New York Moments

Recently, a few people have asked me this question: Have you had a New York Moment yet? And I started thinking about it. I guess NY moments are moments when you realize, holy shit, I live here. Moments when you witness something you just couldn't see anywhere else. Moments when you feel like you belong. Moments when you wonder, after being here, whether you could live anywhere else. Moments when you can't wait to get out. Moments when you wonder what you're doing. Moments when you're sure.

All of which is to say, yes, I've had mine. What I don't know is whether there's one single instant when I went from feeling like an out-of-place visitor to feeling like this is home. That I'm, you know, from here—at least for a little while.

A few New York Moments....
• Seeing the same guy—who looks like a cross between a pirate and Bill Clinton—three mornings in a row in Prospect Park.
• Arriving on the bus from Boston, alighting on the corner of 34th and 8th, and feeling like I'd arrived.
• When my roommate, Veronica, told me about a friend of hers who was riding the J train to Williamsburg and saw two people (two!) reading Edgar Allen Poe. There are other trains 0n which people read the Post. She said, "See, it's Poe versus Post!" and I got it.
• Falling asleep to the sound of garbage trucks and hydraulics.
• Eating steamed shrimp dumplings in Chinatown at a community table with a bunch of strangers, all of whom were from out of town, and thinking: I might not be a local yet, but I'm more local than they are.
• Subscribing to the New York Times, the New Yorker, and New York.
• Going to a reading and book signing at the bookstore right downstairs.
• Standing at a party in the backyard of a brownstone talking to four guys from Seattle and one from Portland, who all live here now, and who all love the Northwest, but also love this.
• Realizing that I haven't been to Whole Foods, yoga, or a gym in two months and thinking, you know what? I still feel pretty good. (Ask me again on November 3 when I'm too sore to walk.)
• Climbing the stairs out of the subway at a new stop and going on my merry way without turning around three times, looking up, checking my map, and bumping into people when I change my mind about which way is north.
• Two words: Street festival.