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.