I can't think of now cause I am stuck in then

Stuck or lucky, in transit for two days in NYC on my way back to Cincinnati from Vancouver. I was busy catching up, soaking in every inch of the city, until I realized I had to catch up the next flight to Cincinnati. I wish I could take the subway, but then time rushed me in and I went to the curb for a taxi ride. Forty five minutes in the taxi was a long time, but not for long in New York when every taxi driver is friendly.

He's from Ghana and had been living in the city for twelve years, all were spent driving taxi. One daughter currently staying with his ex-wife, or whatever you call it, he said. Do you like driving taxi? He said, He made pretty good money sometimes. I tried once to calculate my non-profit salary to live in NYC and it's just doesn't add up, even if I subtracted the gas money and car insurance, reduce the cost of apartment by may be living in Queens because even Brooklyn is gentrified now. So I asked him how could he live in this big city with a taxi driver salary? And he showed me a paper of his rent agreement where he is subsidized and only paid about $75 for rent. Seriously. I saw the paper myself. He said, you have to meet certain income standard to be eligible. But then, I thought his life is probably harder with a daughter who needs child support. I asked him how's the big apple treating him, he said, life is good here, better than in Ghana, and he can save money (he can save money??!!?).

He asked me if I love New York, I told him I love the city and would love to spend at least two years of my life in it. Dwelling with creativity while preserve as if the crowded noisy city is my himalaya mountain. I could get lost in it, without being notice, while at the same time, I could turn around and the opportunity to connect with people is as easy as one two three. It's a time machine that takes me to the fifties where all the people I admire had lived. It is a big book I could jump in where I can float and remember all the buildings and the streets and the famous architects and neighborhoods where Jane Jacobs described in her book became alive in front of me. It is the world in one hundred square foot where I could see all people in one horizon. It is a dream of sitting in the Met dwelling in the same operas I love. In my dream, there is also street corners where original and chained coffee shops compete for my money; Washington Park square where I could spend hours watching people, people with their dogs, girls experimenting with new fashion trends, people sleeping on the bench with all their house travelling with them, people who are in love and couldn't wait to kiss another time, ah, life is beautiful; there is a neighborhood diner next to a bagel shop next to a subway station, next to fruit vendors who never close; there is old, almost black brick buildings rows to protect the houses in the ally with big trees and wide sidewalk and small fences small enough I could see what's actually inside the buildings and stoops up to the doors, all in different styles and detail; there is cops in their cruisers, sirens, and sirens, made me remember that life is a cycle; writing this, makes me want to visit New York and go back to when I was lucky, not stuck, in a plane transit.

He asked me where I live and I said Cincinnati, Ohio and he said, how was it, It's like a small New York I can afford.