On My Mind: Confessions Of A House Plant Killer

This was Begonia when I brought her home from the Greenmarket in April, and this is Begonia today:She bloomed her last bloom in July, and she's been all leaves and stem since. I've been watering her faithfully, thinking she might reward my effort with an encore, but alas, the fall is upon us, and now I believe there is no hope for us. I really thought there was a chance for us, Begonia and I. I thought she would bloom her heart out all summer, and I would somehow keep her tuber safe and warm throughout the cold winter months, and we would meet again next spring.

But now, I am grappling with a difficult decision: admit she's looking sickly and throw her down the trash chute to join the ranks of numerous orchids, bromeliads, african violets, and cyclamens I have killed in my lifetme (not counting the plants I killed on purpose for my 8th grade science fair project) or marshall all my resources to save her in the hopes that she'll flower again next spring?

What should I do? Is there any way to save her, or is she just a casualty of the changing of the seasons? Do other people struggle with keeping plant life alive in this City? With limited light exposures and moisture-sucking, temperature-variable air conditioning and heating, no ordinary flowering plant stands a chance. At least not under my care. I have failed again! Arghhh!

In any case, thank you, Begonia. At least for a while, it was lovely to wake up and see you blooming. When I bought you, I desperately needed a reminder of the miracle of natural life in this city full of concrete, and you did your duty.

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P.S. Begonia, I have decided I can't bear to throw you away. I don't know if you're too far gone to re-flower next spring, but I've done some research on the Interwebs, and there's hope! I'm going to dry you out, so you don't rot, cut back your stem and store you in a cool, dry place over the winter. Sleep tight and see you in March.

Word On The Street: The Pain of Moving to NYC

I love this article in the Times this morning: "Newcomers Adjust, Eventually, to New York". Sounds awfully familiar. I wonder why? Oh yeah - this entire blog is devoted to the topic! According to the article, some people come and like it; some people get beat by the city and leave. Sounds about right.

Complaints as registered by Times reporter: subway navigation, alienation & loneliness, lack of neighborliness, high cost of living, abrasiveness of co-workers, and the insidious way the City turns you into a pushy, short-tempered New Yorker over time....let's see...double YUH-HUH!

Glad to know I'm not all alone and crazy in thinking this city's full of challenges. Makes you wonder why there aren't more support networks for us so-called "adjusting newcomers"? If only there were a blog where other newcomers could come and post comments on the challenges they face, learn things about how to live more comfortably in the city, commiserate with blogger and friends? If only....:)

On My Mind: Shut-In NYC

Confession. I haven't left the house in two days. Okay, not so unusual for someone who works from home, but it made me think of how easy it is to be a shut-in in this city. With the Internet, Facebook, email and phone...oh, and TV (the people are almost real!), it's easy to think you're connecting with people when you really aren't. And it's easy to stay home and avoid the crowds, the dirt, the noise, the spending of money, and it's way too easy to start spiraling into an inner world of your own creation until your next scheduled dinner/lunch/social outing.

According to the Census Bureau, this city has 8 million plus people living in it. A person shouldn't get lonely with that many people around, but sometimes it's like trying to reach out and grab a fish when a school of fish is swimming by (I just got back from diving, so excuse the metaphor). When you're not going to the office every day, your social interactions have to be formalized. There's very little spontaneous human contact. You have to make a real effort, and I can imagine that for some people, that effort becomes too much. I wonder how many people live this way, just walls separating us from them, but silent and invisible.

I have this idea about small towns and cities. I imagine everyone's in your business, all the neighbors talk when you don't mow your lawn and know more about your marriage than you probably do, but they'll bring you soup when you're sick, and if your newspapers pile-up, they knock on your door to see if you're okay. I've never lived in a small town, but I fantasize that it's a little like living in Stars Hollow. Sometimes I wish I could knock on my neighbor's door and offer up cookies I've baked, or ask someone to water Begonia while I'm away on vacation. I wish I had a group of friends, like Seinfeld or Ross and Rachel do, people who just come over unannounced...but maybe this kind of neighborliness gets annoying in real life.

Maybe a great number of us who move to New York are control freaks who really do like being able to control how, when and where people interact with us and how much they know about us. Maybe occasional loneliness is the trade-off for maintaining the illusion of perfection? Maybe all that neighborly intrusion would just be a form of procrastination, a reason not to get the things I really want to get done done?

Whatever. I need some fresh air.

Word on the Street: The New York Times On Noise Canceling Headphones And The Rise Of The City

The New York Times Magazine had an article today ("The Silence Generation: Technology adapts to eliminate the clatter of city life one person at a time"by Rob Walker) on how those of us perturbed by the constant din of city life can use noise-canceling headphones to drown out the madness. Apparently, the one to get is Bose's $350 QuietComfort 3 model, which folds flat so you can stick it in your purse.

Walker opens the piece by saying "One thing that makes city life inspiring is also one thing that makes it oppressive: other people." I would definitely agree, as my experience yesterday can attest, and I am intrigued by the idea of getting a pair of overpriced headphones, esp when I think about how ear-piercing the subways have gotten lately traveling those under-oiled tracks.

Still, maybe I'd only use it on occasion b/c after all, if you block out all the noise, you'll be blocking out one whole sense and with it, the sense of being alive. It'd be like watching a movie without the soundtrack. Could get boring.

The article appears in the magazine's Architecture issue, which provides some interesting stats on NYC and the global urbanization trend:

• NYC is the fourth largest metro area in the world,with 18.7 million people, after Tokyo and Mexico City and Mumbai
• NY is the city with the most subway stations - 468
• NYC was the second richest city in 2005 (by GDP); Tokyo being first, LA second, Chicago & Paris tied for fourth
• NYC is ranked 114 in the list of cities with the highest population density, with 5,309 people per sq. mile; surprisingly, LA is no. 90, with 7068 people per square mile. I guess I figured with all the skyscrapers in Manhattan, NY would be more densely populated...but I guess the four other boroughs offset the density of the island
• 50% of the world's population will live in cities by the end of 2008; 75% in 2050

So I guess maybe it's a good thing I've lived in cities all my life, and now the Big Bad Daddy of the US. At least I'll be prepared for the future. By 2050, when the entire world looks like something out of Bladerunner, maybe I'll have grown used to and perhaps even fond of the traffic, the crowds, the noise, the communal living, lack of green and the dirt.