What It's Like To Live In NYC

I've known people who've said, "NYC is nice but I could never live there."

To those people I say, "There is no better place to live."



And before you non-NYers come at me with your "Albuquerque is the BIZNIZ" or "Nothing beats Salt Lake City in the summertime," and you disillusioned NYers start up with the "It's so different now" and "I can't afford it here anymore," please remember that it will all fall on deaf ears.



Because New York City is the shit- I know it, you know it, I know you know it and you know that I know you know it. So stop frontin' and hatin' and sit back and enjoy my New York.



Living here, especially as someone who was born and raised here, is like always being on the VIP list to the newest, hottest club.

The food and drink is flowing, the DJ is always playing my favorite song, and all the dudes are 6'2", chocolaty, buff Adonises who want nothing more than to dance with me all night.



New York is my oasis in the midst of chaos
the sirens are my lullaby, and
the ever-changing landscape a silent film outside my window



New York allows me to be international without leaving the five boroughs: You want authentic Italian food? That's what Little Italy is for. Longing for Russian conversation? Visit the pockets of Russian neighborhoods in Brooklyn. Can't find the herbs and roots you need to make the remedios your mami used to make? Yes you can- right in Corona, Queens!

Sometimes the best part of living here is going away for little bit and then coming back, seeing New York through the eyes of a tourist as if for the first time, taking the train one extra stop and walking back, discovering a quaint little block you didn't even know existed.



Of course, there is a flip side... sometimes living here feels like one is the tenant of a slumlord who litters, plays his music too loud, cares little for the human condition and would stab his mother in the throat for $1.00. And that part certainly sucks big donkey dick.

And it's sometimes a very lonely place. One can really get lost in the crowd here- good sometimes but bad most days. The only way to shine sometimes is to act a straight fool.



But these "cons" just add to the charm and appeal of the city- the good, the bad and the hot ghetto mess.

Walking through the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens.

West 4th Street on a hot and muggy garbage day in August

The Lord & Taylor windows and Christmastime.



The homeless guy taking a shit in your subway car.

Your favorite pizza place in Bay Ridge.

The police tape wrapped around the building next door.

It's all a part of this great city that I adore so much.



I love that I know (or can easily find out) how to get anywhere from anywhere without a car- just my two feet and a loaded MetroCard is all I ever need.

But the absolute best part? Even at 4AM the subway is full of the proverbial "melting pot" of people- the college kids back from a bender, the older couple who just left a dinner party, the busboys and barbacks getting off the late shift, and me- we're all tired, we're all trying to get home, and we're all happy to have a seat on the subway in the greatest city in the world.



*smooches...hoping I never ever really leave for good*
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I know I have a love/hate relationship with this place, and sometimes I want to run screaming from here and live out my days on some remote island in the South Pacific, but who am I kidding? This is my home, for better or worse!

now tell me- what do you love about NY???