New life

At home on a Friday.
Watching a thunderstorm roll in over south Brooklyn, there is the wind
in my face, ships in the distance and the call of a lone gull. The
thunder, echoing off buildings, sounds closer to amplified backyard
fireworks, but somehow, in this most urban place, I feel so close to
nature.

It's been a long time since I had anything I felt like saying, but
I've been thinking, thinking and thinking...

In the interim, I got a promotion, a French boyfriend who moved in
with me, had further crazy family things happen and celebrated my 1
year NYC anniversary.

I still think about Texas, and even miss it sometimes. Especially now,
when it's so dark and cold. I think about every single lazy day spent
drinking margaritas poolside or breakfast tacos at Maudie's or dancing
at Elysium or warm nights spent alone, biking around town. When my
iPhone informs me that it's 70 degrees in 78704 I can only remember
how lovely spring is. Softball and beers with Max. Reading books and
drinking wine in Zilker park. Gearing up for sxsw, which usually meant
spending a couple of hours a week inhaling glue fumes and getting
sticky fingers followed by post "work" Mexican or moonshine brunch. I
think about my cat, the people I left behind, the niece who is growing
up without me and I feel a physical longing and sadness so strong that
it's almost an actual, measurable pain.

But then there is New York. I was recently marveling at how, unlike my
other transplanted friends, instead of feeling any kind of backlash or
distaste for the city at all, I've only come to love it more.
On a truly nice day (in any season), I dare you to show me a city more
lovely than this. I live in what sometimes feels like a gigantic
playground for grownups, with each day actually being full of endless
possibilities. I have anything I could possibly want available to me
at any hour of the day. Now that I have my car, I'm a mere hour away
from anything fun, and I've done more traveling and seen more new
things in the year I've lived here then in the 8 I lived in Austin.
There's something about this whole New England thing that I really
dig... Maybe all those Charles wysocki puzzles we did as kids had some
subliminal effect on me, who knows. I feel more at home every day, and
more proud to be a New Yorker.

Back down to the river again

Walking through Astoria Park I see a length of old nylon rope that
glints in the sun like the body of a snake in the spring grass and for
a moment my muscles tense, ready to run and I'm surprised at this
extremely natural reaction to a simple thing in the most unnatural of
environments.

Down by the water I immediately notice the smell of salt...Only the
second time since I moved that I've been able to smell the sea. My
sailor's blood churns beneath my skin, not unlike the waters of the
Hellgate.

Along the shore there is a place where the beach is made up entirely
of glass... Thousands of tiny pieces of blues and greens, remnants of
bottles that were discarded into the water for whatever reason....
Drifting along until the tide gathered them all along a ten foot
stretch of land.. What strikes me most is not the sparkly sight, but
the fact that when the waves crash on the shore it makes a noise like
the clinking of champagne glasses or the crystals of a chandelier.
That is so New York, hints of glamour in the dingiest of places.

Walked down to the waterfront today
In general I find the rivers around New York to be kind of sinister
anyway...
But add a gray, misty day and the ghostly silhouettes of grand bridges
and buildings and you get a recipe for the chills.
Mostly just walked among the expected detritus-- rusted crab traps,
rotted lengths of rope, condom wrappers, broken beer bottles, empty
oyster shells. Looking down into the water. Waiting to see something
but not sure what.

Some kids just yelled "you look like elvis!" from a bus. Compliment? I
think so...

I started running
The concrete turned to sand
I started running
And things didn't turn out as planned

This am

Me: Lindsay! Brunch!
Lindsay (asleep on the couch): meh so sleeeeepy...
Adam: diana! Your clothes are falling off of you!!
Me: did you hear that, Lindsay? I'm wasting away over here! Now let's
go eat!!
Adam: really, though, you've lost weight, haven't you?
Me: yeah, these pants were tight this morning.