a little voice ramble from the streets of NYC.... (Patreon)

hey all

here's a little NYC-street voice-ramble, for all patrons. recorded on mott st in the village.

i tend to send these more to the $5+ folks, but this is....i dunno, feels like an everybody-moment if ever there was one.

god it's good to be home.

i'm exhausted, overwhelmed, but mostly insanely happy.

i can't get the grin off my face.

hello, manhattan island, beautiful messy island where i was born.

i’ve been seeing other islands, it’s true, but you’re still my first love.

it has been two years and tenth months since i stood on american soil.

(not that the soil of the lower east side particularly soil-y. but whatever.)

hello everyone in americaland.

we are back.

ash is totally fine with everything, wherever, as long as he has a book to read and lego to lego. but in all seriousness, he's thrilled to be back. i think we're both just sort of stunned and taking it all in. 

he's really into beano at the moment.

i can tell you this much as a first impression: i've seen more public arguments (like, people in the street, or in a shop, or at the airport, or wherever...) in america in the last few days than i witnessed the entire two years i was in new zealand. damn, it's aggro. but also, i don't think this is pandemic-only. i think it was always thus, just volume knobs twiddled a little more to the left and right.

dude, i went into a starbucks by the side of the highway on our drive home to get an iced coffee and two people - employees no less - were practically about to punch each other. it was ... weird and sad.

is it just me? or is this a Thing?

someone asked me about the smells. 

the smells are bigger than i imagined.

the smells are SO different. it was the first thing ash noticed about NYC. (i taught him about garbage strikes!). 

new zealand is remarkably clean compared to this joint.

but flipside, i walked into the house in woodstock and smelled the old wooden stairs and rugs and the perfumes of bursting summer oaks and maples and pines and the other various aromas that only come with a creaky old house in new england/upstate new york and practically died of happiness.

 new zealand had some old buildings, but not like this.

 god i’ve missed those smells.

........................

welcome home, me.

i love you, all you.

how is everyone doing?

i still don't have covid (yet).

upstate new york: get ready for picnics. we gotta do some. serious.

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