Living the cliché?
Yesterday I went to my married friends' housewarming party in Hoboken. It was my first time out there, and it was surprisingly accessible all-around. Apparently there is a whole PATH platform tucked in one corner of the 33rd Street station in Koreatown, and its turnstiles are not only newer than the MTA's but cheaper as well ($1.50). In fact, I think I'm going to take the PATH anytime I have to travel along Sixth Avenue between 33rd and Christopher.
Anyway, so Hoboken is just one stop outside Manhattan. From my place, it's actually easier to get to than to the Upper West Side. And the city (township? what do they call them in Jersey?), at least the part outside the PATH station, is like a cleaner, less crowded Village. Very cute. And there is a very orderly drive-thru line of taxis right outside the station, and according to Neil you can go anywhere in town for a $5. This was certainly true for the trip to his and Noopur's new apartment, which was definitely cooler than any of my Manhattan friends' apartments (sorry, but true). It's cleaner and brighter than our prewar dwellings, but not as sterile and generic as our prefab luxury buildings. They live on the top (fourth) floor, but the front door opens to a long staircase, where the apartment is actually located. They have an open-bar kitchen, but my favorite feature was the loft/barn-style sliding glass doors in the living room and the bedroom, through which you could step out onto the balcony and the stairs up to the roof. And the view of Manhattan from the roof -- well, it's everything people say it is.
I think there is this fear among young urban singles (at least among me) that once you get married, you disappear from the city and live out the rest of your days absorbed by some bland suburbia, with dim wood-paneled dens and shag carpeting, where settling down is mostly just settling. I think this is the fear we have about our friends who are about to get hitched, and about ourselves if/when it happens to us. It's an irrational fear, of course -- but we fear what we cannot understand, and a part of me sees the wedded state as nothing but an intangible, incomprehensible hypothetical future.
But being able to spend time with real, young married couples who live and work in the city (or the Tri-State area) helps to give me a reality check -- in a good way. I'm so happy for my friends like Neil and Noopur, who are so fun and relatable and down-to-earth but also brilliant and on their way to successful careers (Neil works at Smart Money and his wife is an electrical engineer). And they are just so great together. It gives me hope that such things can exist -- maybe they can, someday, for me as well.
Buffy Season 8 is coming! True, it ain't Sarah Michelle Gellar and James Marsters, but this is the official continuation of the saga from Joss Whedon himself, courtesy of Dark Horse.
As if I wasn't looking forward to this enough, the fact that Joss managed to retcon the atrocious Buffy/Immortal crap in "The Girl in Question" in the sneak preview alone pretty much guarantees my readership.
Anyway, so Hoboken is just one stop outside Manhattan. From my place, it's actually easier to get to than to the Upper West Side. And the city (township? what do they call them in Jersey?), at least the part outside the PATH station, is like a cleaner, less crowded Village. Very cute. And there is a very orderly drive-thru line of taxis right outside the station, and according to Neil you can go anywhere in town for a $5. This was certainly true for the trip to his and Noopur's new apartment, which was definitely cooler than any of my Manhattan friends' apartments (sorry, but true). It's cleaner and brighter than our prewar dwellings, but not as sterile and generic as our prefab luxury buildings. They live on the top (fourth) floor, but the front door opens to a long staircase, where the apartment is actually located. They have an open-bar kitchen, but my favorite feature was the loft/barn-style sliding glass doors in the living room and the bedroom, through which you could step out onto the balcony and the stairs up to the roof. And the view of Manhattan from the roof -- well, it's everything people say it is.
I think there is this fear among young urban singles (at least among me) that once you get married, you disappear from the city and live out the rest of your days absorbed by some bland suburbia, with dim wood-paneled dens and shag carpeting, where settling down is mostly just settling. I think this is the fear we have about our friends who are about to get hitched, and about ourselves if/when it happens to us. It's an irrational fear, of course -- but we fear what we cannot understand, and a part of me sees the wedded state as nothing but an intangible, incomprehensible hypothetical future.
But being able to spend time with real, young married couples who live and work in the city (or the Tri-State area) helps to give me a reality check -- in a good way. I'm so happy for my friends like Neil and Noopur, who are so fun and relatable and down-to-earth but also brilliant and on their way to successful careers (Neil works at Smart Money and his wife is an electrical engineer). And they are just so great together. It gives me hope that such things can exist -- maybe they can, someday, for me as well.
Buffy Season 8 is coming! True, it ain't Sarah Michelle Gellar and James Marsters, but this is the official continuation of the saga from Joss Whedon himself, courtesy of Dark Horse.
As if I wasn't looking forward to this enough, the fact that Joss managed to retcon the atrocious Buffy/Immortal crap in "The Girl in Question" in the sneak preview alone pretty much guarantees my readership.