New York, New York

I landed in New York last evening and had a nice night to myself. I lived in New York for 5 years and have been in SF the last 5 years. I love New York, but it does come with it’s own stresses. Within minutes of getting off my flight at JFK, I could feel the anxiety and stress pick up quickly. JFK is always a wreck and my cab driver tried to hassle me into paying cash.

I booked the cheapest hotel that did not seem to have bed bugs, and it is your typical old cheap New York hotel. I’m used to it after living here in my 20s, but I could see why a tourist would not be neccessary happy with a hotel like this. I dropped my bags and went off to one of my favorite restaurants in the country, Szechuan Mountain House.

It was humid and rained on me during my walk down. I got to the restaurant at 8:30 and had a 45 minute wait which ended up actually being a 15 minute wait. All that trouble and I had one of my favorite dishes within 20 minutes. All my stress was gone at that point. I remembered why I love New York again at that moment.

This city is amazing in so many ways. The energy levels here are off the charts. Unlike San Francisco, New York seems completely back. It’s crowded and people were out in force even on a Sunday night. Despite some initial anxiety of being back, I’m stoked to be here this week and I’ll be sad to leave on Saturday.