i am not a snob

I’ve lived and worked in the downtown area on and off for around 6 years now.. Lately though things have been picking up in the area, and there are a lot more tourists checking out stuff downtown than in days past, and as a result a curious phenomenon has emerged.

Every once in a while, I’ll be walking somewhere downtown, and I’ll come across a group of people that have stopped dead in their tracks in front of me, while staring intently at the sky or at a building, and, sometimes, pointing, mouths agape. Naturally, I wonder what they’re looking at, so I stop and turn my head to try to spot, you know, King Kong or whatever it is they’re so entranced by that they had to stop walking right in front of me. It’s usually right about then that I realize they’re not looking at anything out of the ordinary, they’re just looking at the tall buildings of The Big City. (Incidentally, it reminds me of something that is a bit obscure: there’s a Cosby show episode where two of his great niece twin babies or whatever (read: cute kids brought on to keep the show lively) are sitting on the couch doing what babies doing: looking wildly around the room while trying to keep their head steady while taking it all in. Bill looks at them and looks up at whatever they’re looking at, doubletakes and lies down next to them, taking it all in. Okay, well, it’s a little funnier when he did than when I described it. It’s sorta like that, but less funny and more annoying.)

Now, I’m not trying to be a snob – I pretty much did nothing but look up the first time I went to NYC, but I just find it funny that I have been repeatedly caught by this. It’s to a point now where it will happen, I’ll look up for a split second and catch myself, thinking “dammit, they got me again!”