The City that Naps. Often.
Whenever an old friend or any distant relative finds out that I work in/leave near New York City, their reaction is usually always one of these three reactions:
1) Cool! Do you go shopping/to Broadway shows/run around in Central Park like, all the time?
2) Cool! Do you hang out in Williamsburg/see cool indie shows/go vintage organic shopping like, all the time?
3) Wow! How can you afford that? Does your job pay tons of money? I’ve heard of that company you work at…
My answer to all of these is some variant of the following:
1) Nope. (See #3).
2) I am too tired and poor. Also, Williamsburg is hard to get to from basically any other part of Brooklyn where people live.
3) Absolutely not.
I would love if I started each day with a yoga class and a locally-sourced breakfast, ran to my glamorous high-paying Midtown job, and then gallivanted around to various cultural events and/or restaurants and/or bars every night. However, my average day is usually more like this:
6:30 AM: Hit snooze on my alarm.
7:30 AM: Actually head to subway for gym fully dressed.
7:54 AM: Subway actually comes.
8:15 AM: Subway goes through fashionable Lower Manhattan neighborhoods. Feel inadequate, having dressed for work but not having showered due to impending workout.
8:30 AM: Arrive at gym. Decide to go ahead with workout even though I technically should be at work at 9.
9:26 AM: Run two blocks to work. Drop scarf/sweater/magazine. Crossing guard grabs it and yells after me until I pick item up from her.
9:35 AM: Eat cheerios at my desk while answering emails.
9:45-1:00 PM: Attend meetings where my function is largely to smile and say ‘yes’ or ‘no’.
1:00 PM: Eat half a block of cheese and some crackers at my desk; read 1 Jezebel article. Back to work, you lazy bum.
1:30-5:00 PM: Answer more emails. Fill out paperwork relating to said emails. File things. Lose some stuff I was intending to file.
5:00 PM: Senior editors head home.
5:00-7:00 PM: Send some more emails. Update databases. Check personal email 50 times and feel bad about it. Contemplate going home.
7:30 PM: Leave the office. People are still there working. On the way to subway, see cute shirt in H&M window. Go inside to buy that one shirt. You live in New York; it’s time to live a little!
7:55 PM: Still in line at H&M.
8:05 PM: Finally pay for shirt. Walk briskly to subway, motivated by hunger.
8:15 PM: Subway actually comes.
8:25 PM: Wait in some dark subway tunnel because “they’re waiting for signal clearance and apologize for the delay.”
8:45 PM: Arrive in my neighborhood. Stop at local Chinese restaurant and buy 1 small white rice for $1. Endure funny looks from staff.
9:00 PM: Heat up Trader Joe’s Indian pouch thing. Pour over rice. Eat dinner while watching trashy true crime on Netflix.
9:30 PM: Retire to bedroom. Contemplate watching landmark 1962 film on Netflix. Instead keep watching true crime shows. Call boyfriend at work to remind him to go home.
10:00 PM: Fall asleep on bed still wearing clothes and contacts.
2:00 AM: Wake up. Take out contacts. Get ready for real bedtime. Set alarm for 6:30.
Ok, sometimes I go to yoga, or out for drinks with friends, or to some museum exhibit. Occasionally one of the books I worked on is going to get reviewed in the New York Times, and I have to find a PDF of the whole book to send to a reviewer in the middle of some desert in the Middle East. I try to read the Times and good books on the subway, or on the weekends waiting for my laundry, and sometimes I succeed. But that’s all maybe 25% of the time. And I know it’s possible to ‘fit all these things in’ and to ‘find affordable theater tickets if you really try.’ There are countless blogs about it! I wonder, though, if all these ‘New York’ or ‘Brooklyn’ blogs are written precisely because the blogger is amazed that they can say, “I DID SOMETHING FUN TODAY! LET’S TELL EVERYONE HOW FUN TODAY WAS!” Because most of the time, all I really want to do is try to nap. Or watch true crime on Netflix. (Incidentally, does anyone have any recommendations?)
Inter.gazing 
Loved your post!