On leaving Astoria

I've been alternately both putting off this post and also mentally composing it for a couple of weeks now. It's sad to think that next weekend, after over six years in New York and most of it in this neighborhood, that I will no longer be an Astorian. Instead, Sam, Dinah, and I will be the newest in a flood of residents in Austin, Texas. I've had some wonderful times here. When people have asked me lately what I'll miss about New York and what I'd like to do in my last weeks here, I realized I don't have much of a New York bucket list to complete. This is, I suppose, because 1) I've done a lot here, and while there are still museums I've never gone to and New York icons I've avoided (here's looking at you, Times Square New Year's Eve), I don't feel like there's anything I've missed out on, 2) there isn't really time to do much other than pack, which I can safely say is on no one's list of must-do New York experiences, and 3) I will most definitely be back.

I figured I would pepper this post with photos of my first few months in New York. This was Thanksgiving, 2008. The same month Dinah joined me. 

I remember when I first moved to Astoria, with just a suitcase and a big box with tape handles. I moved into a basement sublet without a kitchen and worked temp jobs for a month in the World Financial Center (the last and only time I've ever worn a suit to work). I came here knowing only a handful of people, all friends of my sister. I tried a number of things to make friends from Meetups for glassblowing to adult casual league kickball, from which I mostly got a lopsided paperweight and a reminder of why I'm ill-suited for team sports. Over the years, I did eventually meet some amazing friends though. And thanks to the addition of one husband/business partner, I also have a pretty great family up here. I've additionally gained one slightly overweight cat and a fair amount of furniture. All of which is to say, it is both physically and emotionally a lot more difficult to leave this place than it was to arrive six years ago. Apparently, roots have been sneakily growing all this time, without my really noticing.

Luckily my athleticism didn't peak at 22. 

Another one from the fall of 2008, from the top of the Empire State Building. Luckily, this lady lives in Austin now, so we can hopefully find some tall things to take pictures on around there. 

Anyway, I'm not really sure what will become of this blog. I will definitely keep the same domain, even though it won't really make much sense. I might change the header at least to reflect our new Austin locale. I guess this is what I get for making a location specific blog, but I just can't imagine starting a new site at this point, since I've rather proud of this one's longevity. Plus, I like having all of my memories of my time here, nicely organized and chronologically catalogued. I'm not sure how much I'll be updating once I get to Austin because I'm aware that most of my readership is Texas-based, so my adventures there might be a bit less interesting. Nevertheless, for my own sake, I'd like to keep this thing going. So the point of this paragraph (in case you thought there wasn't one) is just to say, if you'd like to continue to see updates even though they will no longer be tinged with the glow of Astoria, let me know, and it will probably spur me to do it more. Otherwise, hope to see you in Austin!

Summer of 2008 on the Brooklyn Bridge.