Memorial Day tribute
This upcoming weekend is Memorial Day weekend. Maria and Kris are coming to visit, and I am so excited! It's funny...
In New York, which until recently was the center of my universe (who knew how right-on that New Yorker cartoon really is) Memorial Day weekend was a cataclysmic event. You could practically feel the earth shift starting the week before, as the city hummed with vacation plans, each year's trying to top the year's before. Tonight, the Thursday night before the Holiday, all the young singles would be going out, celebrating the "big night" before the "big day", and in part, the closing down of the city for the summer. Because it really does shut down.
Friday of Memorial Day, businesses start closing at noon, one, or three - I dare anyone to find a business in the media industry that stays open later. City streets get jam packed - everyone on the road at once heading east to the Hamptons or Fire Island, west to the Jersey shore, and, these days, north, for upstate. (Mark my words on that real estate tip). The line for the Hampton Jitney backs up for blocks on 40th street, as the fashionistas talk on their cell phones, page through Us Weekly, and sigh while waiting for the right bus. It's a virtual fashion show and a who's who of NYC - fun and sickening all at the same time.
By 7 PM on Friday night, New York is a ghost town. Sure, there are a good amount of people - couples, mostly - who opt to leave for their vacation on Sat morning and beat the rush. That makes sense in theory, but really, the only reason for having plans on Memorial Day is for the sake of having plans and being able to talk about them on Tuesday morning. And the Friday afternoon rush and first night of the summer is practically a requrement for full bragging rights.
After Memorial Day, the city isn't the same until September. People make plans to be away every weekend. Many companies, especially those in the media industry, cater to this lifestyle by providing employees with Summer Fridays. Of course, the reason for this must have stemmed from the fact that the city is truly unbearable in the summer. The heat gets trapped between the metal skyscrapers, steams up from the sidewalk, and roasts the streets and people in them like a pressure cooker. Central Park - nature to the city dwellers - becomes hot and uncomfortable, and those that sunbathed freely in May can't even enjoy the shadows in July. So the heat plays a part, but one easily forgotten in the wake of coolness being displayed elsewhere.
City bars empty out - good for getting a reservation at Spice Market - but not for meeting new people or even feeling like you are at a cool place. And with those few people you do meet, you have to explain WHY you are in the city that particular weekend; it is not because you are a loser and have no place to go, rather, it is because you need a break from all the traveling you have been doing all summer, or because you have friends in town visiting, or some other arbitrary reason that suggests of course you KNOW it is so uncool to stay in the city during a weekend in the summer, and that makes you all the more cool for breaking the rules and being there.
Some people like the quiet. I hated it. The first few summers I was there (with no place to go) I would sit at Starbucks for hours and look at the people, and long for Labor Day and the return of the world. When I realized that was pathetic, I started planning my weekends like everyone else. I didn't have a house in the Hamptons, but I could visit friends there, or in Boston, or anywhere, really, as long as the area code wasn't 212. Then came the Jersey shore - the poor man's Hamptons escape. That was a truly fabulous way of getting out of town every other weekend, having a legitimate reason for getting out of the city, and even appreciating the weekends I stayed at home. Then, last summer, I outdid myself. Every NYC is comprised of 16 weekends counting from Mem Day to Labor Day. I managed to be away for EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. About 8 were spent on the Jersey shore, another 4 were traveling for business, I had 2 wedding activity weekends, 1 trip to LA, and 1 non-work trip to the Hamptons. When I knew I could never top that, I had to move out here.
Now, if my friends weren't coming in this weekend, there would really be no indicator of the fact that it is a long weekend. I don't think anyone in my office has plans to go away, at least not for more than a day. We don't close early; I don't know anyone out here that does. Very little is even being said of the fact that it is a Holiday. And when you think about it, the Holiday itself is a memorium to those who have passed, which isn't really a celebratory idea. Yet, the day is somehow synonymous in my mind with barbeques, beach volleyball, and beer.
I am glad for the change. I spent too many summers pining like a female Gilligan - constantly looking for ways to get off that island. Now that I have, I haven't totally shed myself of the instinct to escape my habitat, but for the first time in years, I am exactly where I want to be.
