I’m sure this has happened to a lot of you. If you go to a specific neighborhood more than once a week, you’ll start seeing the same people. This is a no-brainer but when you first visit a new neighborhood or a new city you feel like everyone is different and how special they are. . . and then the reality of habit & routines settle in.

At first when I joined my new job in midtown I was excited about taking the subway to work daily. I was excited for the ride and the misadventures I might run into. Soon, I realized, I was setting myself up for disappointment. I saw the same people on the subway daily. I saw the same people waiting on the bus daily. I saw the same people listening to their iPods, reading their newspapers, trying to fall asleep standing up.

But this now extends into the same day too! When you have no plans set in stone and you just kind of wander around with your buddies from one coffee shop to the next. Visiting bookstores, street fairs, bars, restaurants, music stores, hardware stores, sex shop stores, whatever it is that your jolly and spontaneous heart feels like doing - you start seeing others doing the same thing!

And then they follow you around or you follow them around and then it becomes this odd thing like. . . we’re all zombies! Walking around in circles with no real goal or destination in mind - trying to avoid each other for appearing like dimwits with no life and no purpose. . .

But then you realize that fun is in the ride, stupid, not in the end goal. And then you feel better.