Finally getting around to it.

I saw two rats on the subway platform today on 23rd and Park and didn’t blink an eye. Granted, they were down the platform a bit chasing each other in circles near some trash…and there was a security officer nearby which made me feel slightly better for some odd reason. Then, I went to my 2 hour yoga class (a Vinyasa/somewhat Anusara teacher and style that I finally grew to love) in my new favorite part of the city, Tribeca. After class I walked through City Hall Park stopping to look twice at the cherry blossoms, tulips, and blooming lavender trees. And I think I heard some birds chirping as well. Full of zen, peace and the present moment, I took the subway back uptown to 23rd street only to be packed as a sardine on a subway with a loud beggar announcing something about money, God or both. Finally, I proceeded to Irving place to get a large ‘Sinful delight’, a bagel, a stamp on my coffee card, and chilled with the NYU students while reading the Times. After drooling over the Arts & Style section for all the things I still want to do in this cement city, I came home and cleaned my refrigerator. 

Five years ago, Saturday April 10th, would have been a very different story for me. I would have still been in awe of seeing Jodie Foster the previous Saturday at my friend’s birthday brunch, and I would still be getting over at least one 2am weeknight of 80s karaoke. I would have called my friends and family to tell them about the rats and Jodi at least one time, and forget the subway- I might have even taken a taxi to yoga. I would have stressed or stressed about being late to get to my class and I would surely lose my yoga mat somewhere on Bleeker street during an all day shopping spree. It would be 6pm until I would return to my empty apartment with at least one $5 pashmina from a street vendor only to sit on a blanket as a temporary couch to watch TV (custom fabrics are a b$%#!!)  Then, I would have ended my day getting free drinks from my brother  who would be bartending at a local bar, and I would have called it a night. Sunday morning I would have called home to my friends in Rochester to freak out about the Cruella Deville of a woman who bullied me all week at work and obsessed about why I moved here.

Although I admit nothing about my love for shopping or the Big Apple has changed in 5 years- (the shopping has definitely gotten worse!), a Saturday in Manhattan is now a little different for me. Tonight I sit from twilight onwards in my 17th floor studio overlooking my still proud and gorgeous view of lower Manhattan,  and not a moment do I take it for granted, but it’s now all a regular life. My room with a view that I once thought I could never make do is now my home. I even go grocery shopping now.  Things that were once were so draining and difficult  are now common place and the things that were so exciting and distracting  are as well. I have found balance and serenity and calmness in normal life, where the best part about living here is just ‘living here.’ Five years ago I was worried that would not be possible and that I would not be able to enjoy the same things I did back home like waking up to hear the birds chirp on a Saturday morning. I thought the traffic and the sounds of the city would drain them out and nature would obsolete.  But I can assure you they do chirp in the city too- and I was wrong.