The Big Apple

I remember my very first trip to New York City. It was a business trip, over President’s Day Weekend/Valentine’s Day in 2001, and I got to fly on one of American Airlines limited edition planes that were all first class seats. I remember the energy that radiated out of the city as I gazed at it in amazement from the dirty yellow taxi cab with a colleague who was busy on his mobile phone, un-phased by the enormous concrete jungle I was itching to get into through the mid-town tunnel.

The energy of New York cannot be described, it can only be experienced. You feel it the minute you arrive, with each step you take on the gritty sidewalk and with every sight, smell, sound and emotion that hits you from all sides. New York doesn’t wait for you to adapt, it shoves you in the back of the head and screams, “excuse me, I’m walking here!” I took in as much as I could those five days. Times Square, Rockefeller Plaza, Union Square, Washington Square Park, Fifth Avenue, Madison Avenue, Battery Park, Central Park… There was too much to see and do. I stood in line for three hours, squished next to people from all over the world in a tiny elevator to reach the top of the World Trade Center. I stared out the Windows of the World at the Manhattan skyline, the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building like so many others had before me, taking pictures with my disposable 35mm camera I bought for $15 bucks at a deli that day. I had no idea it wouldn’t exist anymore just six months later…

Exactly one year after my first trip to NYC fate brought me back – well, close enough to Princeton, New Jersey. A beautiful small town about an hour away, home to the University by the same name, my Aunt and Uncle and their ever loyal and lovable children – a pair of Airedale Terriers. I spent every weekend I could visiting the city and taking it all in. I’m not sure when I decided I wanted to move there. It might have been the morning I was walking around the Upper West Side in the cold brisk morning in search of breakfast and the sky was so incredibly blue and the sun so bright. I inhaled the city and fell in love with it at the same time.

In June 2002 I packed up all of my things down in Dallas where I was only a 30 minute car ride away from my parents’ house and decided I was coming to live in New York for real. As I was loading the moving truck and sorting out which items would stay and which would go in the driveway, my father came outside to observe. He stood with his hands in both of his pockets, squinted at me in the sunlight and said, “So, why are you doing this?” To which I replied, “What?” He smiled. “Moving to New York City.” I looked down, thought for a minute and replied, “Because if I don’t I’ll never know if I could.” He smiled again, the closed lip smirk kind that let me know he was proud of me. Even if he was a bit scared for me.

I spent five years living and breathing New York. There are a million stories and moments and cherished memories from my time there. There are also a lot of very difficult memories, hard times and jagged edges I endured while living there. None of my scars from New York are permanent, because they are part of me now. New York will tear you down into tiny pieces, spit you out, crumple your resolve and make you wish you never fell in love with it sometimes. But it also makes you stronger. If you can survive living in NYC, you can survive anything. There are entire blogs dedicated to the amazing amount of restaurants, shopping, sights, venues, music scene, history and charm of New York. Here’s just a sample of some of my favorites:

Divine Bar – The East Side location was the best, but now there’s just the West Side one
Serendipity – Best ice cream sundae I have ever had
Pravda – Underground Russian vodka bar in SoHo
Cafe Felix – Best Caipirinha during Sunday brunch ever
Butter Cup Bakery – Red velvet cupcakes are heaven. Enough said
Perbacco – Tiniest and best Italian food in the East Village
Dinosaur BBQ – in Harlem just try it once
El Rio Grande – the only place in NYC with real Texas queso and damn good margaritas
Evil Sugar – tiny shop on 12th street with fabulous clothes, shoes and accessories

Singapore is a lot like New York in several ways… and yet it is unique in its charm. The people here are all transplants, just like NY and very cultured, well rounded people too. There are all types of backgrounds and cultures melting together here. Everyone is from somewhere else, which bonds you in a way that Midwest cities or boring California cities can never achieve. It’s expensive here and driven and everyone works hard and plays hard – my favorite saying these days. I appreciate New York every minute that I spend here in Singapore. Not only for the irreplaceable friendships I made (one of which influenced me to come here) but because it prepared me for living a million miles away from home… It prepared me to be strong in a new, different, exciting city on the other side of the world.

I love you New York!

Heinz 57

The title of this one is because I have a random hodge-podge of things to share and couldn’t think of a more appropriate or catchy title! I have decided the next few entries are going to be about all the places I have lived or visited in my lifetime… All 31 years of it. Blogging wasn’t invented when I was born in 1978 and Al Gore certainly didn’t think of the internet so I need to back catalog some of my best memories of the more than 25 cities I have been to.

Here is the list, in case you are interested to get a sneak peak of certain places:
California: Orange County, San Diego, Los Angeles, Palm Springs, 29 Palms
Texas: Austin, Dallas, Houston, Harlingen, South Padre Island, Lubbock, Wichita Falls
New York
Princeton, New Jersey
Kansas City
Chicago
Indianapolis
South Carolina
Virginia
North Carolina
London
Sydney
Paris
Jamaica
Mexico
Singapore
Bali

I hope to add many more to this list in my lifetime. If it is possible to step foot on every single continent and perhaps every single country before I pass on, I’m going to try!

In other news – I went wakeboarding for the first time in 10 years yesterday with a group of girls from the office. One of which is a rock star champion wake boarder who did all kinds of tricks and jumps that made me ashamed of how many times I fell down and sucked dirty sea water through my nose. I actually got up for a solid five minutes though and was pretty proud of myself. The place to go is called Pongol Marina. It was a great experience, despite being hungover the entire time wishing I were lying in bed with a cold pak on my face. The evening before was the Dragon Boat party at Ice Cold Beer and for some reason I thought it would be a good plan to start drinking at 6pm and not eat dinner. Except for a few nachos at Beaujolais Wine Bar beforehand. It was a late night, but a cool one too. I repeated my adventures after wakeboarding at a BBQ followed by Clark Quay and Attica – again- Thanks to Lora for being a stellar wing woman. 🙂

We have booked our first trip! Going to Bali March 5-8 with my fast becoming very good friend Kelly who just moved here from Wisconsin several weeks before I arrived. She will make a good travel buddy I think. At least until Jocey returns in April! We are staying at my housemates other house, where his girlfriend and daughter spend a majority of their time and he commutes back and forth. Hopefully we won’t get into too much trouble!

Look for more updates about the cities of past, present and future soon…