What I'll miss

I promise not to wax rhapsodic here, because I'm a fan of neither wax nor rhapsodies, but I am really grateful to a lot of people here at the hospital that did everything within their power to make this as bearable as possible. I know we had great doctors, but as I said in the last post, most of the work is done by nurses, and they do amazing work. Can't say everyone was great, because one in particular was pretty awful, but overall the quality of care here is high.

I won't really miss the nurses, much as I liked and respected them, but I'm going to miss some things.

First and foremost, I've been completely taken with this neighborhood. I'm hoping its funky diversity can survive the forces of gentrification. I know it's called Washington Heights, but only part of it is on the high ground. The topography is really fascinating and the idea that I'm sitting here maybe 500 feet from the river horizontally, but also another 200 or so vertically, makes it a fascinating place to walk around. I walked today on a section where there are 3 streets running sort of side by side, all called Riverside Drive. What the hell is that? It's beautiful is what it is.

I've posted lots of pictures from up on and under the George Washington Bridge, which could not be more right here, but it's not all scenery. Even going beyond the medical school, which fills the neighborhood with young smart people at all hours of the day and night, there's also the premier indoor track in New York, with competitions pretty much every day. How can you not love an area where, when you're going out to pick up some pizza, you see 20 high school students in track suits emerge from the subway and start jogging around the block?

And Broadway is absolutely hopping at all hours of the day and night. One of my few regrets here is that I never got out really late in the evening to see what it's like, because at 10:30 it's very much alive. Nearly all the restaurants are open and many of them, I notice, are open 24 hours. And they all deliver. Maybe nobody around here cooks (though there are 4 supermarkets easy walking distance from here) because the streets and sidewalks are all but choked with delivery bicycles, buzzing pedestrians and running red lights, running here and there with insulated bags.

And some of the food is really good. The only thing I couldn't find around here was decent Japanese food, I needed to go downtown for that. But I ate very well and got almost nothing at the hospital cafeteria except for coffee.

But I didn't gain any weight, because I walked so much. Part of that was because I went out for walks almost every day ranging from 1 to 5 miles. But also, I walked an average of 3 1/2 miles a day inside the hospital. The place is huge, and think goodness I started taking the stairs, because I'd had it with the elevators. It helped keep me strong, and as I wrote about earlier, being fit paid both me and Ronnie significant dividends, because I was able to put up with everything swirling around me in a high stress environment on limited sleep and come out feeling tired but pretty healthy.

And lastly and maybe not very interestingly, I'll miss New York. I love where we live and don't regret for a second moving there, but I grew up in New York is and it will always be in my blood.