After a tough couple of weeks at work, it was great to be home in NYC this weekend.  Even though my apartment is occupied by a friend and I am staying at a hotel, being in NYC for the weekend is still being home in many ways- just not all the way home.  I am staying at the Candlewood Suites on West 39th Street and while I don’t love being near Times Square, they set me up in a room for the weekend with a nice view- particularly at sunset.

I had plans to hang out with a friend on Saturday and it’s bitter cold in the city this weekend so we were brainstorming ideas for a good indoor activity. We ended up with a list that included MoMA, Colin Quinn’s Long Story Short on Broadway, or bowling. We decided to go bowling and found a Bowlmor Lanes on West 44th Street. Bowlmor is a lot like Lucky Strike lanes with its half night club / half bowling alley atmosphere. We were given a lane next to a group of moms and kids- and the little kids were comical. They drop the ball like a rock and watch it trickle down the lane before they go nuts when a few pins get knocked down.

Bowling isn’t something I do often but it was great doing something different today and being active while we all tried to stay indoors. Today’s bowling and the ongoing escalation of cell phones, facebook, and twitter reminded me of a great book by Robert Putnam I read in graduate school. It was a great day and it was nice not to be Bowling Alone today.

People sometimes ask me what is so great about living in New York City. Its the simple little things that we get to enjoy every day, like an amazing violinist playing on the walkway between the 1/2/3 train and the Times Square Shuttle. This woman could surely fill a small concert hall in Omaha or Fresno (both fine towns incidentally), but we get to enjoy talent like this on any given day as we hop a train to work or run a Saturday errand. Only in New York.