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I'm in New York. First time on the east coast. First time taking a vacation where my sole responsibility is to have fun and be a tourist, taking lots of pictures and being wide-eyed about all that I see around me.

The flight into JFK was a subtle version of exhilaration as I saw the Manhattan skyline in the distant horizon from my window seat on Virgin America flight VX 22.

On the Airtrain out of JFK, I observed that a city that calls itself "the city" cannot really be called "the city" when this airport is almost just as big, if not bigger.

The dark places of Manhattan are brighter than many of the bright places of the bay area

There is red brick everywhere. All the buildings exude age, and yet the young urban professionals have all moved in.

Everything is flat. I don't quite understand how that works, but it makes walking about quite easy.

Even though it was a Tuesday, there were people abound at all hours of the day everywhere, in all nooks of the city.

I noticed the tall apartment buildings all have mismatched air conditioning units wedged onto windowsills. Not something you see in the bay area.

At night, the buildings take on a theatrical presence in the world. It could be that all I know of New York are the representations as seen on stage and TV and screen, so I am biased when I say that. All the lights are relatively low to the ground, and at night the buildings are all lit up at their bases and not their tops, so it appears robed in shadow. It is almost as if the lighting director of this play decided the action was taking place on the street, and not the bedroom.

Another theatrical observation of the city was that in theater backdrops I have mainly seen depictions of New York as tall buildings pushed together in uncomfortable tangles of brick and wood, while the streets are all wide and open like a stage. This is not far from actuality, as there are no spaces between buildings, but the streets are wide and open. When you're a jet, you're a jet all the way.

Now i'm sitting on Erika's leather love seat, while she's yelling at the New York Times.

Happy.