New York, New York

First of all, I need to explain how I came to live here in New York City or Brooklyn to be exact. My foremost dream as a child was to travel. While I also dreamed of marriage and family as did most girls of my generation, I wanted that after I explored the world. But the woman did not have the courage of the child and that is a story for another time. At any rate, I found myself at the age of 55 with no job and having never lived outside of the State of Texas, most of that time in East Texas. Not that I made no attempt. When I first looked for a Principal's position (I am an educator), I applied all around the continental U.S.A. and traveled to Pennsylvania and Washington D. C. to interview. But when opportunities arose, my courage failed and I ended up back in East Texas on a journey from one miserable position to another. At any rate, the doors of opportunity in Texas seemed to be closing all around me.

My son, who was living in New York City at the time, encouraged me to live not vicariously through him, but to move to NYC and live with him for one year. At first I simply blew off the idea as too preposterous, too much of an upheaval. Move to New York City! But gradually, I began to be reminded of that girl who stared out the window of her bedroom and planned how she would go to New York, Paris and Rome and not simply to travel but to live in those places. The idea began to take root and before I knew it grew into a full fledged plan. I found myself taking the steps to make the dream a reality. I had a giant apartment sale and let go of years of possessions. In fact I sold everything that would not fit into a 5x5 storage facility. It is humbling to realize how many possessions I collected over the years considering that I had already downsized from a three bedroom townhome to a one bedroom apartment. I sold my car, packed up the cat and left for New York with every intention of staying for one year.

My first inkling that one year in New York would not be enough occurred the second month here, when my son began to talk about leaving New York to teach overseas. I literally began to grieve for all the things I would miss. When he applied to and was accepted into the Peace Corp, I began to grieve all the things I would not have time to do in one year. I wanted to stay in New York City, but that old fear began to creep in. I would have no family here. I would be all by myself. I was afraid to stay, but neither could I leave. I simply was not finished with the Big Apple.

Why am I so enthralled with New York. Well, I love the weather. It is never too hot for a walk which is another thing I like about New York. I walk everywhere. I am in better shape than I have ever been. It actually snows here and when it does it is beautiful. If this past winter was any indication of the cold, give me a New York Winter over a Texas Summer any day. I love the smells of New York, from the bakeries, to flower stands filled with lavender, meat cooking in the Gyro stands, the river and even the subways. I love the sounds of New York. You probably hear five different languages each time to venture out and at least that many different genres of music each time the subway doors open. It is a myth that New Yorkers are unfriendly. The people are friendly and always ready to help. The people in the neighborhood bodegas call me "Texas." When was the last time the people on your street sat out on their front lawns the way New Yorkers sit out on their stoops? The only rude New Yorkers are the cabbies who honk for seemingly no reason other than to impress their riders. A bad meal in New York is a rarity. New Yorkers hold the bar high when it comes to food , spelling a quick end to the restaurant or street vendor which fails to meet it. There is probably no ethnic fare unrepresented in the city. Price is no predictor of quality. Some of the best food is at the Saturday Flea Market in Brooklyn on the corner of Lafayette and Vanderbilt.

You can never run out of free things to do, forget about all the low cost things. (Go to nyc.go for today's date and see what I mean.) Once you learn about off Broadway, even the theater is not beyond your means. Thanks in part to John D. Rockefeller's efforts to bring art to the people, anyone can visit the cities' great museums at affordable prices.

I haven't even touched on the street fairs or the parks. It will take at least another year to describe my New York. This is the story of Evie's great adventure or as my son calls it "My great "Perhaps." My other dream as a child was to write. So I will write about my adventure and kill two birds with one stone.