New York New York

I have not been to NYC in a few years. The last time I was there was just for an evening and we spent our time in SoHo. How pretentious does that sound? Well it is about to get worse. This time I actually stayed the night (well three to be exact) in Chelsea at the Hotel Indigo. I had a wonderful time. There are things about the city that I love but for the most part, I frickin hate NYC. There I said it. My relatives (my mother's side goes back for generations in NY) are spinning in their graves (to be fair, they were still spinning from me marrying a Southern protestant AND choosing to live in the South). My mother's family was old NY money (not Vanderbilt old, but Irish old) - they had what today would be a mansion complete with wrap around porch in Riverdale. They finally moved out to Long Island and then dispersed as the money had long since run out. If I lived there, I would soon run out of money as well. So I was in Chelsea. It is a cute little neighborhood rich in history and well situated to everything from Herald Square to Broadway to Penn Station and the Empire State Building. You can get to everything fairly easily. We walked to Chelsea Pier and back in the rain. Lovely time for real. What I hate are the rats, the fact that our hotel room was the size of my bathroom at home, that Central Park smells like bum piss and has rats instead of squirrels, and that everything is so crowded and confined. After traveling thru airports and being on an airplane, I nearly had a panic attack when I got the hotel and there was no sprawling lobby space and our hotel room had room enough for an almost king sized bed and a chair. I need space. And I need green. The only thing that saved our street was the fact that there were a bunch of flower shops on it and one exotic plant store that had its wares out along the sidewalk. Otherwise I may have lost my mind completely. Too many people. Way too many rats (I like mine dead or at the very least completely out of sight). Way too little space. And $60 for two drinks is outrageous.