New York State of Mind

{ A cup and a song in the morning }

I remember the first time I saw New York City in real life, not just in a movie. I was about 16 and headed to Boston for a choral competition with my high school choir. The sun was setting over the bay when we started crossing the bridge and the skyline came into view. I think I seriously wounded a couple freshmen as I pushed them out of the way to get to the side of the bus with the best view. My best friend {M} would tell me years later that the look on my face was priceless. I think she was afraid I was going to break the window, jump off the bridge, and swim over to lower Manhattan. She should have been, I was considering it.

New York City symbolized something for me. I was so hungry at that age for something amazing to happen. I wasn't sure what that was but I was certain it had a better shot of happening in New York. You see nothing exciting happened where I lived but everything exciting happened there. Dreams became reality simply because you dreamed them while walking down 5th Avenue. Oh yes, the rational musings of a 16 year old. 

Over the years I've been able to spend some time in the city and there are things that I absolutely love about it; the rooftop garden at the Met [my absolute favorite place], the ability to see a Broadway show because Broadway is literally 4 blocks away, or the way a bagel tastes better in New York City than any other place on earth {the water}. As you get older though and come to know yourself better you realize that even though you love things about a place that doesn't mean it's the place for you. 

I don't think it was the city that I craved as much as the feelings that it evoked. New York City really is a state of mind. When you're there you feel alive because you literally have no idea what might be around the next corner. It's easy to feel stagnant in life when we forget that its not over till its over. You never know what might happen tomorrow. That's what the city has taught me and what I take with me each time I leave it. 

{ A subway in downtown Richmond really would be great. Who can I call about that? }

{ The best $2 you'll ever spend }

{ Somehow it's different when it's the local paper }

{ A misty morning on the Hudson on the way back from Albany }