September 26, 2015

Returning “Home”

Since getting back from France, I have basically just been sleeping, working, and eating – and doing a lot of all three. My mom came into NYC to visit for a few days, and we went to a lot of my old favorite restaurants where I showed no shame in eating a ton of food. Although I lost five pounds in the last month, I think I’ve put it all back on in the last week! (Though we’ll see next weekend when I’m home how much of that is true weight gain vs just bloat that will drop once I scale back on the flying, start sleeping normal hours, and go back to healthy eating.)

I was kind of surprised how much NYC hasn’t really changed in the 1.5 years since I lived there. You would think that in that time, more places would have closed/been replaced, but so much seems to be exactly the same. Surprising, in a city as busy and transient as New York! However, no sooner had I said this to my mom than we walked past Harry’s Burritos, my favorite Mexican place on the Upper West Side, and found the doors shuttered… sad.

Nails_By_Young
On the plus side, my favorite nail place, Nails by Young, was still there. I got a fun mani pedi before the wedding I’m going to today!

Each time I come back to New York, I still feel like it’s kind-of-sort-of home. I know my way around, I still have all the subway stops memorized, and I still get incensed with anger at the tourists getting in my way on the sidewalk. (Made infinitely worse by the fact that I usually stay at a hotel in Midtown, aka tourist mecca.) Have to admit, I was not very charitable toward the pope this visit, given the millions of tourists that followed in his wake 😛

Mom_and_Laura_at_Penn_Station
My mom was one of the pope lovers… she even bought a touristy Vatican flag from a vendor. I love her anyway!

But what surprises me most about my visits is how much I don’t miss New York. When I come back, it’s not that I dislike New York at all… it’s that I just love Colorado so much more. It’s crazy to think that I pay less for the mortgage on my 3000 square foot house than my roommate and I did for our shared 1100 foot one bedroom apartment! Way beyond the space advantages of Colorado, though, I love being able to see mountains/grass/sky wherever I go. I love my car and driving in the suburbs to get to massive grocery stores, listening to podcasts as I go. And I love living where everyone knows their neighbors. Okay, fine, I have not done a good job hanging out with mine, but I at least know their names… something I unfortunately can’t say about any of my neighbors in the apartment where I lived for seven years, even though their doors were less than ten feet from mine.

Neighborhood_Walk
Walk in the trails in my neighborhood… you don’t get views like this in New York!

There are a lot of other places in the world that are nice, and it’s certainly fun to travel and explore. But Colorado is the home that I love love love love LOVE… and all the travel just reminds me that I can’t wait to be back there in a week. Hiking, here I come!

Rocky_West_Ridge_of_Mount_Evans
Hoping it’s not too cold for 14ers… I miss these views!
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4 thoughts on “Returning “Home””

  1. Loved the little slice of time we were able to carve out in the Big Apple together. After all your tutelage through the years of visits, I, finally, felt more relaxed about working my way through the City on my own— mastered a solo subway lift and felt like I owned it rather than it owning me. Interesting to discover, on my final solo jaunt out to West 34th and 11th Avenue to seek out the MegaBus stop, a whole new neighborhood rising up….Hudson Yards. A shiny new subway stop, glistening highrises, and people’s parks to meld the needs of residents and visitors to that bustling epicenter. Until the next time…

  2. It is funny, you’re surprised about how much didn’t change in NYC, the last time I went to Iowa I was shocked at how much DID change! Although, the level of change in Iowa to be considered “a lot” is certainly smaller than the threshold for NYC!

    I always struggled with calling Iowa “home” vs KC “home” vs Phoenix “home”. I remember talking to a good friend about that at one time who (in a totally cliche way) quoted Dave Matthews. After that, I worried about it a lot less.

    Turns out not where but who youre with\\
    That really matters\\

    http://www.azlyricdb.com/lyrics/Dave-Matthews-Band-The-Best-Of-Whats-Around-77114#.VgvyauxViko

    1. I definitely throw the term “home” around very casually. I am very quick to say, “okay, time to go home!” at the end of the night, even if my home is actually a hotel. Home is where I sleep at night, even if it’s a hotel I’m only at for one night 🙂

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