With New York’s fast pace making me feel more insane than usual, I jumped at the opportunity to escape to the snowy mountains of Park City, Utah for this year’s Sundance Film Festival and festivities. As I packed my thermals, Polartec, wool sweaters and huge robotic-like ski gloves, I was seriously excited to be somewhere snowy, quiet, remote and absolutely unreachable by any NYC chaos.
As I boarded the plan for Salt Lake City, that tranquil snow globe fantasy shattered when my friend saw 6 people she knew from the NYC nightlife scene on board our flight. Talk about taking an ice pick to my plan of bonding with birds and rediscovering my art in a remote forest. But I tried to let this frustration subside and enjoy the scenic flight and drive into the small town in the mountains. As the events began, I was relieved. The atmosphere of each party was cozy, quaint and ALMOST (key word) unpretentious since most people were dressed in cozy sweaters and boots. Come to find out, it’s hard for women to pull off being stiletto-wearing-bitches in Uggs. The music was good, people were happy and chilled out, and everything seemed to be going great… until the first night’s party slowly drew to a close and I realized most people I knew had left.
Translation: I was stuck in the middle of a dark forest a 30-minute car ride away from my hotel. I knew I couldn’t hail a cab as easily I do in NY, but I was sure I could call a cab company and be rescued from the leftover, incoherent crowd.
I whipped out my trusty iPhone and got 10 cab numbers at the tip of my fingers stat. I began to call each one, all which led to no answer or a “sorry, no cabs available- try us back at 3PM” prerecorded message from what sounded like a lumbar jack. It was then that I began to realize that I wasn’t in the New York bubble of 24-7 anymore. I was, for lack of a more creative term, stranded.
It wasn’t until 4-hours later when my hotel shuttle began running again that I could beg them to come and pick me up from this long finished party. I was tired, angry and while I enjoyed the rest of my trip (and did bond with nature) the experience served to remind me how spoiled we are by the city. Sure, I complain about the madness, but when it comes down to it no matter what kind of madness you get yourself into- you can get yourself out of it pretty quickly.
Stuck at a party? Leave and hop in a cab.
Craving a burger at midnight? Call Bubby’s
Craving a burger anything at 5am? Street Meat
While the chaos of this city is out of control, unlike anywhere else in the world, you truly do have the option of never leaving your apartment if you don’t want to. You can literally order anything to your doorstop. And while New York is a ridiculously expensive place to live, there’s an entire infrastructure of sales, emails and Twitterers offering discounts on stuff all the time to help us cope. I’m already frequent purchaser of The Dealist, and a rival site Local Booking launches today with “Deals of the Day” for NYC residents. I just scoped them out and their first deal is 80% off a haircut with celebrity hairdresser, Michael Duenas (HairRoomService.com) who’ll come to your house, cut & style your hair for $60 (regular price over $125).
We all know how much I hate getting my hair cut, but even I might even purchase this bargain. Not only did Utah give me an incurable hat hair that’s screaming for professional help but Duenas apparently even transformed the reality trash cast of The Jersey Shore into normal-looking human beings, which leaves me only to imagine the improvements he could make on me. All can check out the deal (my friend said there’s limited quantity available though) and I think you can schedule your appointment for anytime throughout the year.
And in the meantime, if you get overwhelmed with NYC just remember there’s good that comes with the bad. Like overpriced everything – bad. Deals because of that – good!
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