I love my name. My last name was just changed. I am still getting used to it because it’s only been 3 months.
I love God, although my relationship with him has changed. I don’t really know why I am writing this. I suppose it’s to get a look at myself.
I love music, all kinds. I love Gospel, Hip hop, R&B, Jazz, even classical. I hate heavy metal or music that has bad lyric’s or ones I can’t understand because they are screaming them, stripping their voice.
I am too sensitive but that also allows me to see and sense things that most people can’t. I wonder if that’s appreciated by anyone or if it’s just an annoyance to everyone, including me.
I love mango ice tea and am sad they don’t sell it at sonic anymore. I miss sonic. I hate when people call it Sonics. I also hate when people call Wal-mart, Wal-marts or say mines instead of mine. Only one person has ever gotten away with it and that’s Jodi. I think that’s only because I used to tease her so much about it and she would laugh and that would make me laugh. I miss Wal-mart and Sonic.
It’s an odd feeling knowing that you don’t just get into your car, drive down the road, get to where you want to go, get what you want, load it up and drive home. I miss my car.
I almost look at the people here in a car with this bitterness because they are in this warm, safe environment that they can listen to their music out loud, they are out of the elements. They control the temperature lol. It’s a childish thing but I am sure I will get over it.
There really is no feeling like walking. There is also a relief in not having a car payment and insurance. I guess I am just feeling both ends of the spectrum.
I almost don’t like the feeling of realizing something so strongly. You know, when you realize WHY you feel the way you do about something. The other day I was out with a friend and I realized why I felt the way I did about some things. I was filled with regret, sadness, disappointment, anger and hurt. You don’t want it to be true, you wished you never realized it. Then, it slowly comes into focus why you are realizing this. I don’t know the point yet, but I am working on it. That might be a different blog.
I hate being misunderstood. If you know me very well you know I will talk until I almost or actually succeed at driving you nuts till you understand what I am saying. It’s annoying I know but how do you get people to understand you unless you do it till you feel like they understand?
I had my groceries delivered this morning. That was an odd feeling. It’s almost a relief because it’s only 10 degrees outside and even though I feel guilty for not going to get them, thinking about having to haul them home in 10 degree weather just makes me weighed down and distraught lol.
The sink in our kitchen drips ALL the time, a constant drip. It’s annoying. Bo says it’s like Chinese water torture and even though I am not sure what exactly that entails I agree.
People are nice here. New Yorkers are not mean, just a different breed and they all understandeach other. I read this blog and this is the TRUEST article I have read in my 3 weeks of living here.
NYC has the most extreme benefits to it, but it also requires the most extreme concessions in order to get those benefits. This makes sense. It’s how most of life is. So in order to understand how good a fit you’d be in NYC, you don’t need to look at the benefits – we all want the benefits of NYC. What you need to look at is what you give up.
Here are three questions to ask yourself. You need to answer yes to at least two in order to be a good fit in NYC.
1. Are you a maximizer?
Optimizers are people who are always looking for the best of everything. You know if you are this kind of person because you are never complacent. You are always trying to find if there is something better. It could be a someone who cuts bangs better, a better pickup basketball game, you keep trading up boyfriends, maximizers are always looking for something better, and they usually get greatness in their lives in many aspects. Non-maximizers can be satisfied with what they have. Each of us falls somewhere on this spectrum. New Yorkers skew heavily to strong maximizers.
This is because you can find pretty much the best of everything in NYC. (Yes, maybe there are some things, like the best ski slope, that you cannot find there, but if that’s what you want most, you probably shouldn’t be in NYC.)
I know you have heard that NYC is expensive. But you will never really know how insanely expensive it is until you live there. It’s like having children. Everyone will tell you having kids is really, really hard. Harder than anything they’ve ever done. And everyone will also say that after all those warnings, they still were not prepared for how hard it was when the baby came. This is what money is like in NYC – you absolutely cannot imagine how expensive it is there until you are there, living day to day.
So New Yorkers constantly have to ask themselves: What am I paying so much for? What am I suffering so much for? Life in NYC is very hard, and if you go to any city in the US, there is a bond that ex-New Yorkers have because they know they each understand how hard life was.
