The Pull and The Push (partly a prologue)

The Pull was there. Certainly for a decade or more. Perhaps always.
 

Background. Geographic movement leading to here:  I was born on Avenue C, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in 1951.  I moved to Brooklyn (Bushwick) in my pre-teens. A few years later to Parkchester in The Bronx.  At 17, very briefly to Pittsburgh,  and then onto Chicago for 7 years (4 different addresses).  Back to NYC - Manhattan for a couple years then Brooklyn (edge of Park Slope). Then, following a 6 month vagabondage to Europe and the Middle East, a brief stay in upstate New York, followed by a move to Vermont, for the next 21 years (5 addresses). 

Above the geography are layers of rich stories, involving varied jobs, a cavalcade of acquaintances, valued friends, dear lovers, precious children, joys and suffering.

I have visited New York City at least a couple times a year.  In the last decade I brought my kids here for a week every two years (camping on Long Island and traveling in every day for adventures), and in the last year, as they grew into adults, with each one individually for a  weekend.

During 2009, as I worked on yet another music CD compilation of songs about New York City I began seriously conjuring up the idea of somehow saving money and working on moving back by December 2011, and having my 60th birthday party in the City. Things happened faster.

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The Push came as winter was ending in 2010. (Bitterly cold and long, winter in Vermont is always a push.)
Already on the list was unemployment - with little promise of resolve. There were relationships in flux, and my kids growing up and leaving the nest. And finally, in March, my landlord requested his apartment back, giving me until the end of May to vacate.

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The Flux ~

During April and May I proceeded to get rid of what I have estimated as 70% of all my earthly possessions.  Gifting friends, selling on-line, throwing away.  The month of June was spent couch-surfing with friends in Vermont as I searched for, and found a place to rent in Brooklyn, starting July 1.

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Which brings me to The Pull ~ here and now . . .

Subway rides/reading - which translate in my mind as time created to read books. I am finishing my second novel in one week - Leaving Brooklyn by Lynn Sharon Schwartz. (Being in a car to get everywhere. it was always difficult for me to designate chunks of time to read books in Vermont. I used to devour books on my commutes when I lived here before.)
The photo of Fulton Street is from the Franklin Street subway stop overpass. 

Bicycling - mostly on flat ground - with all kinds of things to look at. 

(Vermont's hills defeated me from any steady bike transportation.) 
And walking, walking, walking. People (and the things they create) watching.

Pizza - biking up and down various blocks in search of a good pizza slice. Alas, none very near where I live. Came across Luigi's on DeKalb Avenue; good crust, good flavors, a bit on the oily side. The search continues. (The competition - my favorite slice in NYC - Joe's Pizza on Carmine Street in Manhattan.) 

Ended up at Trader Joe's (a grocery store chain I discovered the pleasures of in Reno, Nevada, on the way to the Burning Man event) located in a beautiful old bank building.  What the heck - will be turning in a job application there tomorrow.

Click on photos to enlarge.