My Third Month as a New Yorker

I try to maintain a sunny disposition on this blog (and in real life), but I have to admit that my third month here was a bit harder than the first two. I still had my share of amazing adventures, but emotionally it wasn't a super great month for me. I started off the month back in Ohio, celebrating my birthday and gathering the remainder of my possessions (including Mozart!). While I was glad to head back into the city with significantly more cat than I had before, it was an incredibly stressful and busy weekend.

Once I got back, there was a mountain of unpacking to attend to, out-of-town guests to entertain and somewhere around the middle of the month I came down with an annoying cold. I was sleeping on an air mattress, going out every day to buy supplies (only what I could carry, of course), and suddenly feeling homesick for Ohio, which I was not prepared for.

BUT, I'm happy to report that things are improving, as I knew they would, and I'm starting to feel more settled. I've got a brand new bed and I set up the living room area so it is actually starting to feel like home. Putting together IKEA furniture is a total pain (so. many. pieces.), but with a tiny apartment and low-cost delivery, it's a necessary evil. I definitely had my share of YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME moments during assembly, but none of it has spontaneously collapsed (yet). There is a certain satisfaction to knowing that I built put together the bed I'm sleeping on with my own two hands, but if I never need to do it again I'll be ok. This weekend I also hung up all of my art, which has gone a long way to making me feel at peace. Blank walls make me nervous and sad, so maybe that was part of the problem all along.

Some other highlights of my third month as a New Yorker:

After one (very stressful) 8-hour car ride, Mozart officially became a city cat, I went to IKEA three times in one month (that's too many times), discovered the delicious delight that is the Chipotle taco, cut and colored my own hair for the first time with surprisingly not-bad results, saw the 9/11 tribute lights from the Brooklyn Heights Promenade and finally decorated my cubicle at work.

It may have taken me three hours to put together, but I finally have a new bed — and Mozart approves! I visited Woodlawn Cemetery, and spotted early hints of fall. I stumbled on the Feast of San Gennaro festival in Little Italy, but already had dinner plans in Chinatown, where I tried my first dim sum (pork buns ftw) and had the most amazing almond cookie ice cream from the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory.

I got irrationally excited to see pumpkins and fall delights start appearing around the city, waited for sunset so I could see the recreation of Nighthawks in the base of the Flatiron building, participated in the last yoga-by-the-Hudson session for the season, had a life-changing burger at Umami Burger, relived my childhood at a celebration of Nickelodeon's Golden Age at the 92nd Street Y, and finally hung up all of my art.

I'm definitely glad that September is over, and that I seem to be getting back into a good groove again. Turns out that it IS incredibly hard and sad to sell most of your possessions, move 500 miles away, start a new job and live a new life. But, I am incredibly lucky, as always, to have amazingly supportive friends and family (and Mozart!), to help me through the rough patches.

I knew moving to New York wasn't a magical fix, and I never thought it came with a 100% happiness guarantee. I gave up a lot, and I miss a lot (of people, places and things) that can never be replaced, but I've never regretted making the move. Everyone has tough times no matter where they are, and now I have the luxury of walking in Central Park or browsing books at the Strand when I get in a mood. Plus, I have a ton of amazing fall festivities planned for October, and I'm pretty sure it will be physically impossible to be in a bad mood as fall really starts to hit the city.