"The only city in America" a New York City Travel Page by gilescorey

"When you arrive in Port Authority, Man, you have got to look straight ahead, don't talk to anybody; just go straight out the curb to a taxi", Jackie interrupts, "yeah, do you know how many girls get raped in there, in the middle of the DAY?!". "I'm not a girl", I reply. "Doesn't matter" tacks Andrew.

This is what happens when you take travelling advice from Long Island college students.

After hopping a cab in shell shocked panic, I arrived at the college dorm where I would crash while visiting the campus. Sitting on the windowsill, looking down on the deserted streets of Manhattan's Financial District...I decided I would never descend the fourteen floors and risk life and limb in this out of control metropolis.

Six years, two muggings, one burglary and 480 glorious drunken celebratory nights later, I gave up my rent controlled apartment in Brooklyn and headed West to Los Angeles for the next adventure.

The only danger in New York is that you will love it so hard, so fervently, that you will never be able to let it go....nor will you ever forget standing on a rooftop, watching the towers collapse, while not one fighter jet can be spared to protect America's largest city. Yeah, that was rather odd, wasn't it? But, that is another discussion, altogether.

You know what was one of my favorite parts about living in New York? Everybody was the same. You're all walking along, and somebody could be hit by a taxi, and it could be you, or it could be Brad Pitt. And, yeah, if you buy gum at a deli, the clerk will be rude to you, but he's just as likely to chew out that local politician behind you. Let me assure you: it ain't like that in LA.

This is Tanner. I refer to her as "Tanner the Hutt" for her laboured breathing and the way she insists on digging into my shoulder while I sleep and sneezing all over my face when I'm trying to crash on my good friend's couch. Good Friend. Bad Dog.