(no subject)

[seekingferret]

Last night I went into New York for Puzzled Pint, which was held outdoors in Central Park. It was my first time in NYC in a year and a half, my first time riding a train in a year and a half, my first time seeing thirdblindmouse and another friend in a year and a half. Lots of new experiences.

Trains were less crowded than I remember, and the trip was very easy. I have sort of forgotten how to do New York, though. I took wrong subways (Got on the E instead of the C and almost ended up in Queens). I got disoriented and forgot what street I was on. It's weird, I have prided myself on being able to navigate the City really well, even long after I moved away, and I'm definitely not at tourist level clueless but I felt out of place there. The city is also different, of course, because the City is always changing. Ebikes were everywhere, even more than they used to be, and getting a sense of how to look out for them at intersections was a new challenge. Penn Station and other places have been reoriented for social distancing in ways that were confusing to me. It was all a lot of adjustment.

The puzzles were fine, but I would say that the story and theme were better than the enigma content. My teammates did more solving than I did, but I brought extra puzzles so after we finished the puzzle set I did a variety cryptic while my friend sat next to me solving the WSJ crossword, asking each other for help when we got stuck. It was really pleasant to sit on a bench in Central Park on a lovely summer evening and solve puzzles as the sun went down. Sadly, the organizers did a poor job of advertising, and we were one of only two or three teams to show up, but it was a start at returning to a favorite monthly ritual. Hopefully more teams will come next month.

Comments

[ambyr]

I did think this month's were unusually easy; I don't really object to that but I would have downgraded their pint glass difficulty. (I did the Style one first and then sat there going, "Wait, that's it?" having expected at least one more layer of puzzle to decode.)

[starlady]

Last month when I went back to San Francisco for the first time in 15 months I forgot that I had to hit stop request on the Muni rail line and had to hike back an extra two blocks. It felt relatively normal until that point and I was like, "Oh, it's been a while."

[seekingferret]

I feel like all that stuff about forgetting how to socialize has mostly turned out to be nonsense, but forgetting all the tiny little things we did without thinking, absolutely a thing.