I say this to tell you that the only way to justify the cost and hardship of NYC is because you’re an optimizer. You appreciate having access to the best of things. Not everything – you probably have a few things that are really important to you. And you’re willing to trade off a lot of comforts to get it.
2. Do you want to be at the top of your field (or marry someone like that)?
In many cases, people have to work in NYC in order to rise to the top in their field. (Or, they want to marry someone like this – NYC is a very competitive place to find a husband but only because women recognize that the pickings are superior: Maximizing knows no bounds.)
Wanting to be at the top of your field is not for everyone. Business Week reports that eighty percent of generation Y thinks they are in the top ten percent of all workers. So a bunch of you are overestimating your capabilities, right? But the truth is that NYC is very, very competitive, because it's a magnet for ambitious, strong performers, and if you are not in the top, you will probably not do very well there. So if you do not go to NYC thinking you will work your way to the top of your field, you probably don’t need to be going there for your work.
And, of course, you do not necessarily have to live in NYC to work in NYC, but in order to get a substantially lower cost of living, you would have to move pretty far from the city. This is why New York has the longest commute times of anywhere in the country. This is a fine line to walk, though, because long commutes do a lot of damage to one’s ability to be happy. So you are probably better off paying to high price to live closer to work if you want to get to the top of your field.
3. Do you value an interesting life over happy life?
New Yorkers are not known for being happy. In fact, they are known for being unhappy, and they don’t care.
On balance, New Yorkers understand that most people who are happy are complacent – they like the status quo. And people who like what they have do not do innovative things to change the world. They like the world just fine how it is. This is probably why 95% of New Yorkers voted democrat in the last presidential election. Republicans are typically happier with their lives than democrats. And most New Yorkers are maximizers, and maximizers are almost never happy.
New Yorkers think an interesting life is more important than a happy life. What you really pay for with the exorbitant cost of living and the hard lifestyle is to be surrounded by strong performers, huge ambitions, and constant need for change and innovation. To live in New York City, you have to trade happiness for this. To most New Yorkers, it’s a no-brainer. They would take that trade any day. To most people outside of New York City the trade-off is crazy.
I don’t know if I will ever be a New Yorker but I will tell you that I am enjoying being me today. I will be honest, there are some days I don’t make it outside. There have even been a couple days where I haven’t made it out of bed really. The good news is it has gotten better. There are some great things that have happened since I’ve been here and I’ve had some great days. I am more thankful for them than I could put into words.
There is some GREAT shopping here. I have found a couple REALLY cute skirts for $9.99 and some tights that just rawk for $8.00 and they were buy one, get one ½ off. NIIIIICEEEE!!!!!
I just heard and felt a rumble. That’s another thing about living in NYC most of the time I have NO idea what’s going on. What kind of “thing” makes a rumble like that? An earthquake? God help me lol. The sirens here are what’s deafening, and FREQUENT. I think we live really close to a hospital because there are sirens every few mins.
A couple nights ago, on Saturday Bo and I had just walked Molly and we were standing on the corner just making sure she didn’t have to go anymore. All of a sudden I hear this screeching of brakes and I tell myself I am not going to look. The traffic here makes me crazier and more terrified than anything. But what do I do? Yeah, I look. As I look I see this Volvo and Hummer crash, then the Volvo crashes into a parked car, that rear ends the car in front of it and the hummer drives UP ONTO the side walk and stops a HAIR away from the chipotle window. I thought for sure it was going through the chipotle. I went to see if they were ok and the Volvo is SUCH a safe car. The girl was trapped, the driver’s side door was smashed in and she had to climb out her passenger side and she did not have even a HINT of a scratch on her. The air bags were AMAZING. They had no residue and were solid but left no burn. The side and front air bag deployed. I really admire that car!
Whew, this has been an exceedingly miscellanies and long blog but I guess I just felt the need to get this all off my chest. So, if you read the whole thing or even just a couple sentences, thanks! ;)
Much love,
Iz
