I 'heart' NY

While most people dread it, I do appreciate driving in New York City. In any other city, the sort of aggressive driving that occurs within the city would most definitely result in every driver getting into an accident; in NYC, everything magically works out. Although the drivers are completely discourteous (especially the cabbies), they will not run into you. They are all (for the most part), paying attention to what is going on around them and although you may come dangerously close to an accident - you will not end up in one. This is more than I can say for driving in virtually any other city I've been in, including Raleigh where I spend most of my driving life. In Raleigh, I'd argue that driving is much more dangerous than in NYC because the people who would be too afraid to drive in NYC are just fine behind the wheel in Raleigh. While they have no problems exhibiting some of the traffic law violations that an NYC driver would, Raleigh drivers will not hesitate to hit you with their vehicle. Maybe that's what we need to do to make driving safer for everyone: make the careless drivers too afraid to get behind the wheel. Since my idea of better driver's education doesn't seem to be going anywhere, maybe it's time for more drastic measures :)

Given my praise for NYC drivers, I will whole heartedly agree that the system is flawed. Veteran NYC drivers are not nice to one another, thus every driver is concerned with one thing alone: getting to where he/she wants to go. Because of the way the drivers think they are obviously not looking out for other drivers, so you can give up any hopes of being let in front of someone, resulting in a perpetuation of the aggressive "every man for himself" driving mentality. Another side effect of this isolationist view on driving is that the pedestrians are scared to death, which also means that they have a constant hate and lack of respect for the drivers. In turn, this makes the drivers hate the pedestrians - and the perpetuation continues. What is the result of this?

Pedestrians cross the street when they shouldn't be, thus angering drivers. Drivers then attempt to do the same to pedestrians, thus angering the pedestrians. Both parties are at fault, but it's one of those issues where both parties are at fault for the escalating tensions with no clear end in sight (Israel v Palestine anyone?).

I do enjoy NYC, but I am definitely glad to be out of there. I can stay in New Haven for a week in a much nicer hotel than I can for one weekend in the city, for a cheaper price. There is a lot of life in NYC but it is a very expensive life to live. I've always said that it's a wonderful place to visit, but I just couldn't live there. Everything else aside: I enjoy driving too much to move to NYC :)

I'm in New Haven now and believe it or not, I'm thankful to be here - it's a lot more relaxing than NYC. Vinney has class all this week (my Spring Break) so I mostly hang around her room, get work done and do her laundry while she's in class (you know it's gotta be love when you'll willingly offer to do her laundry :)...). I definitely don't fit in on Yale's campus; people look at me strange and generally speaking, I'm fairly uncomfortable here. It's a good thing I don't go here :)

It's snowing outside right now but it's not cold enough for the snow to stick, so your feet feel like its raining while your eyes get to enjoy the beauty of snowfall. That being said, I've appreciated the beauty and now want my convertible weather back. Luckily, Vinney's Spring Break starts when mine ends so she'll be driving back down with me to (hopefully) warmer climates.

I've been doing a lot of work on trying to organize the staff a bit better; the goal is to be able to provide new and interesting things to read every day of the 7 day week. I guess my question to is: would you read content posted on Saturdays and Sundays? Historically most readers don't visit on weekends, but it's also a Catch-22 because if there's nothing to read on weekends then no one would visit on weekends. It's an idea that I'm toying with and it's something that I'd like to move ahead with (weekend articles) but I'd like to get some feedback.

...or if you don't have any feedback on that but there's something else you'd like to see, the lines are open - let me know. This is your site as much as it is mine so let me know what you want.

Vinney is about to get out of class and I've got a load of laundry to pop in the dryer, take care :)