It was the evening of March 2, 2006. I made a split-second decision to move to a city I never lived in, visited only once, and had no family ties to whatsoever. I graduated from college the summer before and decided I wanted to leave Virginia and move to a bigger city where I could pursue my film career. I obviously had my sights set on Los Angeles. However, making a move over 3,000 miles away was not an easy task for an underpaid college graduate with only a few bucks to spare in her savings account.
I said a quiet prayer. My friend Lawrence from graduate school, convinced me that I should move to New York City and let me crash at his place for awhile with his wife Angie. Literally the next day I took a 10 hour bus ride up to Harlem and said goodbye to my hometown of Virginia Beach. My friend hooked me up with a film gig to work on a Scott Hicks film called "No Reservations". I worked rigorous 13 hour days and on my days off, I was apartment hunting like crazy. The tiny studio-sized basement apartment my friend and his wife let me crash in, was getting smaller and smaller by the day. I had to get my own place.
New York City is a city that you manage to love and hate all at the same time. I must say, it was a rough couple of months getting acquainted. I was late on my first day of work. I didn't jump onto the number 2 express train quick enough at 7:30a.m. in the morning when everyone and their grandmother are out trying to go to work at the same time. I didn't know speed was the strategy to ensure you could get inside of a subway train. Since I hesitated all of 3 seconds, I missed the express and the next train that came to my stop was the 1 train. This time I made sure I was in front and hopped on with a quickness! I found it odd however that not too many patrons were as hasty as I was getting on-board that train.
I later found out that it was a local train that stopped nearly on every other block. I was late on my first day of work and fired that same day. Thanks local 1 train.
Things picked up for me and I managed to find employment again as well as find a place of my own. I later moved downtown to the trendy section of the East Village. The East Village was my playground. I loved heading down to Astor Place and shopping at local stores and eating food at cute trendy restaurants. I couldn't believe there was a Kmart nearby and furnished most of my apartment with blue light specials. I managed to meet new friends and some of the closest and best relationships I had, were fostered from those friendships I had while living up there. Miss u guys.
In case you didn't know I'm a foodie. NYC is the perfect place for people like me who have a strong veneration for food. I think I ate at almost every restaurant downtown, midtown, uptown, and a few in Brooklyn. Then there is the shopping...ooh la la. I have to be honest---I love a good sale! Most of my shopping took place primarily downtown on Canal St.
You can buy anything on Canal St. Seriously...anything.
I bought knock-off designer bags, jewelry, makeup, shoes, hair extensions, bootleg DVDs, Chinese pastries, home decor, and Christmas gifts for my family when I came down during the holidays to visit.
I'm a theater nerd. I would spend hours outside waiting to see a play at a discounted price. They are referred to as "rush tickets". Some theaters also offered lotteries---where your name gets picked at random for discounted tickets. That process also involves waiting, but its worth it. I had the awesome opportunity to see Fantasia Barrino perform in The Color Purple and paid $25.00 for orchestra seating. I also saw Hairspray, In The Heights, A Bronx Tale, and Damn Yankees just to name a few. My so-called dating life up there was sporadic, yet lively. I had a few gentlemen suitors here and there, but just fun casual dating and nothing too dramatic and serious. I guess I was a miniature version of Carrie Bradshaw but without the laundry list of lovers.
Overall I do miss it. I would like to say that I left the city on my own accord, but unfortunately that was not the case. I lived a lifestyle where I spent every dime I earned and foolishly did not save for a rainy day. As fate would have it, when the economic crisis of 2008 occurred, my entire department was laid off and I found myself unemployed and broke beyond measure. Earning unemployment income was still not enough to afford the lifestyle I created for myself in my fancy zipcode of 10012. Now I am living in a city that is a complete 180 from what I was used to in Manhattan. What I paid for renting out a 15x9 foot bedroom with three other roommates, I currently pay a third of that for my own 1000 square foot apartment. That's the good news. The other good news are stores like Wal-Mart (which I missed dearly when I lived in the city) are all over the place. The bad news is everything else. I miss the diversity and the energy people bring in NYC. It's one of those cities that you can expect the unexpected.
Like the strange man talking to himself on the train telling other passengers that women are ruling the world (true story).
Or the drunk subway conductor who my friend and I were concerned was not sober enough to drive and yelled over in a nearly unintelligible voice "all the trains in the world stop at at 42nd street".
Or the time I got a chance to work at the Tribeca Film Festival and Robert DeNiro turned around gave me a second and a third glance after I sat in his seat (that was awesome).
Or the time I walked into a production office filled with a skeleton crew and begged the production secretary to look at my resume for a gig to work on "The Untitled Tina Fey Project" (this project would later be known as 30 Rock).
Or the time I walked out of my building and saw a production crew shooting two blocks away and told a crew member I have film experience and he gave me a walkie and hired me that day (the film was Pride & Glory).
Or the time when I met my good friend Al and we started a blog together and I knew how much I loved blogging from that day forward!
Aaahh there were good times and bad times, but overall NYC is a city I still long for. It's a rough city for sure and sometimes I wonder if I have the strength to live through all the craziness again. I'm sure if it is my time to go back, then it will probably be well worth it.
