Starry eyed surprise

I went home this past weekend and had the pleasure of discovering stars again. Living in the city, I hardly look up at the sky at night, unless it's to look at the hideousness that is the Annenberg building (for those of you who haven't had the pleasure of experiencing its grandiousness, it's the scary looking brownish-black monstrosity that towers above the upper east side) or the Empire State Building engulfed in red splendor (go RU!!!). You can count the number of stars visible from the confines of Manhattan with your fingers (on really good nights you might need a toe or two), and I've gotta admit, it's a little depressing. Sure we've got the twinkling lights of Times Square and Broadway, but nothing can compare to seeing a shooting star streak across the midnight sky, or the twinkling of a bajillion stars against a pitch black background. For the first time in a really really long time I got to see this again, and aside from not having a dish washer, it's gotta be one of the things I miss the most from back home. I was coming home from a mini roadtrip with my brother through some back roads, with the sunroof open, and I could not peel my eyes away from the sky. I sat there and stared up, amazed at the whole thing. I felt like lying down in a field and staring at the sky till dawn. Unfortunately, we got closer to civilization and the street lamps started simultaneously blinding me while erasing the stars from the sky.

It's things like this that make me think that maybe, just maybe, people living out in the middle of nowhere, with an expanse of sky and an uncountable number of stars glittering as far as the eye can see, have it better. But then I remember that these people don't have the magnificent lights and glitter of the NYC skyline that I get to look at everyday :)