i've been talking to the wall and it's been answering me

I'm having one of those days where I have a lot of writing to do but all I want to do is sit outside and drink coffee and people watch. I would bring the work laptop with me but I have some sort of wireless mental block when it comes to PCs and I can never get it to configure the way it should.

You know, I haven't been in New York for all that long -- six years this summer -- but I have been here long enough to react to the "New Yorkers are rude" chestnut, or variations thereon, with bemusement. So I enjoyed Joan Acocella's essay on the subject. Most of what she says is true. I can't tell you how many times someone -- usually an older woman -- has stopped me to point out a little schmutz on my coat or something. And the part about hovering around someone having a directions-based conversation? Totally true. Just last week, in fact, I walked by a driver asking someone how to get to the Manhattan Bridge and when the person started floundering, I jumped in.

Seems I am asked for directions a lot. Doesn't matter where I am. I must always look like I know what I'm doing and where I'm going. Which means that I have you all FOOLED.

Comments

[jackie]

Do you need wifi just to write?
Although who are we kidding, outside on a nice day, who is really going to work?

[Jody]

First - I really enjoy reading your blog, which I have been doing covertly for a month or so. Second - thanks for the Joan Acocella essay! Yes, I hover, too. And get asked for directions a lot. In fact, I'd only been here a week or two when I started directing people on the subway. I hope they got where they were going...

[regina]

I love the Elvis quote. ;)

[anj]

"I know you. I know your problems—they're the same as mine—and furthermore we have the same handbag."

Yes.. I think that all the time.. not in NY of course.. but I think that on the subway all the time.

if nothing else I have the same knitwear....

[margaret]

I'm totally guilty of hovering, especially since I live on a block that could technically be called a cul-de-sac here in Manhattan; the crosstown bus does not go across town on my street, but turns and then crosses the park two blocks farther north. Not a day goes by when I see puzzled people standing at the corner, trying to figure out where the bus stops - I manage to tell them all!

[Ellen]

I get asked for directions a lot too, mostly because I'm on my bike and I'm closer to the cars. I can get them where they want to go, but after they pull away, I usually think of an easier or better way to get there. I often wonder if they made it, what with all the L,R,R, L,L, and if you see xxx you've gone too far.