The Seven Year Itch or Lacking of It
Today, March 31, marks the seven year anniversary of my working in the current company and my moving to New York City.
I have been so lucky to have experienced this city, all it has to offer.
Although a lengthy greencard process has kept me in the current company for too long, I am happy that I did not leave when I got the best chance.
Life had something better in stock for me.
What makes New York Red me? The city, the friends, the places, the streets, the night we spent walking along the streets, and the weekends of Spring and Summer, the galleries, the performances, the world's best restaurants, the world's most diversified faces, the courage and moments of lost, the tears that you never see, the laughter we have shared, and you.
It is the best of the time. It is the worst of the time.
This sentence from The Tale of Two Cities best describes it.
I have not had enough of it, after seven years. So I shall mark the date on this last day of March, begining of Spring, with hope and love.
posted by NYE at 4:03 PM
4 Comments:
thank you, Red, for leaving such a sweet comment on my entry on George Sand. having looked at your profile, I noticed that we have many interests and likes in common. i will attempt to send you an email, perhaps we can try to correspond.
i think i understand your feelings about NYC, even though mine are actually quite different. there was a time in my life when I too was quite taken with it. later i grew disappointed when i discovered how little it had to offer to *me*. it happened like this: i lived in New England for several years and took several trips to NYC to attend opera /classical music concerts. and each time i went, i tried to make the most of the trip by seeing what films i could see or what theater i could go to, and each time i sadly reflected that there was nothing for me there. i am not sure how to characterize it, except to say that what NYC has to offer in terms of high brow culture is rather distinctly middle-brow. (Except the metropolitan and frick which are truly brilliant).
perhaps i am mistaken and there is great high brow stuff there, but it does seem easier to find in Paris, or even Bali. ;-)
again, many thanks for such a kind entry. i cannot begin to tell you how much it meant to me.
BTW, i am also very fond of Kawabata; and am mulling a post on him in the near future.
Gawain
I think to visit NYC is different from living here, breathing it, knowing the people, loving some of them, sitting on the steps of public liberary, knowing the 24 hour restaurant in Chinatown, little streets in west village. My first visit to NYC in 95 was a disaster. But since I moved here in 99, I don't want to leave. I have grown up here, to some extent, not sure whether I express the sentiments. Thanks for the kind comment! Looking forward to your post about Kawabata.
I'm so glad that Gawain and Red have found each other's blogs ! (and isn't that a funny sentance ?)
I'm with Red on this one -- my grandparents lived in Manahattan -- so my childhood memory bank is full with the images and smells of east 86th street -- the East River -- and the caverous halls of the Museum of Natural History -- not to mention the memories of my grandmother and her small, meticulous apartment with the Piero Della Francesca angel on the bathroom door. I lived there one summer when I was 14 -- and, one bright, sunny day, went on my first date with -- I think her name was Barbara -- and we held hands walking around Grant's Tomb -- and sat on a park bench as the city strolled past. (just as it might have been painted by William Merritt Chase)
No - wait -- maybe I'll side with Gawain --- because the only two things I really miss today are the Frick and the Met --- and there's something about NYC's place in modern world culture -- where world-class marketing dominates all the brows: low-middle-and high -- and with three major temples to the lesser gods (MOMA,Whitney,Guggenheim), it remains the Babylon of post-war nihilism.
Can I have it both ways ?
Chris
I found Gawain through your site.
And you of couse can have both sides. We all see NYC through our own eyes, at our age and time that we are/were here...it got to have a different color, mood and touch and feel.
Like your description of your childhood memory and the holding hand as a 14 year old....
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