It's been great

A couple days ago we celebrated our 5th anniversary of living in New York. It was actually on a whim that we moved here. Tom needed to finish up art school, I wanted to live somewhere new, it seemed like a fun place,at least from what I had seen on television. So we did it, sold our lease, our cars, packed up, and moved across the country.

Why have we stayed so long?

Here are our top 5 reasons.

1. OUR FRIENDS
One of the many wonderful things about being a member of the LDS church is the immediate family you have when you move somewhere you don't know anyone. Our ward is no exception. Filled with designers, artists, and many talented people, I am inspired by them, all of the time. But more than that, they are some of the best friends I could ever ask for. We seem to find any excuse we can to get together. Birthdays, BBQ's, camping, New York outings, the beach, road trips, everything is better our friends.
Leaving them will be the hardest part of moving someday.

2. BROOKLYN
When we first moved to New York, we didn't have a place to live. Before we came, I spent weeks looking online for housing options. Having never been here, I thought the areas closest to Times Square seemed the most ideal, I obviously had no frame of reference. Upon moving here, we house sat for a few weeks in Greenwich village while we explored the different areas of the city deciding on where to settle, quickly realizing we wanted to stay as far away from Midtown as possible. We looked all over the different areas of the city, and nothing felt right. Someone had recommended looking in the neighborhood of Park Slope Brooklyn. We hadn't considered Brooklyn, it seemed just to far from the store I would be managing all the way on the upper east side, but we decided to check it out.

We came out of the subway one afternoon, and stepped into the most peaceful, beautiful neighborhood we had seen yet. We knew immediately that this was it. This is where we were going to live. We found an apartment, and moved in. Brooklyn has been nothing short of wonderful.

Where do I start? Beautiful tree lined streets, great restaurants (just as good as the city's), the Botanic Gardens, Brooklyn Museum, Prospect Park, free community pools, lots of families, playgrounds on every corner, the deli right downstairs,Fairway ,  our ward, rooftop decks, walking through neighborhoods, Coney Island, the beach, I really could go on and on.   

3. DIVERSITY
I love the diversity of the people of New York. Because with that comes diversity in almost everything.

I love of course the diversity of fashion. New York is really the hub of it. I am inspired all the time just from the people walking down the street.

The diversity of restaurants is also enjoyable. Where else can you find a English Tea House, Bearded Papa's (they only serve amazing cream puffs), Rice to Riches (  20 flavors of rice pudding), Tom's diner (very eclectic and kitschy), Grimaldi's (the best thin crusted pizza ever), the Shake Shack (custard and gourmet burgers right in the middle of a park), Norma's (chocolate decadence french toast anyone?), lots of Vietnamese restaurants, bagels, Grays Papaya (yummy hotdogs, and pina coladas).  Cafe Habana (Cuban delicacies), oh how my mouth is watering just thinking of all these.

The people. Whether they are the crazies on the subway, the people hanging out on my street, the hipsters in their skin tight jeans, or the talented  musicians, artists, & writers I meet, I have enjoyed all of them in one way or another. Everyone has a story, everyone has something to learn from each other.

4. IT'S FUN
That's what they say about New York, there is always something to do, and they are right.

We grew tired quickly of the New York tourist hot spots, there is only so many times you want to venture to Times Square or to the Statue of Liberty.  But what makes New York fun to us, is the stuff that took us a while to figure out.

Lets see, concerts in the park, movies in the park, walking down new streets, going to a new restaurant or trying a new type of food, listening to street musicians, camping, going to the beach, driving through Greenpoint on a Friday night, shopping in small boutiques, walking down the promenade, hanging out under the Brooklyn Bridge, sipping spicy hot chocolate at Jacques Torres, the zoo, the aquarium, furniture shopping, I might have to get back to this. 

5.  WE BUILT OUR FAMILY HERE
We got married, and then three months later moved out here. It's rare that couples get to spend as much time together as we did our first year of marriage. By default really, our families weren't around to take us away from each other. But I wouldn't trade that year for the world. We really got to know each other, the good and the bad, but we are closer because of it, and I think we can both say, we are best friends.

All of our memories are here. Our apartment saga, our car saga (it was stolen), my pregnancy, Luke's birth, his first 18 months, our friends, our church, Tom's school, our first real jobs, our favorite restaurants, shops, activities, our first home, everything we have built for ourselves and each other has been here.

How will we ever leave?

Comments

[Rochelle]

Holy crap! I totally remember you! I think you and Tyler had a little thing for a while didn't you? I remember I was insanely jealous! I think that was when I realized how important he was to me. I am soooo glad you left me a comment. How did you find me? I am always curious. You are so cute and I love your blog: can't wait to read more. How cool is that that you live in New York? You guys are brave. Its been ten years since I was at Ricks. Those days were so fun....my how time flies. I hope to "blog" with you soon...I'm adding you to my blog roll!

[katie]

seriously, you can't start doing goodbye-ish posts yet. i need to live in blissful denial for a little while longer. i need to pretend that you'll always be my neighbor and that my kids will always ask me where you are if we haven't seen you for a day. . .
but i do think you (and all of us) will look back at this time and this place as kind of magical, with all the beginnings that we've had here. . .

[liz]

we had a lot of those same feelings leaving NY, our whole marriage and start of our fmaily was there and it still feels like we left "home". It's the only place that feels like home for our family, no matter how aweosme CA is, it's not home.

But we are still so young with so many more experiences ahead of us, although we sort of feel like none will be as exciting and new york. all other places will pale in comparison.