Also this.

Yours,
EL

Just a reminder.

Yours,
EL

Turn, and face the strange

That's the view from the roof of my new apartment. Pretty killer rooftop. Also made for this pretty killer sunburn I'm sporting, following my lovely 10-hour day up there on Sunday.

Yours,
EL

p.s. Yes, that view means I (finally) moved to Williamsburg. More on that soon.

Lapse

Yo,

I'm not apologizing for the fact that I've been doing other things than blogging. It is, however, good to be back.

Yours,
EL

Words of wisdom, c/o a teenager

My little (not so little anymore at 6'3") brother and I talked for the first time in a while last night. Now that he has his driver's license (as of a month ago), he has a lot of time to talk on the phone. Because -- you know -- that's what you do when you drive around in sprawling, suburban southern cities. Plus he has a physics final exam today, so talking to his big sister is a perfect form of procrastination. Anyway, this is my favorite part of the conversation:

Brother: "So...what's new?"
Me: "Not too much. Looking for a new apartment again."
Brother: "Um, are you still trying to live in New York City?"
Me: "Ha. Yeah. Trying."
Brother: "I was on Yahoo today, and there was an article that listed New York as the world's third most unlivable city. You sure you wanna live there?"
Me: "Only third most unlivable? Send me the article. And yes -- I'm sure."
Brother: "Hm....Ok Cool."
(We then, naturally, switched gears to talk about how his lacrosse team season ended up.)

Maybe it is just funny to me, but I just loved it. He's so rational, and I guess now he's knows that I'm not. That's okay.

Yours,
EL

Tell me about your move to New York. 1.

Fortunately or unfortunately, I am among the many who signed a lease in New York soon after a May college graduation. Thus, each summer, though I happily ring in another year gone by in the city that never sleeps, I find myself in murky territory, as I answer arguably the most important question in a New Yorker's life: Where should I live next? (More specific questions include, but are not limited to: What neighborhoods can I afford? Do I have to live with roommates? How much closet space do I really need? Will the divots in the floors from one too many stiletto heel result in the loss of my security deposit? How much will I actually compromise to live in this insane, ridiculous city?)

This year, as I began thinking about my next move, I decided to poll some local friends to see what they think. Rather than ask about a specific neighborhood or experience, I simply posed the question "What was the transition to New York like for you?" and waited to see what the answers would look like. Because my friends are smart, thoughtful, amazing (and excellent writers), the answers were, as expected, varied, insightful, honest, funny and -- on the whole -- totally delightful. I still don't know where I'm going to live, though I've begun to narrow it down (below 14th, above Canal, and west of 7th...or Brooklyn), but I know that these answers are too good not to share.

I guess I feel that hearing other people's New York stories somehow makes one's own more manageable. Knowing that everyone in this city has at least one commonality -- compromising to live in this city -- makes it easier to call it home. Anyway, here are some favorites. I will pass these along in installments, so here are the first two:

Q: Tell me about your move to New York.
______________________________________

A: "Whatever you thought you’d never do, you end up doing, and rather quickly. That is not the test of moving to the city. The real test is maintaining your façade, maintaining your “known” person in the face of all this.

New York is meeting one friend for lunch at 2; another for dinner at 7, and a third for drinks at 10; and having to be a different person for each. New York is an inescapable loneliness among a perpetual crowd. New York is heat and cold and walking and talking.

Everyone makes newcomer mistakes. Like avoiding a taxi at all costs, at 3am, in order to save ten dollars, while you wait, and wait, and wait for a subway in Harlem. (only to find out that the Subway isn’t running).

Or you attempt a “New York Activity,” like seeing the Philharmonic in Central Park, but you just can’t get a seat on the grass because you arrived a little too late, and a little too far from the optimal Park entrance. So you end up sitting behind a tree for 2 hours, straining to hear the violins as they play Vivaldi or the conductor as he asks for donations on the website.

In the end, it is not the fantastic things that you come to miss when you are no longer in New York. Those fantastic things like catching a skyline view late at night in a cab on the river. Or an ultimate party where you shed your skin and break out of your walls. Or New Years, or Halloween.

No, it is the small things that pull at your heart, that entice you back. Like that ten dollar Thai delivery that just isn’t the same anywhere else. Like that meadow in the park with those particular people lying shirtless. Like the oddball subletter that played an accordion ballad at a party, while her breast popped our of her shirt. Like those beautiful mistakes that you no longer make. Or the late night subway ride home, drunk and tired, when the whole car erupts into impromptu rap and dancing. You didn’t know, at the time, whether to be gleeful or annoyed.

But that doesn’t happen anywhere else. And you miss it."

________________________________________

A: "I remember the first time I felt trapped in NY. It was labor day weekend and everyone was leaving the city. I had no money and no where to go. All my friends down south were driving to the beach or the mountains or their parents house. I was trapped. On an Island. That had everything. I was on my lunch break from my miserable job in an un air conditioned brown stone in the west village and I was crying a little and I sat on the grass and people walked by juggling and walking on stilts and marijuana scent drifted over to me and I splurged on a $2 vitamin water. And I felt connected to all the people who had sat in that park before me. And I stopped crying. But it was the first time that I realized that NY had limits. That it couldn’t have everything. My family and friends weren’t there. There was no swim club or camping site. I was trapped on an island that had *almost* everything.

I have this theory that NY knows when you are mad at it and just does everything it can to make you love it. Like when I couldn’t afford to go home for homecoming and I decided I deserved a long lunch and go to Madison Square Park. And when I went it was the first day they were doing outdoor ice skating. And it was glorious. Oh NY- you know just how to get me.

I remember the weekend that I found myself alone in my apartment for the first time since I had moved in 6 weeks before. With four 22 year old girls with boyfriends and out of town guests and rotating couch surfers this was a rarity. I used to take personal calls on my cell phone in central park because it was the only place I could get privacy. It was mid afternoon after too many nights of drinking and partying and I had a little panic attack as I sat in that dark apt all by myself. It was the first time I left my mind slow down enough to really think about what I was doing and where I was. It was the first time I realized that this was not spring break, this was my life, and it was terrifying."

________________________________

Yours,

EL

p.s. The picture above is from my first New York apartment. My roommates lived in bunk beds. That's the compromise we made to live in the West Village. You do what you have to do.

p.p.s. If you want to read similar (though better edited) accounts, check out this amazing piece by Joan Didion, or this article from New York Magazine.

TUMBLR!

Before you freak out: No, I haven't quit good ol' blogger.

I have, however, started a new site (in addition to this one), and I'm pretty excited about it. Whereas here I write about what I do for play, on Tumblr I'm writing about what I do for work. (Yes, I work. And yes, that's why I get too busy to blog.) Anyway, if you want to check it out, it's http://dailycookies.tumblr.com/, and it's a collaboration between my colleague and me.

As far as this little gem goes, there are more updates soon to come, including a reflection on my recent (and first!) trip to San Francisco, some new music discoveries and an introduction to SUMMER 2009, which is shaping up nicely. (If you didn't already know that summer is my favorite season, check this out.)

Until then...

Yours, EL