Right Here NYC

The cooler outside Shake Shack in Madison Square offering free ice-cold water during the summer.

I guess I oughtta give this blogging thing a try. Everyone else is doing it these days. Living in Manhattan and having too much time on my hands, it's only natural that I end up doing a lot of walking. It's one of the few places left where you don't need a car ... in fact having a car is a big inconvenience if you live in Manhattan. But behind these streets, these tall buildings and these parks that try to preserve a bit of greenery in the concrete jungle, there's always a story. I love the hundred plus year old buildings from the Victorian era ... so much more ornate than anything we see today, and in the city that's constantly changing, I get a kick out of seeing what's remained over the years.
The recession has truly been rough on me, and so having to take care of me even though I'm pushing thirty has been rough on my parents, and in these tough economic times, its become clear that there just isn't any room anymore for a fat, handicapped, socially inept guy like me to make a decent living, and there probably won't be for a long time. I keep thinking that something will work out ... because I worked hard in school, because I was good and played it safe, because I deserve better than this. I deserve the simple things in life just like anybody else. What I've got to realize is that it might not work out. The outside world has denied me the simple things in life, and could very well continue to do so, and not God or anyone else will see to it that things work out in the end.
I think about this as I make my way up Broadway from Bowling Green through Union Square and up to Madison Square, leaving the latest bullshit "not really a job" interview in sales. In the past two years, every time I've gotten dressed up in my suit and tie, saw the huge beautiful office, and met the friendly, upbeat staff that thinks I'm a good guy and wants to give me a shot, it's turned out to be a goddamned pyramid scheme. It's incredible. The Shake Shack in Madison Square gives out free ice-cold water over to the side of the "shack" ... so much better than the warm metallic tasting water at the Union Square fountains. My feet are killing me, and so I sit on the benches and rest and rehydrate for a while, until I continue to march up to 65th and 1st.