In New York, which until recently was the center of my universe (who knew how right-on that New Yorker cartoon really is) Memorial Day weekend was a cataclysmic event. You could practically feel the earth shift starting the week before, as the city hummed with vacation plans, each year's trying to top the year's before. Tonight, the Thursday night before the Holiday, all the young singles would be going out, celebrating the "big night" before the "big day", and in part, the closing down of the city for the summer. Because it really does shut down.
Friday of Memorial Day, businesses start closing at noon, one, or three - I dare anyone to find a business in the media industry that stays open later. City streets get jam packed - everyone on the road at once heading east to the Hamptons or Fire Island, west to the Jersey shore, and, these days, north, for upstate. (Mark my words on that real estate tip). The line for the Hampton Jitney backs up for blocks on 40th street, as the fashionistas talk on their cell phones, page through Us Weekly, and sigh while waiting for the right bus. It's a virtual fashion show and a who's who of NYC - fun and sickening all at the same time.
By 7 PM on Friday night, New York is a ghost town. Sure, there are a good amount of people - couples, mostly - who opt to leave for their vacation on Sat morning and beat the rush. That makes sense in theory, but really, the only reason for having plans on Memorial Day is for the sake of having plans and being able to talk about them on Tuesday morning. And the Friday afternoon rush and first night of the summer is practically a requrement for full bragging rights.
After Memorial Day, the city isn't the same until September. People make plans to be away every weekend. Many companies, especially those in the media industry, cater to this lifestyle by providing employees with Summer Fridays. Of course, the reason for this must have stemmed from the fact that the city is truly unbearable in the summer. The heat gets trapped between the metal skyscrapers, steams up from the sidewalk, and roasts the streets and people in them like a pressure cooker. Central Park - nature to the city dwellers - becomes hot and uncomfortable, and those that sunbathed freely in May can't even enjoy the shadows in July. So the heat plays a part, but one easily forgotten in the wake of coolness being displayed elsewhere.
City bars empty out - good for getting a reservation at Spice Market - but not for meeting new people or even feeling like you are at a cool place. And with those few people you do meet, you have to explain WHY you are in the city that particular weekend; it is not because you are a loser and have no place to go, rather, it is because you need a break from all the traveling you have been doing all summer, or because you have friends in town visiting, or some other arbitrary reason that suggests of course you KNOW it is so uncool to stay in the city during a weekend in the summer, and that makes you all the more cool for breaking the rules and being there.
Some people like the quiet. I hated it. The first few summers I was there (with no place to go) I would sit at Starbucks for hours and look at the people, and long for Labor Day and the return of the world. When I realized that was pathetic, I started planning my weekends like everyone else. I didn't have a house in the Hamptons, but I could visit friends there, or in Boston, or anywhere, really, as long as the area code wasn't 212. Then came the Jersey shore - the poor man's Hamptons escape. That was a truly fabulous way of getting out of town every other weekend, having a legitimate reason for getting out of the city, and even appreciating the weekends I stayed at home. Then, last summer, I outdid myself. Every NYC is comprised of 16 weekends counting from Mem Day to Labor Day. I managed to be away for EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. About 8 were spent on the Jersey shore, another 4 were traveling for business, I had 2 wedding activity weekends, 1 trip to LA, and 1 non-work trip to the Hamptons. When I knew I could never top that, I had to move out here.
Now, if my friends weren't coming in this weekend, there would really be no indicator of the fact that it is a long weekend. I don't think anyone in my office has plans to go away, at least not for more than a day. We don't close early; I don't know anyone out here that does. Very little is even being said of the fact that it is a Holiday. And when you think about it, the Holiday itself is a memorium to those who have passed, which isn't really a celebratory idea. Yet, the day is somehow synonymous in my mind with barbeques, beach volleyball, and beer.
I am glad for the change. I spent too many summers pining like a female Gilligan - constantly looking for ways to get off that island. Now that I have, I haven't totally shed myself of the instinct to escape my habitat, but for the first time in years, I am exactly where I want to be.
posted by Lori @ 1:13 PM
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