Coming Home

One of the best things about living in New York, is coming home to New York. Nothing beats flying into LaGuardia airport and flying right by Manhattan. I think this is because the best way to view Manhattan is from a distance. It looks majestic, and you pinch yourself and think, "Do I really live there?" You get the same effect coming around the ramp in New Jersey on your approach to the Lincoln Tunnel. I had to take a car service to NJ for work and was coming back and the driver was chatting me up. I wanted to say, "Shhh, look."

Katie's cousin came to visit when we first moved here and was staying in Times Square on a high floor. Katie and I went up to their room and then glued ourselves to the windows looking out. They thought it was funny, "Don't you live here?" they asked. We should have answered, "No, we live underground in the subway tunnels, we live in a cube in the middle of a room, we live in the back apartment, we live in the booth in the back of the bar, we don't live HERE."

New York at street level is hard, a fight everyday, and often you catch yourself with your head down, trudging along. But from afar, up high in an airplane, New York is magic.