I (Kinda) Love New York

I (Kinda) Love New York

Yeah, I do kinda love New York.  It really doesn’t deserve the recent rap it got as the number one rudest city in the U.S. (DC was rated # 3).  I can trace this love/hate thing back to my Mom, she was from NY and she was constantly telling me how wonderful it was and how DC was a dump.  Of course I rebelled against that – what did she know, she was my MOM and it was the 1960s.  I was bound and determined not to love NY.  Kind of hard to do that when your childhood aspiration is a life on the stage.  There’s only one place to realize that dream and it’s in New York City.  Fortunately I realized that in order to be on Broadway you had to be able to sing, dance, act and forgo health insurance for the better part of your life.  I am the child of a long line of Federal Government workers – no way was I pursuing a career with no health benefits! (& there’s that talent thing…)  I married a man from NY, not my Mom’s Brooklyn – I’m talking Manhattan!  And, even though he’s lived in DC/MD/VA for over 40 years he still says “I’m from NYC.”  It runs deep.  I understand, I really do and I’m envious.  He was taking the subway when he was in the 1^st grade!  I wanted to do that.  I wanted to grow up a few stops from 42^nd Street; hang out at the stage door of “The Barrymore”; sneak into shows at intermission and answer cattle calls with my tap shoes slung over my shoulder.  You know what?  Everyone wants to be from NYC.  Why?  They got the Yankees and Jeter and the Jets and the Giants and Grand Central Station and the United Nations and Woody Allen and Letterman and Nathan’s and Carnegie Hall and The NY Times & The NY Post and The Dakota and The Plaza and Street vendors and Central Park and The Cloisters and the Dickens exhibit at the Morgan Library and SNL and 30 Rock and bagels and the best Italian food this side of Italy and the West Side and the East Side (whatever the f__k that means) and that incredible steam heat in all the hotels.  Okay, I lied, I don’t kinda love New York – I love it. 

I’m just saying…