i've realized over the course of this trip to new york that, although i will never really be a new yorker, growing up here has given the intrinsically-small-city me the skills to deal with it. specifically the subway, which has to be a confusing box-of-cats* to anyone who grew up in a small town and has no experience with such objects. i can definitely see why the crowds give new york its intimidating reputation (which is not wholly undeserved, but which is sort of exaggerated; i think most of it has to do with the culture shock, because it really is very different from small- and even medium-town america, as opposed to the exact nature of the new york zeitgeist.)
so i guess i am versatile culturally. at this point i can feel intimacy in the laptop-breakfast setting, as well as reading, movies, conversation, long walks on the beach, and all of those things. i guess i have the skills to deal with new york, as well as medium-size cities like san francisco and small towns like duluth (although most of texas is still probably outside my sphere of ability.)
now if only it weren't 90 and humid today.
* - at the conference, this guy proposed the name "box of cats polytope" for an object no two of whose edges are in the same direction. "pointing everywhere, like a box of cats," he said. i am attempting to propagate this phrase in general.