Flight

Standard year-in New York claustrophobia hit approximately 1 month ago (only 1 month behind schedule). As a seasoned New Yorker friend pointed out, it's possible that this year-in claustrophobia is indistinguishable from my near-end-of-winter cabin fever, a concept with which I was previously unfamiliar.

I believed the remedy to my condition to be temporary flight from the city. I chose for the destination 2 riverside towns walking distance from each other: Tarrytown and Sleep Hollow (as in the legend). Both are in the Hudson Valley just half an hour train ride upstate from Manhattan. Why haven't I left the city before?? I travel TWICE that amount of time to hang out with friends in Brooklyn.

I tend to experience life with my eyes, partly because of natural tendency and partly because of the "aesthetic sensitivity" my profession requires. During this excursion yesterday, I consciously took a different approach, leaving my camera at home. Shocker, I know. I did sneak more photos than I intended on my iPhone (but how could I not?...a river, a sunset, a stream, and a legendary cemetery all in one outing).

Nevertheless, primarily, I listened.

Here are some of the things I heard in Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow:

1. A rushing stream, at first a distant hissing background and later a dominant roar
2. The squeaking of the chain of my swing
3. Many a train horn
4. The chug-a-chug of wheels on the tracks
5. Crunching gravel under foot steps
6. A bird or two
7. Lots of faraway plane engines
8. Wind in my ear during the swings backwards (forwards was silent)
9. An ambulance siren
10. Crispy leaves crunching

I also used my nose a little bit and smelled the sweet must of river water. It smelled just like Texas. I guess that's just whose rivers I know best.

Main Street in Tarrytown

Tarry Town

Sleepy Hollow

Sleepy Hollow

2 people dangling legs from a bridge over the stream that smelled like Texas

The stream that smelled like Texas

Sleepy Hollow Cemetery (where the Headless Horseman rode)

Sunset