exploring

I've lived in NYC for almost 2 years now. I have an apartment that I love going home to. I have friends in my neighborhood and we have favorite hangout spots. I am no longer exploring this city. 

True, I do new things that I love, but they are not that exciting to tell. No one wants to hear about me going to a Chinese restaurant with the boys for lunch, or going to Ikea for the first time. It's something new, but it's a pretty boring story. 

Me at Ikea, hugging a drafting table with a light box in it. 

However, I did go to a flea market for the first time here. I have been avoiding flea markets here for two obvious reasons:

1) I usually work and cannot go

2) I don't need to spend lots of money on stuff I really don't need

I found myself on a Saturday not needing to be at work until 11. And the Hell's Kitchen flea market, very highly recommended by everyone, is only a few blocks down from where I work. So I went. 

I should explain this. This is a cast iron bank featuring a "rare Indiana bear".  The coins go into the hunters gun and then he shoots them into the bear. !!!  It really works too! It also weighs about 50 lbs with no coins in it. WANT!

I wanted everything I saw.  Things not pictured: a 1960s fingerprinting kit, a scale rule with a holder, a pocket abacus, a squirrel skeleton, a bucketful of dolls heads, cast iron bottle openers that weighed like 10 lbs, and about a billion boxes of assorted records, doorknobs, and old tools.  

What saved me in the end was being overwhelmed at wanting everything, so I bought nothing in my inability to choose.  I really really wanted that stuffed bird, but I knew Nick would not be pleased. 

So I went somewhere new, and now I'm terrified to go back. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to have that kind of self control again. And, to be completely honest, I really don't need a bucket of baby doll heads.