I have a confession to make: by the time we moved out of New York in 2008, I was burnt out on the Big Apple. I was so excited to get away, that I couldn’t run fast enough for the George Washington Bridge.
In fact, I was so burnt out on NYC, that I was dreading coming back to town this week. It’s been three years, and the idea of coming back to the city actually filled me with anxiety and not just a little bit of resentment.
As the week is wrapping up, though, I have to admit a couple of surprising things:
- I would absolutely be willing to live in NYC again… though, only on a part-time basis. If I could come up with a way to live in the City from May through October, I would not hesitate. For as much as this week has re-invigorated my love of the City, I am still past the point in my life where my love of the city over-shadows my loathing of snow.
- I would absolutely be willing to live in NYC again… though, only if I lived in Manhattan. As much as I was ready to leave Manhattan when I moved to the Bronx in 2006, at this point, the only appeal to NYC is Manhattan.
- I would absolutely be willing to live in NYC again… though only if we can find an apartment with two bathrooms. Honestly, this is something that most people in the suburbs take for granted, because most homes (hell, even a lot of apartments) have at least two bathrooms. Having to go back to sharing one tiny little bathroom with no counter space again this week has been just about the only downside to being here.
- Working from home sucks about 80% less when “home” is in Manhattan than other places. And, quite honestly, this came as a shock to me. I didn’t really think it would matter that much. But the overwhelming sense of isolation, the consistent energy drain from lack of interaction, the craving to be in an office, etc. is all mitigated considerably by looking out of the window and seeing Broadway, and by passing 300 people in the 4 minutes it takes me to run downstairs to buy a cup of coffee.
- I would definitely need to live in a mature neighborhood. I am a homebody. I am actually very surprised at how little I have strayed away from the UWS (Upper West Side) this week. In fact, I have stuck so close to home that I didn’t even need to buy a MetroCard this trip… now that I think about it, I’m on day five and I haven’t even been south of 47th St., except for when we drove in from the Holland Tunnel. I’ve really enjoyed this neighborhood, and the fact that I haven’t actually needed to go anywhere else. An up-and-coming neighborhood couldn’t offer that.
- I am not sure I could do more than four floors of walk-up. The part of me that knows I need to exercise more is proud of how much less huffing and puffing I am doing now vs. on Tuesday by the time I make it to the fourth floor, but logistics like carrying groceries and luggage, and stuff like that make walking up more than four flights of stairs seem a bit onerous.
Naturally, that first bullet point is the real challenge. Apartments in Manhattan are hard enough to come by, but only wanting one on a funky schedule is probably worse. (I need to find a time-share option with a student or a professor who wants to leave the city during the summers, or something like that.)
However, all in all, I am pleasantly surprised to discover that my childhood fascination with NYC is still intact. After my last stint living in the city, I thought it had been mugged, stabbed and tossed into a rat-infested gutter, never to rise again. I was so desperate to get the hell out of dodge by the time September 2008 rolled around that it never occurred to me that I’d ever again even entertain the thought of a potential return to the Big Apple… even if only as a flight of fancy.
Thanks for a great week, New York. You reminded this California girl why I fell in love with you in the first place. I needed that… even if I am (happily) returning home to Texas now.
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