Thursday, July 19, 2007

Jenediah

Urban living. One thing about living here in New York is your hands become markedly more necessary. And maybe not just hands, but your own physical strength comes into play. Whatever I decide to bring home with me, i have to be able to hold onto it (so is there a handle of some kind?) and i have to be able to carry it (am i strong enough? and am i strong enough for the amount of time i'll have to be carrying it?--all the way home.) these are the things i think about.

Case in point: The other day we bought an AC. It came in a box. We thought we could hoof it home but, problem one: it had no good handles of any kind and two: Despite it being light enough to carry in the beginning, it got heavy fast. Fortunately we ran/hobbled over to the bus stop and were able to hop on right away instead of hauling it all the way home, which would have turned into pausing at every street corner to take a break. This is why catching the bus is such a blessed thing. It literally saves you.

One more thing: (It sounds like i'm whining now) One time I had traveled to Queens to get some invitations Sean had ordered for an art show. It was something like 2000 and I had to carry them home and it's kind of a trek from Queens. They weren't too heavy to carry at all, but after a while, they became so. Again, problem one: I didn't have a bag to put them in and I SHOULD have gotten one. I had the opportunity but I thought I could handle it. Problem two: They got increasingly heavier, like I said, so that when, on the way home I stopped for groceries (without cart) (at the grocery store about a 7-minute walk away from home), i literally had no strength left in my arms. None. It was spent. All of it.

I ask you: have you ever gotten to that point? Sure you get tired sometimes, things start to get heavy, but have you ever used up every last drop of your strength? I could go a few steps carrying all of my bags, willing my arms to just hold on, but then had to set everything down and rest every 30 steps or something, like 7 times. So lame, yet interesting.

I sometimes feel like a mountain man or a pioneer out here. Everything requires physical strength.

2 comments:

Brooke said...

Yesterday, when I was shopping at the Gateway, I totally started to feel like that when my three light bags got to be too much. Luckily, my car was in underground parking and I just packed up and left.

:)

Just kiddin, J. I feel your pain. Having metro'd sans car in DC, I know what it's like to have only so much strength to carry only so many pounds. I remember getting home with loads sometimes and just praising God that I made it and could crash on the floor till I regained the ability to move. Good times.

)en said...

Ha ha. Exactly. It's amazing what sheer will can make you do.