One of the great things about living in the suburbs is that the pressure is off. What pressure? That unrelentingly guilty feeling that you’re always missing out on something, that you should be going to more concerts and theater and museums and clubs, and bars, and hot new restaurants. That nagging voice in your head saying that if you’re living in the city you should be taking advantage of living in the city:
What? You’re going to stay home and watch The Voice? What’s wrong with you? Artcat just posted that a series of Sara Swaty portraits exploring gender identity and the body is opening this weekend at the Leslie-Lohman Museum! The 37th Annual Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival is in previews on Theater Row! And you’re going to watch TV? What a plebian! What a vulgarian!
Sometimes, living in Manhattan can be mentally exhausting. There’s just TOO MUCH to do, too many choices, too many decisions to make, and you’ll never get to everything. Even if you go out every night, you’ll never even scrape the surface of all the shows you should be seeing, art you should be appreciating, food you should be trying. Think of it this way — New York City has 24,000 restaurants. Even if you eliminate the half of them that are the various warring Ray’s Pizza chains, that’s still 12,000 places to eat. 365 days a year, 3 meals a day, it would take you almost 12 years to try them all. That’s a lot of miso-glazed cod.
Another example: right now, at this moment, there are about 25 shows playing on Broadway, and almost 60 off-broadway. That’s 85 shows. Go see one a day, and you might get through them in three months, at which time about a third of those shows will have closed and been replaced. And that’s not even counting off-off-broadway.
It’s a cultural treadmill, and the guilt trip never ends. Just pick up a copy of the Times, and you’ll see pictures of society events you never have the time to go to, reviews of restaurants you’ll never try, profiles of bands you’ll never hear. And, even worse, it seems like EVERYONE ELSE is somehow finding the time to get more out of the city than you ever will. You finally get out to a club, only to be told that you REALLY should go there on Tuesday nights. Tuesday nights? People go out Tuesday nights? Seriously? What do they do all day?
That’s what’s nice about the suburbs. Yes, like everyone says, there’s not a lot to do. But in a lot of ways, that’s a blessing. Fewer choices, fewer decisions, easier to focus. Rather than trying to stay afloat in an unrelenting cultural stream, you have to actually seek out opportunities for interesting theater, art openings, new restaurants. They’re out there – even in the suburbs, there are some good restaurants and galleries and concert halls. Not as many, of course, but that’s the point. Because the choices are fewer and further between, you don’t have that pressure to ALWAYS BE DOING SOMETHING.
So you get to give yourself a break. It’s not your fault. You’re living in the boring old suburbs! So what else are you going to do but sit on your couch, put your feet up, and guiltlessly watch some lowbrow reality tv?
