Adventure Awaits.

I am sort of amazed (although by now I shouldn't be; I know how this works) that almost a month has gone by since my last post.  The days, they fly by ever faster, somehow always shorter, and when I remarked on this phenomenon to my 77 year old father the other day, he replied: "Sorry to tell you this, but they only keep going faster every year."

So.
There is that universal truth.

******

My efforts to settle into life as a New Yorker continue; this fall has been an interesting one.  After living in the same city for the majority of my adult life - with the most recent exception being thirteen years prior - and calling the same address home for the last ten years, a part of me simply forgot how long it takes to get settled somewhere.  Before I moved into my sweet lovely treehouse in 2008, I'd moved on the regular, virtually every year. I had moving down to a science.  Just like anything though, if you get out of practice, it gets more challenging to return.  The sheer logistics of boxing everything up and unboxing everything in another spot, determining where everything should go and what can fit where is, well, it just takes time.  Couple that with moving to a smaller apartment in a different city and needless to say I'm still working on finding my routine, getting into my groove.

Of course, that is partially what I wanted. When I knew I had to give up the apartment I swore I'd never leave until they kicked me out (they kicked me out) I took a long look at my lovely, cozy, and comfortable life and decided I needed to shake things up.  My life as it was was wonderful and there are moments now when I miss it so much I would give almost anything to be able to unlock the front door on my old street and climb right back up those stairs to my third floor treehouse and into the routine I knew and loved.  But a routine, while wonderful, can become just that - a routine. And so with my New York move I decided to take myself on a grand adventure; to do, see, and experience something I never had before.

I miss Boston and my life , my friends there on a daily basis.  However, I am on a grand adventure. I am calling the island of Manhattan (!) home, there are new experiences happening around me and to me every single day lately.  It can be a lot and sometimes it exhausts me.  It can also be a lot and sometimes it exhilarates me.  

Last night, I went to a yoga class after work and then walked up the block to the Whole Foods in Columbus Circle.  As I descended the stairs into the store, I thought about how grocery shopping on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving was either the best or the worst idea I'd ever had in my life.  (Turns out it wasn't as bad as I feared.). When I left the store, paper grocery bags in hand, crossing the street to jump on the subway, like lightening this notion flew through me - I am living the city dream I have had all of my life.  I am doing it. And something as mundane as carrying groceries home somehow becomes almost magical.

And then, there is also this:

When I was a teenager, I vividly remember a moment watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade over breakfast when a newscaster stopped to interview whatever celeb du jour was walking in the parade.  They spoke about the weather, what their favorite traditions of the holiday were, where each of them would be eating their feast later that day.  The celebrity (For the life of me I cannot remember who it was but in my mind he's a Broadway actor dressed sharply in a dark dress coat, bundled up in the cold) commented that he'd be hopping on the subway later, heading to see his family across the city.  Of course, I have no idea if that was actually true, if that celebrity ever was subway bound as the parade wrapped.  But his story stuck with me.  What a marvelous thing I thought to myself, to spend your morning in a city of millions and then to hop a subway train, barreling toward your next adventure.  It sounded so foreign from the suburban New Jersey life I knew at 14, so thrilling and exotic.  I would like to try that, I thought to myself.  Some day.  Someday.

******

My father has come into the city this evening, taking the train up from my hometown, meeting me in Penn Station and riding the subway to the Upper West Side with me, his first time visiting my apartment. Tomorrow, we will brave the cold and do our best to catch what we can of the Thanksgiving parade live.  I have no idea what to expect, we have no solid plan besides trying to see what we can see.  Afterwards we will head back to my apartment and later, feast on the traditional Thanksgiving meal out at a nearby restaurant.  We may or may not hop on the subway at some point tomorrow, we may or may not freeze our tails off as the temperatures drop rapidly overnight.  We don't know how it will unfold other than my father and I will have ourselves an adventure.  A true Manhattan Thanksgiving adventure.  For that's what I'm on these days after all.  And it looks like my Thanksgiving Someday has finally arrived.