I'm Tired of NYC and I Don't Even Live There

Yesterday, I was flipping through my T.V. channels when I stumbled upon a few reruns of Gossip Girl. On the next channel was How I Met Your Mother, then Friends. On my HBO Demand there was a new episode of Girls and some old episodes of Sex and the City....it dawned on me that almost every single show  geared towards my age group is based in NYC.

This is the opening scene to 8/10 shows on television

I'm not sure who decided that shows targeted toward 20-somethings had to be based in New York. According to Hollywood, the only place young adults want to live is Manhattan. Of course, I have many friends who actually live in New York and  spout epithets of how much they LOVE it and "OMG how could you want to live anywhere else"... But I also have friends in Washington D.C., Boston, San Francisco, Chicago, Denver, Austin who love their cities too. Unfortunately, Hollywood deems these cities less compelling for a television show setting.  Somehow New York has become the Daniel Day Lewis of cities and even if other cities are in the picture they never quite win the Oscar.

When I go to New York I'm super excited for the sparkle and adventure of the city that these shows always highlight. I usually end up in some aptly named "lounge" stuffed against a wall in a dark room with one candle lite for mood lighting. I can't see, I can't hear anything over the loud dub-step, and I can't lounge. People are all wearing the same black baggy tee-shirts, leather jackets and skinny jeans. I'm always wondering where the personality and style of New York is because everyone seems to be wearing the same five accessory items on rotation (big necklace, signature cocktail ring, purse with chain handle, some sort of motorcycle inspired item, or an array of mismatched bangles).

"Anything can happen in New York," my girlfriends tell me as we put on our black mini dresses and bangles for the night life in the city. Really? Anything? Can you ski in New York? Climb a mountain? Go on a Safari? I mean what are they really saying when they say "anything can happen". If by anything you mean I might possibly meet the one single straight guy at a packed club who may text me for a few weeks before avoiding contact because he met another girl at another club or if by anything you mean I can wait two hours for a table at a restaurant for a $50 quesadilla that took another hour after sitting down to come to my table... then yes anything CAN happen in New York!

I have a special place in my heart for New York City. My family had an apartment there when I was a teenager. I got to see my first drag queen, eat my first magnolia cupcake and have my first celebrity sighting of *gasp* Gwenyth Paltrow's baby Apple coming home from the hospital all on the streets of NYC. It's a fun city. But the hype around it has become bigger than the city itself. I like when New York had a mysterious allure. Now it's too trendy and cliche. It's like Disney World for the 20-something. "Oh you want to move to New York," I say to every one of my friends moving to New York, "You're so unique. What an original post-grad idea that no one has ever thought of. You're going to be the most individualistic New Yorker ever... "

I have so many cool friends in other amazing off-beat places. I just want to see someone... an artist, a T.V. show producer or a writer highlight one of this country's other awesome cities. And I don't mean like the show Nashville or West Wing that are entertaining but don't touch on the average person who lives in these towns.  West Wing talks about the White House staff but doesn't have two 20-something gal-pals eating Georgetown cupcakes and discussing their struggle with guys/jobs/life. It's hard to find a medium between "Nashville" and "Girls" that discusses our voice; The voice of the the 20-somethings that live in the rest of the country.