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what i learned in ny

by no means a complete list, but it occurred to me that i might start compiling what i’ve learned in new york these ten years…

in no particular order…

– the importance of dancing as if you are all alone, and dancing often when you are all alone, preferably nude and to music you don’t need the world to know you love
– deep close friendships come in phases that are best suited to what you need at the time.
– the depth is something to be grateful for, the sooner you accept the phases and the fact that the depth can remain when the proximity shifts, the more peaceful you will be, and the better you can express present needs
– how to eat kim chee, enchiladas, sushi, pad thai, and basically everything that goes beyond chicken and rice and spaghetti (naw my mom cooked more than that {i can’t forget salmon croquettes!}{i should also give a shout out to dominos pizzas on friday nigths when we were stateside – mmmm}{dominos has not held up the mmm-factor over the years}. but on the real my dad isn’t into spicy anything…in a suprise break from my genes, i love spicy everything!)
– love hurts
– it makes absolute sense to be drawn to this place, and to leave it. every time.
– if you look for it, beautiful or horrible human interactions are happening all the time.

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– everyone has one or more struggles to combat in this lifetime. some take so much from you that interacting with the world is beyond your capacity – ny is a good place to come and find people, or  to disappear.
– if you aren’t aware of your struggle, and aren’t part of working for solutions, then you are part of the problem and chances are you will have to keep coming back into the madness of life until you get it right
– a little convenient space close to your friends and good food is priceless
– there’s no such thing as a good/fair landlord, but if you look at landlords as a source of great humor, they are a perfect species.
– the world functions on multiple planes – cockroaches, mice, millionaires, babies, pit bulls, homeless folk, mamas, models and you are all right there, coexisting, all the time
– everyone does that walk, where you pretend the whole world is checkin out your entire get-up with snooty approval and those in the know know you’re on point. one hand on your bag, extra pop thru the hips, lips pursed, cheeks haughty, eyes slit behind sweet aviators. or not. either way its one of those days and you look just right for it. everyone does it. its just more fun to do this here than anywhere else in the country.
– you can exist in new york without ever ever going to the upper east side
– spring might just be heaven
– tho we will definitely turn our heads and tell folks about it later, famous people ain’t nothin special.
– befriending everyone at your local bodega and becoming a regular at several local restaurants are necessary to feeling at home.
– if you’ve loved here, the city is your extended memory
– ipods specifically have improved public transportation experiences (see point one)
– everything is better if someone you love refers it: restaurants, organizations, music stores, tattoo/piercing parlors, bars, dance nights, quiet places, museum exhibits, weed guys, apartments…everything…

ok surely more to come but that was in my head.

also this lyric:

‘oh no baby don’t let them lead you astray
its not your place
what you’re missing cannot be replaced’

what does that even mean? it came to me like almost all lyrics do, as a snippet with a melody for me to jot down and tuck away and develop for a future album, when album making begins…this year!?

i spent the weekend running around trying to fit in a march, conference, bbq, meeting, chilling, editing, writing an article, and avoiding parties. after saying yes to multiple parties friday night and bowing out of all of them, i was vindicated by the calls on saturday from no less than seven people who had ‘gotten tore up’ and ‘made a fool’ of themselves. i would say those days are behind me, but i fall down stone cold sober.

like a stone cold fox.

and what.

today was the first day of a three day meeting on the super exciting future 5000 project. its movin right along, its amazing to watch visions and dreams turn into plans and results; to let go of what hasn’t worked up till now to make space for what could be better than anything we’ve ever done.

it was also exciting because it was my first day with the league’s new communications director! unloading the story of the league and the landscape of the job is such a relief and kind of mindblowing, thinking of what we’ve done.

i’m also going to write about may day, a day without immigrants, but i’ll do it on the indyvoter blog! 🙂

all my love!