Mo money, mo problems

There is a lot to update on, whether it be work in general, Beirut and Cyprus, my thoughts on living in London, Lucy and Ian's "frat"-themed birthday party, Home House, or otherwise. But the thing that has moved me to write tonight is my current seven-cities-in-eight-days whirlwind trip. Six of those seven cities are cities I've been to before (Amsterdam, New Orleans, Chicago, Barcelona, La Coruna, London) and at least half of them are classic party cities. But tonight, I'm in the first city, the only city I haven't visited before, and I find myself completely and unexpectedly charmed. That city is Leeds. I guess it's not TOO surprising: at this point, I have connected the dots that show that basically all of my British friends are all northern english people. I also am the only person I know who has ever said "Glasgow is amazing!", so this place is right in my wheelhouse.

But I guess what precisely has charmed me, other than the surprisingly beautiful downtown area, is that I went out for drinks tonight by myself, and basically every place I went was just a bunch of hipster kids drinking and dancing to rock music and having fun. Full disclosure - this might be merely because my hipster friend Emily, who went to uni here, suggested every bar I visited, but still - something felt different.

What felt different? I guess after an exhausting 9 month run of clubbing in London, it was invigorating to go to some unpretentious bars with hipster kids and not have it be on the outskirts of the city. In a city like London, the weight of expectation and a demanding, un-accomodating population means in the central neighborhoods, everyone is looking for something to constantly top the last lavish and extreme experience. Leeds, on the other hand, is a place with no expectations and no pretension. It's just fun. After a couple drinks at Mojo, I went to Hifi and had two more beers than I hadn't meant to have, but I did anyway because I didn't want the night to end.

It's bittersweet - I'm old enough now to have an experience that makes me sad to have fully passed a period of my life, whether it was my early days in Chicago, my time in Sendai and Tokyo, or weekends in LA and New York. But I'm also old enough to be thankful to able to just be standing by myself with a beer in a club, surrounded by scenester college kids dancing and enjoying life.

28 and gainfully employed is a conflicted place to be, even if it's a rich man's problem.