Native New Yorker Part I

I'm here.

I don't know what I love more: the fact that two drugstores, two supermarkets, Barnes and Noble, and Circuit City (just listing a few) are all <1 minute walk from my apartment; the fact that I am finally eating a variety of delicious food again for the first time in 4 months; my class at NYU which is so stimulating; the streets; the fabulous buildings; the hustle and bustle...the list goes on!

The neurosis is great- to all patrons of Whole Foods circa 9am Monday morning, I apologize I was not "with it" enough yet to dance the jig of the whole checkout scene (there are four lines that rotate turns and I got up there too fast to realize there was actually a rhythm to the system of taking turns left to right. Yeah, learned that one in preschool. Whodathought. But whadayagonnado.)

The honking cabs and screaming ambulances at 2 am don't annoy me, they comfort me. They assure me that the world is still gravitating.

I really don't know if I'm ever leaving this place- for example, my crazy mind is already working out logistics for when I'll do graduate schooling here and how, should I ever want babies, I would uproot children here. It is just that fabulous.

I was on the phone the other day with my mom, and I came to an epiphany, telling her how I think most, if not all, of my issues in life have stemmed from boredom. California is beautiful, but it bores me. When I told her I have never felt more "at home" with these New Yorkers and their pace and this environment, she just feigned excitement with a "That's great, honey!" but couldn't hide the fact she was thinking, "Wow, I really don't understand you after all."

Wow, if I am this changed by a pace of life like this, then maybe, I thought, boredom is the root of all evil in the world! We could conquer teen pregnancy, suicide, or drug addiction if everyone just moved to NYC and channeled their energy into productive things! But then, of course, this island can't take much more than 9 million people. Oh well.

As my mother's college friend's daughter told me two summers ago in response to my question of what she thought of her city upbringing, she reflected that it's just nice to know you're never alone. We New Yorkers will always have the city, and it will never fail us, at least in terms of boredom.