If you don't know who the Naked Cowboy is then there's a chance you are a true New Yorker, or maybe you've never been on a double-decker bus tour through Manhattan.  I don't remember when exactly it was that I became aware of who the jackass in his undies, boots and cowboy hat strumming a guitar in Times Square was, but I'm pretty sure that someone had to tell me who he was multiple times before I realized that he's a mainstay and, some might say, an attraction.  Maybe it was in some sort of promotional photo of Times Square that I first saw him, maybe he was just starting his day when I was leaving the TKTS line.  Either way, I've never really understood the appeal here, from both sides of his existence, so let's just say I'm admitting some bias right up front.  Why would someone feel the need to include him as part of their memories of a trip to New York?  It seems the only people who would feel that a cowboy-styled country singer from Cincinnati, Ohio who arrived here twelve years ago is somehow quintessentially symbolic of NYC are people who will never be coming back.  And on the other side, why would someone want to do what he does?  He stands around in his undies, which must get really cold most of the time.  But worse, he stands around in Times Square, which means he has to deal with tourists every goddamn day.  This, to me, sounds like a terrible way to spend your time, even if the most creative thing you've ever come up with is to sing country songs in your jockey shorts.

Ahh, the holidays in NYC.  Maybe I should rephrase this and say “Ahh, Christmas in NYC” because, let’s face it, no one gives a shit about Hanukah and, being a Jew, I am trying to talk myself into thinking that other people are still celebrating Hanukah these days (or at least acknowledging it).  There are few things better this time of year than strolling around my favorite neighborhoods in downtown NYC: Soho, Nolita, and the West Village (basically anywhere below 14th street).  How silly of me to think that people have not found out about the great food, shops, culture and beautiful architecture that these downtown neighborhoods possess, especially tourists.

Call it wanderlust. Call it boredom. Call it fear of commitment. Call it what you will, but it's time to come clean. I've got a wandering eye for other cities. It's just time to move on. Or is it? I've been ruminating on this for quite awhile. Years in fact. It seemed like a road trip along the West Coast last year was the worst it could get.

Don't ever say I don't go all out for you. Believe it or not, I gave up a large portion of my Saturday night so that I could see Sex and the City in a theater full of women. Usually, I hate seeing a movie in its opening weekend; actually I have a lot of problems just seeing a movie at all these days, but that's for another time. The truth is, Sex and the City had to be seen in a jam-packed theater, because the movie itself is only part of the fact that this is one of the most important events to ever happen to all of NYC's female population.

I wish that I had been able to get tickets to a sold out show in a gigantic theater, like at the AMC Theater in Times Square for example, but that didn't happen, by the time I got around to buying my tickets, every Friday night show in Manhattan was sold out. I really wanted to see the throngs myself, be able to bear witness to the masses that came out to see this. You see, I was much more interested in seeing how the women who love the show and can't wait to see the movie would react to it than to the film itself. In other words, I was hoping people would talk all the way through it because I just had to know what they thought. But instead, I ended up at an early Saturday night show at BAM in the Ft. Greene area of Brooklyn. I thought this would ruin my experience, since SATC is so inherently Manhattan-centric and one doesn't generally think of BK as the land of Manolos and Cosmos. And that's where I had a major realization.

My ten-year high school reunion is coming up and I can’t wrap my head around it. Maybe that’s because I don’t want to grow up and maybe that’s because I simply can’t grow up.