I remember an illustration from the New Yorker that used to hang on my dad’s living room wall when I was a teenager. It was a map of the USA from a New Yorker’s point of view, where the descriptions of all the other various states were some kind of generalized overview from someone who’d never been there and obviously didn’t care to go.
Despite living a life on the flip side of this commentary, I can’t help but relate to this image when I’m in the city of New York. With all the action, constant stimuli, and newness around every corner it feels like nothing else exits and if it does, why? That city is the perfect juxtapositions to my usual surroundings and still one of my favorite places in the world. Joe and I always say if we lose an arm (knock on wood) it would be the first place we would head to!
Even now it’s hard to remember that being in NYC for one of my best girlfriend’s wedding was just the middle ground for an eclectic past few weeks that involved lots of different scenarios, sceneries, and a variety of socializing. After staying unusually long in St George due to a timely transmission failure, we headed to SLC to catch our flights with perfected tans and soft skin. Partying every night in NYC with my favorite ladies in the world always ended with a dollar pizza slice around 3:30am and was usually followed by hungover café con leches, breakfast sandwiches, and more city strolling.
Our trip to the northeast didn’t harbor much safety from late nights, eating out, and booze fests, all paired with zero exercise, as we met up with some of Joe’s oldest friends in the towns where he grew up and learned to climb.
Traveling from the desert to the city to green harbors of the northeast was as boring-less, calorie-stacking and climbing-free as it sounds, and I loved every minute of it! The east represents my life before I was a climber and holds a funny sentimental place in me every time I visit. I wonder what my life would have been like had I stayed there? What kind of job and friends I would have? No matter how tiresome the city can be I never look at it and roll my eyes. Somehow I’m still very attracted to the kind of life there and it’s even a style I would try to pull off if it were at all feasible.
Sitting here with the van in the middle of the forest just outside of Riggins, ID with engine running to charge my computer, showerless and sore, it’s easy for me to choose where I’d rather be. The city may know no challenger but I made my life full of the best parts of all those stereotyped states in between and it’s a pretty good competition.
