My first visit to New York was a little over 3 years ago, it was November and I took a bus from Baltimore (where I was visiting my brother). It was evening, and I remember being so excited when we were crawling toward New Jersey, because from a distance I thought that it was New York City, and as we got nearer being so disappointed. We sat in traffic for at least an hour more before getting to the Holland Tunnel and approaching NYC from dark side streets. The bus let us out near Madison Square Garden, and meeting me there with a coffee was James. He was the guy I came to see, an old crush/friend from back home in California who moved to NYC five years before. So despite the cold, I had a very pleasant first experience here because we were in love. We went to the High Line, rode the Staten Island Ferry, went to the Met, went ice skating in Central park etc. When I moved here that summer it was Memorial day weekend and it was early morning, and raining. I remember the couple sitting next to me played ‘Empire State of Mind’ on their phone, and I was just so elated to be here, starting a new chapter of my life. I remember that I thought I needed a jacket, I assumed that the rain would be cold like back home in the Bay Area but it was already around 75 degrees that morning. When we went back to his studio in the financial district, to live, the reality of New York hit me. The constant grey haze, the garbage stacked high, the rats and roaches, the dirtiness, the aggressiveness, the general disregard of rules, the bad drivers, the lack of recycling, the bad produce, the crowds, the apparent sense of superiority New Yorker’s seemed to have, etc. But after time I got used to it, and the scary thing is that I’m acclimating to it here. When I go back to California it can seem too slow, the homeless gross me out, public transportation seems lacking, people seem too wishy washy and too politically correct… but it’s beautiful there, and relaxing and I need to leave the city every so often to keep my sanity. We live in Brooklyn now, Park Slope, and it’s nice to be so near Prospect Park; we take our dog there on weekend mornings. We are also near the central library, farmer’s markets, the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, the Brooklyn Museum, Union Hall, or if it’s too far to walk can just hop on a train or ride our bikes when it’s warmer. I have to remind myself every so often that I am very lucky to be here and that there is so much to do, and to take advantage of it all because we probably won’t stay and it would be a shame to only focus on the negative.