After 12 great years living in New York City I’m moving out. Tomorrow morning I, my wife, and my dog get on a plane and head to our new home in Los Angeles.
Thank you, New York.
Thank you for giving me my Dad, who was born in Brooklyn and raised in Middle Village, Queens.
Thank for letting him discover my amazing mother, and marrying her.
Thank you for letting me cross your George Washington Bridge growing up to see my Nana in Queens.
Thank you for reminding me, on those trips to Nana’s, to spot the Keith Haring mural on the handball court on the side of the Cross Bronx Expressway and telling my parents from the back seat of my dad’s Chevette, “Crack Is Wack!”.
Thank you for my job at Dan Miller Design, where I met the woman who’d become my wife, Gina.
Thank you for Uncle Otto who rented me his 2-bedroom, rent-controlled apartment on 7th Street between 1st Avenue and Avenue A from 2000 until 2005 for $800/month.
Thank you for making me street smart.
Thank you for letting my brother Mark take over said apartment in 2005 when I got married to Gina and moved out.
Thank you for showing me how one man’s trash truly is another man’s treasure.
Thank you for teaching me how to drive like Han Solo through traffic (sideways).
Thank you for our shitty, cold winters and subsequent amazing springs when the whole city comes alive.
Thank you for making me nostalgic for Nana’s house, when I smell the ‘city air’ in the spring. I’ll aways love the smell of New York air. Always.
Thank you for runs around the Reservoir in Central Park.
Thank you for getting me drunk a lot.
Thank you for your awesome restaurants.
Thank you for your art.
Thank you for your attitude.
Thanks for all the amazing friends I’ve met here.
These thank-you’s could go on for days, but I’ll stop it here.
Thanks for everything, New York. You’re always going to be ‘The City’.
* The title of this post taken from one of my favorite songs by Lou Reed