So, it’s been a while since I last posted. You may be wondering, what have you been doing for the last seven months? Have you seen any shows? Gone on any trips? Do you miss the Bay Area?
Very good question.
New York is a bit of a sink hole, a place to disappear into. Get lost in the streets, find new and wondering music, art, and food, seek your fortune. To wear out pairs of shoes on the concrete, a physical and mental battering, that leaves you tougher and sharper. And yet, New Yorkers are some of the friendliest and helpful people I have met.
I have very much been missing the Bay Area. I love San Francisco, I miss seeing my family on a regular basis, and I have so many amazing friends, and many wonderful experiences. San Francisco is a place where people welcome you with open arms and offer you jobs and experiences, and accolades are regularly given for hard work. No one will hand you anything in New York, you have to beg for it.
My father sent me this article from the SF Chronicle the other day about a mass mugging at a Casual Carpool stop in Rockridge. I lived in Oakland for a year and half. This way my carpool stop, and about the time I would have left for work in the morning. If I still lived in the Bay Area, I would have been there. I have many close friends who live near that area and take that carpool. And more than anything, it makes me angry that these people would taint something like this, a community venture to drive together to San Francisco, to reduce the number of cars on the Bay Bridge, to save gas and energy, and help out a fellow commuter.
The Bay Area is a beautiful wonderful place in so many ways, but there are many things that I prefer to New York. I don’t look over my shoulder constantly the way I did when I lived in Rockridge, or The Mission, or The Inner RIchmond for that matter, none of my friends have been mugged at gunpoint in New York, or had their car windows smashed to steal their backpack.
A few friends, also from the Bay Area, and I had a beautiful evening picnic on the waterfront in Long Island City last night, watching the sun set and the skyline light up. My roommate Michelle very aptly explained, “New York is so beautiful…sometimes.” We all discussed our New York timers. A five year limit of staying in New York and then heading back to California, I’ve set mine at three, but it’s not a hard and fast rule.
For the last five months I’ve been working at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in the Development Department, but my time is set to end soon…so I’m figuring out what the next step will be.