We all pretend it’s normal…

We all pretend that life in NY is normal. Just today I had the day off, which isn’t usually for a Thursday, and I decided to go to the gym before noon. I got on a train at 10 am and…I barely was able to squeeze in. At 10 am! Shouldn’t all of these people be at work? (Did they have the day off, too?) This happens all the time recently – it doesn’t matter what train I take or at what hour, it’s usually full. Getting to the gym takes me 30 minutes by train, which is another thing – it’s not that close. (On a more positive note, it used to take me over an hour, so it’s improved.) I do have a gym that’s right around the corner, but I just really love the gym I’ve been going to for over a year now. So it’s my choice. 

There is a coffee shop in NY now, Australian Blue Bottle, where a cup of coffee is…$4.50. Ok, their coffee is a bit different, it’s good, but come on! The usual cup of coffee in coffee shops is around $2.45. When you go to a deli (that I wrote about on Just Like NY) you still get something (they call this dark brown substance coffee) for $1. We buy these expensive coffee drinks (all kind of lattes and cappuccinos, the new bestselling Nutella Latte – all at least $6) and pretend that these prices are fine. Some people buy them every day. The same with Matcha – you won’t find a Matcha latte below $5-6. Soy milk is not popular anymore – almond took over, but it’s losing the top spot to oat milk now. You haven’t had a latte with oat milk yet??? Not to mention that we made it normal (at least in our perceptions) to drink morning coffee on the train, when other people’s elbows are in our faces. You drink your coffee at home? Weirdo…

It’s the same with fresh juices. I am lucky enough to have cheap spots with vegetables (avocado for $1!) in my neighborhood and I make my juices now, because before I was buying them for… $10 each (with protein powder). When I bought my Nutri Bullet and a whole bag of veggies for $20, I just couldn’t overpay anymore. But Juice Generation (the most popular juice place) is doing great and there is often a line there. Well, I will probably buy there once in a while in the summertime. 

Some people pretend that it’s normal to buy your breakfast for $15 every day. Even bagels are part of the problem now. I went to one bagel place, Black Seed Bagel, and the only bagel I could afford was the one with ricotta, apples and honey, for which I paid $7. There were bagels for $11-13. Really? 

We pretend that’s normal to order food from a restaurant that is only a block away and they want it delivered. And we even think it’s normal to get angry if they don’t and we have to walk to pick it up (!!!). It’s cold outside – why can’t someone just bring it to us? And we think it’s normal to order takeout every day. Our fridge is just to store our alcohol and…our almond milk, of course. 

We pretend that it’s normal that we run like crazy to get a train (it’s like a disease that’s spreading), and that it’s normal that we have to change trains three times before we reach our destination, sometimes an hour or later. I pretended that it was normal to have an hour commute to work and an hour and a half commute back home (for two years!)

We pretend it’s normal to meet with someone for an hour only to have sex, and never see this person again. We rarely text them the next day. Why bother? “It’s supposed to be only about sex.” We pretend that it’s not weird to have a different sex partner every week (not my case…unfortunately). 

And meanwhile, somewhere, in a galaxy far, far away, there is a normal life out there…because I’m sure it’s not in NY.

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