies that make me too terrified to visit the bathroom,
Hannah