(i LOVE a street hotdog!)
i moved to new york to go to grad school when i was twenty-three or four. i felt like i needed to stay after i completed my program because my studies had been so intense that i might as well have been in kansas for all i saw of the city. thus began the cycle of my tortured clashesque dilemma: “should i stay or should i go now?” that i revisited each summer. the appeal of california was strong - my whole family was there, it was the landscape of my childhood and i am generally a sunny person in keeping with the california persona. but new york offered so many freedoms - the ability to pop into a taxi without worrying about the directions, a numbered grid geography that also alleviated my navigational challenges (unless i was too far downtown where the streets are a jumble of unalphabetized names), the potential to be both anonymous (not having to smile and say hello to everyone you pass on the street as is customary in california - i find this friendliness EXHAUSTING) and known (by my dry cleaner, my bodega guy, my corner take out) and, of course, the SUBWAY - such an easy system that even i, who continues to get lost in my own hometown, could competently traverse the city. my california/new york conflict was so strong that for a while, i would only date transplanted californians, in case i decided i wanted to move back.
(i love the simplicity of the nyc subway system)
ultimately, i determined i WAS, in fact, a new yorker and i married my first husband who i couldn’t imagine living anywhere other than manhattan (i describe him as a cross between the jeremy piven character on “entourage” and woody allen - minus the pedophilia. although now that we have been in colorado for nine years he has become a bit boulderized… he’s all paleo now and has adopted a ghandi-like approach, spouting insights like, “jen, you really should just let that go.” i don’t know WHERE that came from… maybe all the almond milk?)
(he used to be half this - “ari” character on the far left…)
(and half this)
(now he’s this…)
of course, mere months after getting married first husband took a job in san francisco and we were off to the golden coast. i have trouble with change and while i was happy to live near my family again, i MISSED new york profoundly. i missed how you could have ANYTHING delivered (i am a pretty lazy person) … sometimes i would order up a single strawberry milkshake, just because i could. at that time in san francisco the only delivery option was pizza. i missed walking the city and seeing what everyone was wearing (2003 san francisco was still very fleecey with practical - read UGLY - footwear… i used to long to see just ONE woman wearing a nice pair of boots.) i missed the efficiency and directness of new york, feeling panicked and so frustrated when the check out lady in the market would pause and launch into a story about how her niece sprained her wrist, prolonging my transaction and requiring me to listen and look thoughtful. in all, it wasn’t an easy transition. i couldn’t even watch “sex in the city” without tears streaming down my face.
i haven’t lived in new york in nearly twenty years, but it only takes about four seconds for me to remember how much i LOVE that city. over thanksgiving break we all went back. i walked for miles (from my girlfriend’s upper east side apartment down to soho and back up again in one day - i call this “urban hiking.” i may never have climbed up sanitas during my tenure in boulder, but i am not flapped by 140 new york [short] blocks, even in proper boots.) we had lunches and coffees and brunches and dinners with dear old friends from new york and visiting boulders, spent time with both of the kids’ godfathers and we had several serendipitous run-ins: theo figured out via snap maps that one of his berkeley camp friends was at magnolia bakery (the most delicious, raisin-FREE establishment around the corner from my first apartment in the west village) and we happened to be two blocks away. we spent time in one of the many holiday pop ups on bleeker street (they were selling the homely all bird sneakers, which was disappointing, but they also were giving out wine and hot chocolate, which nearly made up for that transgression.) we also ran into favorite friends from amsterdam (who now live in LA) at a steak house… even new york can be a very small town. we subwayed all over (theo had an old lady fall asleep on him - classic subway experience) and wandered soho, times square (my least favorite part of the city), grand central (have you ever been to the whispering corner?) saks fifth avenue (i thought lucy and her girlfriend were going to burst from the excitement of seeing all the glitterati and sequins in the great expanse of holiday dresses and handbags on display), union square, the oculus building, the stock exchange (where lucy posed with the fearless girl her godfather’s agency created) and NYU.
(new york city rooftops)
(i am NOT the old lady that fell asleep on T, there was another one!)
(night walking in nyc… the chrysler building)
(steakhouse dinner with theo’s godfather and family)
(lucy walking the city in the glasses she pulled out of her godfather’s trash bin…)
(exterior of the stunning oculus building)
(interior of the oculus)
(fearless girls at the stock exchange)
theo and i decided that NYU is where he should go to college (i will, of course, go with him. if i get A LOT of botox and keep a low profile i think i can just move right into his dorm. i am a VERY clean, organized roommate and i will provide the mini fridge and the air popper.) i am not sure how we will get him admitted since rick singer has been arrested… he has about three years to cure ebola or solve the homeless problem or create a time travel machine that he can write about in his essay… fingers crossed!
(the washington square arch that theo and i will be walking under all the time when we attend NYU)
* lucy decided she would NOT like to go to NYU because there are so many ginkgo trees on campus that drop some kind of berries that smell like vomit. she has a nose like a bloodhound so when i go to college with her, it may have to be uptown.
(watch out for these trees… SUPER smelly!)