I love that moment in the morning when I pull up our shades, look out on the street and feel like I have opened our world up to Manhattan again. There are always people walking by, usually two people sitting on the bench in front of the tiny cafe on the other side of the street. When I look straight ahead, I see 38th Street opening up kind of in terraces. Behind several small houses, there is a higher one with one of New York City’s typical water tanks on its roof. This is also where we can see a bit of sky and where the first sun beams reach through to us on Lexington Avenue. And further in the back is very high, probably office building.
I love living right on Lexington Avenue, despite the traffic noise during the day and the dust. At least I think it is dusty out there because our windows, including the screens, are dirty. Then again, they might simply just not have been cleaned in years. It is hard to say. We most likely won’t wash them either as we can’t open the main parts and thus can’t reach the outside surfaces. Living right in the middle of the City is so much more than its noise or its dust. It is the bustle, the short distances to anywhere exciting, the having pretty much everything on this 59.5 sq km island.
I love to look up when I walk through the streets because all buildings are somehow special if only you take the time to see it. They belong to different architectural eras and all have different elements of decoration. I sometimes even read up online on the history of our neighborhood, Murray Hill, and its buildings.
I love coming back to the City every evening, just coming out of Grand Central and being right within the hustle. I look up and see the Chrysler Building and a little further away there is Tudor City. In our direct neighborhood I pass the diner we regularly go to, several little grocery and alcohol stores, a few beauty parlors. And all of this feels so much like home that I am filled with sheer happiness to live here.
|Watched| Gilmore Girls, Carnival Row; Beetlejuice on Broadway
|Read| Hogwarts: An Incomplete and Unreliable Guide*, The New York Times, Time Magazine*
|Listened to| Manga, Bad on Paper Podcast
|Done| worked, met previous colleagues who were on a class trip in NYC, walked in the Steuben Parade
|Eaten| salads, vegetarian lunch dishes at work, donuts (the good ones), pretzel
|Drunk| water, coffee, beer
|Thought| Just when everything is great, bugs turn up in our kitchen cupboards. It figures.
|Been happy| I had a very pleasant week, enjoyed seeing my friends from Boston and also participating in the Steuben Parade.
|Laughed| during the musical – “Beetlejuice” has pretty dark humor
|Desired| I didn’t really see my boyfriend between Wednesday and Saturday morning because first I was out two nights in a row and then he had to work. So I couldn’t wait for the weekend.
|Bought| a very inexpensive nude eyeshadow palette, I preordered Pullmann’s The Secret Commonwealth*
|Clicked| I definitely should think more about my finances: 10 Books to Read that Will Help You Take Control of Your Finances; googled how to do a certain DIY
© janavar
* contains affiliate links
