Alpha personalities and the North American City
| April 30, 2009 | Posted by caroline under Uncategorized |
The travel bug has infected me again, and I am tempted to leave but just as pressed to stay. I want to stay because several things are putting me on the edge of my seat. You know, when you plan enough seeds, and it rains enough along the way…something oughta sprout, yeah? So right now, I see these little sprigs of green among the weeds. But everyone is pitching trips my way, tempting me with everything from free flights and rides to ghetto style roadtrips (which I absolutely adore and live for, moreso than airports and speedy arrivals)…..
I want to visit NYC, Montreal, Vancouver, Spain, Morocco, India, Dubai..this year…hahah.. And, somehow, I will get to at least a few of those, even with weekend missions. I think traveling is what keeps me breathing. I read TimeOut Dubai and re-live the restaurants and the humidity. I leaf through TimeOut New York (yes, I thumb and dogear the pages online), reading about the hip spots and all the people that frequent them…and think about all the randoms I met in the few nights I was there last summer. I find people from that city very interesting, maybe narcissistic but who isn’t these days..I think a lot of them have the right, what with all the crazy things they’re up to.. Besides, in such a big city where one must compete with the greyness of those Everest-high buildings, it is paramount that personalities stand out, beat the odds and make an impression. Anyway, if you’ve never met someone from New York, just go to Time Out New York’s singles section and read about the people that inhabit those streets.
But speaking of skyscraper personalities, my friend Lindsay was saying the other day that he finds people in Toronto are much taller than those in Montreal, where he used to live. Standing in a streetcar, he has to look up to see the faces of those beside him. His theory, therefore, is that alpha personalities and alpha body types gravitate to Toronto’s cut-throat, competitive centre, which is always throbbing with productivity and action. This further corroborated the conversations shared with my Montreal univ friends who’d stayed in the city for four years…I dare not discuss the topic in depth with Montreal natives;)
Montreal, in comparison, is a lot more “laissez-faire” than Toronto. The combination of Montreal’s “laissez-faire” attitude and celebrated “joie de vivre” has been both the prize and downfall of this lovely city I spent four years in. In the hereafter, longing for la petite ville does not gnaw at you and, I think, once one leaves its moist, comforting womb..it is hard to return.
I must sleep, I know I am leaving my sentences bare, but I am just trying to conquer writer’s block and this is where it begins and ends. Personally, I’m attracted to type A personalities and am, myself, a mix of AB…so I think my ideal city should be an A or AB.. god, typifying cities and people is confusing..sleep..beckon. Twitter is really neat. I’ll admit I’m a bit hooked. It’s open territory for stalkers and readers like me. I can see what everyone in the world is doing.
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