Taking it all in...

Being back in New York brings me way back, back to when I first moved here. I'd spent a lot of time in New York before ever having lived here having been a summer gallery intern and NYU summer school and while I was a whiz at getting around and knew a few places to take friends it wasn't the same as paying rent and shlomping through the streets with the rest of the New Yorkers on your way to work or the first day of good weather when hoards of New Yorkers strip down to the essentials and bask in the sun in whatever park is closest.

I was 25 and I'd already lived in London for a few years, I'd just gone through a big break-up and hiked through Inca territory in Peru. Looking back now, well, it seems like a lifetime ago. All the boys I dated, all the parties, the roommates, the apartments... Most people look back at college as the best years of their lives, having gone to a woman's college I can't claim the same, but I look back at New York and I know it's the essential chapter.

I'm about to move to Paris and I don't know if Paris will be the next big chapter in my book or if it will amount to little more than a blip on the radar. I'm thrilled to be going, but not knowing if it will feel like home the way New York does, it's easy to imagine returning to the big apple and going back to a job I love, my yoga classes, and chinese take-out.

Last night was the weirdest New Year's Eve of my lifetime. It involved a conservative Polish man that having asked me if I was a feminist told me I belonged in a concentration camp and hung. He was a colorful character and openly shared his views on things. Normally anyone who might condemn me to death within the first five minutes of meeting them would mark a night of misery, but unlike the views many of my family members share with Andre- Andre's delivery was so outrageous it was often difficult to get to anger through the shock. Andre wasn't all politics, he shared his delight for strippers and dirty innuendoes as well.

As for now, I'm catching up on what I've been missing out on and may not find available in the coming months: spending my days listening to my favorite WNYC programming while sewing and catching up on endless Daily Shows with Jon Stewart I couldn't get in Chile. As pricey as they are, I'm treating myself to a Yoga class here and there, I've never been so careful about every penny I spend, but I love my yoga studio here.