I'm in a New York State of Mind

I went with my sister tonight to see "New York, I Love You" at the Bijou. The movie is basically a love letter to New York, featuring mini-stories about random things that you might say are unique to living in a city of roughly seven million people. It was better than I expected (and truthfully, I wasn't really expecting anything in particular) and it reminded me of when I was younger and wanted nothing more than to live in New York City. I was convinced after watching the first season of "Friends" (wow, I'm getting old) that NYC was the greatest city in the world and the place that I was destined to end up. Granted, I had never set foot onto the island of Manhattan, but I knew that there was nothing else that could possibly compare to living there. If I didn't live there, I was for sure that I would die. Did I mention that at the time I thought this, I was in middle school and a tad melodramatic?

Now I'm 27 years old and while I still haven't been to the city that never sleeps, I left the theater feeling a twinge of that longing I had when I was younger, to pack up all that I could fit into my bag and start a new life there. While I love LA and I'm more than 99% sure that it holds the key to my heart, there's always something about your first love. When I was a kid, I thought anything seemed possible if you lived in New York. As an adult, I still feel like you could walk out your front door in the morning and have a day worthy of one of the short stories in the movie. Maybe it has something to do with all of the walking. In LA (and in most cities for that matter), you're in a car going from place to place, zoning out in traffic for what ends up being a pretty decent portion of your life. In New York, you hit the pavement, or the subway, or share a taxi with a random stranger. Maybe you put your headphones on and zone out that way, but you're still in the mix, left vulnerable to bumping into a someone else just trying to get to their final destination. Maybe they end up being no one, maybe they end up playing a minor role in the story of your day. I'm not saying that that kind of thing isn't possible walking down Sunset in LA or walking through campus here in Eugene, but it seems like there's a magic in New York that makes that more of a possibility than anywhere else.

Watch, one day, when I finally fly to New York, everything that could go wrong will and I'll leave absolutely hating the place. Maybe someone from New York will stumble upon this blog, read this particular entry and say, "This girl has no idea what she's talking about! She's obviously not from New York." Either way, I hope the day comes in the near future (the trip to New York, not the heckler crushing my New York fantasy).

Until then, don't worry LA. I'm still your girl. You've got one thing that New York will never have: sun and warmth year-round. Los Angeles, I love you.