So Scott and I had a quiet New Year's at home. We cooked up a yummy dinner (grilled wild salmon and pasta with asparagus and a lemon cream sauce), watched "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" and various add-ons from the DVD, and then flipped the TV on at midnight to watch a rebroadcast of the ball dropping in NYC.
At which point I got incredibly homesick, and started crying when Sinatra's "New York, New York" came on. This morning I'm still sad. There's something in the air that makes me wish I were tramping the streets of the West Village, heading off for brunch in a noisy diner, and then just out for a walk, maybe clutching a carton of coffee to keep my hands warm.
We only got home to NY once in 2005, and I think that has something to do with why I'm feeling so homesick today. I need a city fix.
It comes down to reality
And it’s fine with me, ’cause I’ve let it slide,
Don’t care if it’s Chinatown or up on Riverside,
I don’t have any reasons,
I’ve left them all behind
I’m in a New York state of mind.
I know all too well the tradeoffs involved in living in New York. Tiny apartments, everything is expensive, noise, dirt, and stress. Right now I could care less. I want to go home.
I was planning on catching a cheap flight sometime this month before classes start, but with the internship starting Wednesday that's not in the books anymore. Well, Passover's not that far off....
Comments (2)
You know, I just happen to know precisely how you feel. Only with me, it's L.A. instead of The City.
Sure, I could live without the traffic, the smog, the general idiots, and falling asleep to the sounds of automatic weapon fire. Those are the things, after all, that made me want to leave California with such undue haste.
Sunset at Laguna. Avalon. Being a two-hour drive from everything worth doing, and many things that aren't really worth the trouble. Ojai. Lake Arrowhead. Palm Springs for spring break. Santa Monica Boulevard. Impulsively playing tour guide to a couple from Sweden who were looking for Lucy's star. Calling all freeways THE before the number. And people taking no notice about making a 2 hour drive to San Diego, just so you can try out a Mexican restaraunt that is said to be the best thing north of the border. Heck, I even miss Das Rathaus, otherwise known as Disneyland.
I guess there comes a point where, at least for those from major cities, you start to forget all the horrible things that made you want to move away. And in their place, you start to miss all the things that kept you there in the first place.
Posted by Off Colfax | January 2, 2006 11:59 AM
Good point, although in our case, it wasn't that we hated NYC and wanted to leave.
The year was 1999, just about everyone we knew was moving to SF to get in on the dotcom boom, and being part of the action seemed like a good idea at the time.
I don't regret choosing to leave and experiencing life outside NY -- it was a great rollercoaster ride -- but I do regret that it's so hard to get back again.
Posted by fiat lux | January 2, 2006 12:55 PM