When you live in New York City, you run up a long list of things you’ve been meaning to do. You’ve been meaning to get to some off-Broadway theater — your trip to see Blue Man Group with relatives in from Schaumburg doesn’t count. You’ve been meaning to get out to Ellis Island, which you hear has a database that allows you to track the immigrant history of your family. That sounds cool. You’ve been meaning to dust off the tuxedo and see Don Giovanni at the Met. You’ll probably have some champagne and light hors d’oeuvres while you’re there. And you’ve been meaning to get over to Brooklyn to see what all the fuss is about. Maybe pick up a porkpie hat and some skinny ties or something.
But you don’t do these things. You will drive by the places where these things could happen very easily and you will be reminded that you’ve been meaning to do them. You can’t really explain why you haven’t done them. You’d like to think it’s because you’re so busy, but you somehow keep finding time to do things every weekend like watch that noon, Saturday ESPN2 game between Northwestern and Iowa with the winner remaining right in the thick of the TicketCity Bowl conversation.
High on the list of things I’ve been meaning to do since I moved to New York in 2004 is going up to a Columbia University football game. Read the rest on GrantLand.com
Willie Geist
Willie Geist is the host of "Sunday TODAY with Willie Geist," a co-host of MSNBC’s "Morning Joe" and a regular host and contributor to "TODAY," as well as to "Nightly News with Lester Holt" and "Meet the Press." He also contributes to the NBC Sports Group, where he hosted coverage of several Olympic Games. He is the author of three books, including The New York Times bestsellers "Good Talk, Dad" and "American Freak Show."