Monday, March 16, 2009

What I miss about New York

Walking down the streets
Tiny moments of absolute silence, so rare and so amazing
The musicians in the subway stations
The catwalk in the Union Square station when you’re walking over the uptown 4/5/6 section
The subway
Window shopping while you walk
Lower Fifth Avenue. Newsroom Café, Club Monaco, Anthropologie, Sephora, Innovative. A lot of good things are in the neighborhood.
How you can literally walk from one end of the island to the other
Looking up the avenues and seeing all the stop lights changing color together
Looking across the streets and seeing the sun set
The temple
Lincoln Center, the ballet and the opera and the theatre
All the theatre, everywhere
The Met and its creaky floorboards on the 2nd floor hallway
The Frick
The Garden Court
The Rockefellar Christmas tree
Treats from Dean & Deluca while waiting for the tree to be light - 2 years!!!
Times Square
The movie theatres
The Subway by my office and the guys who worked there and would let me pay later if I didn’t have the cash
The Spanish rice and beans
The $7 manicures and $12 pedicures—and that I could walk one block to get the mani/pedi during lunch
Reading in line at the library
Spring
Summer
Winter
Fall
Central Park
Bryant Square Park
Washington Square Park and walking around NYU
NYU
Falaful
Sushi
Orange Japanese dressing
Eating with chopsticks
Jamba Juice
Chipotle, my manna of life
Eating McDonald's late at night at the 24-hour McDonald's on Fulton and talking about everything
The Westside highway and the jogging path on the pier
75 West - Sid, Anowar - I miss you guys!
Somehow, I even miss 33 Gold
Walking in the rain, wearing great rain boots
Walking in the snow, wearing great rain boots and a big poofy parka
Walking in the sunshine
Learning that all weather is good weather, as long as you’re properly attired
Riding the LIRR to the beach
Running into friends I haven’t seen in years, while I am walking down the street
Taking cabs to church
My ward
Cafeteria
Jane
Really really good pizza
Walking by the Plaza and Bergdorfs and remembering….remembering
Laughing on the inside as I walked past Abercrombie on Fifth and smelling the cologne…a block away and outside
Walking through Tiffany’s
Browsing for hours in Barnes and Noble
Sitting in Union Square late at night, watching the skaters
The Virgin Megastore
The Christmas bazaar in the red and white striped tents
Learning where (nearly) all the public restrooms are
Exploring Brooklyn and all the funny subway lines that go unusual places
Every roommate I’ve ever had—no matter the terms we parted on, I really enjoyed the time we had together and I remember you happily
My amazing, amazing friends
My wonderful job at Innovative
My awesome, awesome job at the AAMD
My truly, insanely, heavenly, wonderful bosses. Ladies, I miss you more than words can say.
All the dreams I had when I was in New York
Everything

I miss everything.

But, you know? I’ve realized, over the last seven months as I’ve been here and missed there (and managed to fall completely in love with here) that even though I miss New York so much that my insides ache and I when I talk to friends there I feel a blinding jealousy that they’re there and I’m not….I’ve realized how lucky I am. I am so lucky that I had a college experience and a life in New York worth missing. I am so lucky that I have amazing friends worth missing. I am so lucky that I’ve had two life-changing jobs worth missing. I am so lucky and so grateful for all of it. Even the missing of it part, because it helps me live here, in the moment, and love it that much more, because I know how lucky I am to be as happy as I am right now.

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