quintessential new york moment

so i'm leaving emily's out in LIC (long island city, just across the
east river from manhattan but a little bit of a no-mans land). i see a
yellow taxi pull up to a building across the stree. i haul ass towards
it to see a guy get out, a girl get out the other side, and him saying
to me, "i'm not getting out."

this confuses me because he actually IS getting out, but i see he's
just walking around, kissing his date goodnight and going to get back
in the car. my mind is in several places. 1.) oh my god! how freaking
chivalrous! dude took a taxi out of manhattan just to drop his date
off! 2.) who does that?! where am i?! 3.) i wonder if he's going back
into manhattan!

"hey, are you going back into the city?" "yeah." "can i come with
you?! i'll hop out whereever. i don't care. i just need to get into
manhattan." "yeah, sure. no problem" "OH MY GOD THANK YOU SO MUCH!"
and i hop in. he's going to midtown to the west side which is perfect
for me. serendippity!

me: did you really just drive out here to drop your date off?
him: yes.
me: where did you come from? someone raised you right. or you raised
yourself right. or something, man!
him: (laughing at me) well i hope so.

he makes a comment about how maybe he ordinarily wouldn't go to such
lengths but that he thinks this one is a keeper. they've seen each
other several times a week for the past month. i said that was a
little intense for me but that i was in no rush to settle down. he
said he wasn't really either, but that there was a lot of pressure
from his parents and aunts and uncles to marry. he's 27. he's the last
single guy under 30 in his family. the catch? most his cousins (he's
an only child) are single and living the good life in nyc. but they're
all over 30 which means they're useless, old, wasted people. all his
family's hope rests on his shoulders, apparently. he said it's a
korean thing. it doesn't sound fair but he's taking on the task i guess.

anyways, he was lovely. paid for the whole tab to his house. i
insisted on getting his info so that i could repay him somehow. am
thinking a hot party invite or some theatre comps will do it as i
often come across both.

then on the way up, the pakistani cab driver and i had a totally
fascinating conversation re: international affairs and pakistan. i
asked what his views were of obama, where we're headed. most his
family is here so he's happy for things to look up here. he has
brothers still in pakistan. talked about how upsetting it is that the
media portrays the country as a terrorist-harboring den of sin. talked
about how his brothers are safe and that the majority of the country
is peaceful.

anyhow, this is why i love new york. people finding each other,
teaching each other things, being kind to one another. the diverse
human contact you get here is just unmatched anywhere i've ever been.