Saturday, May 25, 2019

Squirrel (다람쥐, 松鼠, リス)

The most commonly understood fact about squirrels (other than the fact that dogs get distracted by any sign of squirrels in the area and immediately drop everything and turn their attention to it as highlighted by the movie Up) is that squirrels store their nuts and other possessions in a tree and then forget about them, likely over a winter season because they forget where they put it. 

It doesn’t take me a winter season to forget where I put things, just a wild weekend, or sometimes even just seconds. This past weekend, I flew to an Indian wedding in North Carolina (heck of a wedding, lots of food, dancing, colors, and living the high life) but stored some belongings at work since I’ve been living the nomad life. Probably a risky move given that a) I’d never used that storage spot before and b) I was not in desperate need of any of the items in those belongings in the immediate future. Sure enough, by Wednesday of this week I was convinced I had lost these items at the hotel in North Carolina or an Airbnb I had been living in previously, sending messages to each in a desperate search to find my squirrel nuts. 

I think the main remedy for the squirrel malaise is that items need to be used frequently, so I get a feel constantly where I’ve last used it. Still, I do forget where I’ve put my wallet and house keys and cell phone, even though those are the 3 most important possessions any person has nowadays. 

I’ve come to realize after working in New York for a while that there’s the glitzy New York epitomized in so many movies and TV shows, and that’s Manhattan, full of tall buildings and bright lights, but then there’s what’s called the “Five burroughs” of the New York area, which aren’t bad neither, but like any other major city there are shadier parts of the city that people don’t talk about. It really takes living in a city for a while to really get to understand a city. It’s like saying you’ve been to Westeros but only having gone to King’s Landing and the Iron throne room with your tour group. There’s much more of where the average citizen has to deal with like Fleabottom, Harren Hall, the Twins, etc., except those neighborhoods in real life are called Brooklyn, Staten Island, the Bronx, Queens, and Jersey City. Surprisingly, New York is kind of a jogger’s paradise, which doesn’t seem to come up in most travel guides. Manhattan itself has great running paths on the edges in and in Central Park. Jersey Island has one of the best viewing on running paths in my opinion , with views of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and all the skyline of the west side of Manhattan. It’s one of the sad truths of Manhattan that when you’re in Manhattan you can’t see Manhattan, but Jersey Island provides that. 

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