Monday, August 9th, 2010

Three Years

posted by lizzie    « 2 Comments »    tied to Brooklyn, celebration, the day-to-day   

We celebrated our 3rd anniversary of being New Yorkers last week. Or of living in New York anyway. We have lived here longer than we lived in Hawaii, longer than I lived in Provo. My first memories of New York involve carrying all of our stuff up two flights of rickety stairs to our tiny apartment in the middle of the night; the infernal humidity brought on by a fierce rainstorm; returning our rental car and taking the train to Target to get ourselves a fan; our gas not being turned on for over a month; three lost boxes that did, eventually, find their way through the mail to us.

I know, it sounds like a miserable start, and yet I only have fond feelings for those days. A lot has changed since then. We made it through grad school, we got a real job, we moved to a “safer” neighborhood, we had another baby. But a lot has stayed the same. The summer humidity. The winter cold. The walking, carrying, catching (and missing) trains. Every day, despite its sameness, is an adventure. You never know what you will see or hear as you walk down the street. Every person is character. We’ve run probably hundreds of miles around Prospect Park. We’ve played in the Atlantic Ocean. We’ve made some great friends, some of whom we’ve already had to say good-bye to. We’ve picked up furniture off the road, we’ve become obsessed with real estate. We’ve learned the lingo and can sometimes talk back with the best of them. Sometimes I wonder, How do we manage to live here? How would we truly live anywhere else? So, I wouldn’t say we’re real New Yorkers yet, but we’re well on our way.

Comments

  1. Becca says:
    August 17, 2010 at 10:13 pm

    It’s funny. I feel like you guys have lived in New York much longer than three years, and I imagine part of it that once you left for Hawaii you were far away from all of us- so perhaps I don’t think about your location as much. Don’t get be wrong; I know where you live! :) I also find it funny that I spent nearly 8 years in Provo compared to your 3. How time flies!

  2. Natalie says:
    August 20, 2010 at 2:02 am

    Oh NYC. I have to admit, I really miss it a lot. I miss our friends the most, but I miss the atmosphere a ton, too. The last week I’ve been dropping off the car for Cameron and walking home, Samuel in the stroller and Caleb in the Ergo carrier. Is it a pain? Yes. Is it annoying trying to get Samuel to walk up our stairs while I carry Caleb and the stroller? Of course. But at the same time, it makes me really homesick for the city. And as nice as it is to have a car sometimes, there are frequently times I wish I didn’t need one (baby carseats are SUCH a pain in the neck!). So anyways…Enjoy your time in the city, you’ll miss it someday when you’re gone. :0)

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