BK-Style

Figured I should give some sort of update about me being out of Manhattan and all, since I wrote about it a couple of times and then was just like "yeah so I'm moving" but then forgot about any sort of follow-up with that.

So yeah, now I'm here, "here" being an undisclosed location in Kings County. Figure that one out non-New Yorkers. I have to admit, that first night, it felt weird. It was just so quiet and strange to be here, in a new place, in what amounts to a new town, and pretty much away from everyone I know. Sure there are a couple of friends that live relatively close, but they're the sort of friends that I barely hang out with so it's not like oh, now that I'm your neighbor, we're just going to be spending all of our time together. And I'm fine with that, because I got shit to do, people to see, blogs to post. You know how it is.

What was actually a big mood lifter was having a couple of close friends come by to chill with me on Sunday, the day after the move. At first the idea of people stopping in and taking up my time kind of annoyed me (shocking!) because I just felt like I had a million things to take care of. But I was a big boy about it, so I sucked it up and spent most of the day chilling with friends. We walked around in the rain, looking for places to grab coffee, to eat, to just check out so I could get a feel for the area. At least one of those friends walked away from that experience psyched about my neighborhood and excited to come back to go out here. Imagine that! Someone actually willing to sacrifice an outing in Manhattan to just spend all night in my borough. I never thought I'd see the day that I would just stay out of Manhattan on a weekend and possibly, just maybe, still have a good time.

It's all pretty ironic really, the way things change without you even noticing until they slap you in the face. There I was, summer of 2006, and a good friend of mine who I had spent time with in LA and San Diego after the bar exam, suggested that I move to Prospect Height with him and another guy I didn't know. I had no interest in leaving Manhattan so I shot that down.

A year went by, and then he moved to what has become my current neighborhood. In fact, from the end of 2007 until a couple of months ago, he and a bunch of his other friends lived a few blocks from where I live now. I'd come in on the weekends to chill out here, and slowly started to like it. Next thing I know, I'm ready to move here a year after everyone else, but as luck should have it, every single one of those people takes off, just completely leaves New York before I get here. The first couple moved back home to Texas, another one took off for I don't know where (maybe Manhattan...not even sure), my friend moved to San Francisco with his fiance, and a fourth couple followed him. Yeah, so they were all couples, and whenever I'd hang out with all of them I felt weird because I was the single dude, the ninth wheel, so it's not like my being here with them would have really been all that organic.


Still, I find it strange, the way I move a few blocks away from one of my best friends literally weeks after he moves to San Francisco. Guess that's how things work sometime. Guess that's also why I felt a little disconnected those first couple of days here. But then having those two friends over actually was the best thing that could have happened because it helped me see that I wasn't actually in the middle of nowhere, that I was still part of a bigger universe even while maybe I was now a little more on the edge of it. All of this is topped off by me reading that article in "New York" from two issues ago that discusses the "myth" of loneliness in NYC. Don't know if I think it's a myth per se, but I got what it was trying to say, how even while we have a high incidence of people living alone, we also have so many social networks and that helps to alleviate those feelings of loneliness. That doesn't necessarily replace how nice it is to live in a dorm or have your friends around the corner, but I guess it's not as bad as it could otherwise be. We are, as it turns out, pretty needy for social interactions. Even me with my reclusive tendencies, needs to feel connected to a greater whole pretty much everyday. Why else do you think I like camping out with a laptop in cafes? Even if I don't know a single damn person in the place, I love the noise, the feeling that life exists outside of my head and that there's a community of stories that I'm a part of.


And there's actually one funny thing that I just learned a few minutes ago. I guess it's not really all that funny, but it's interesting, and also a little ironic. As I started typing this post I got into a conversation with a very old friend of mine, a kid from middle school who I haven't really conversed with in years. As randomness should have it, but then again it is a pretty small world, he lives in my neighborhood. Not around the corner, actually a bit of a trek, but still close enough that I can say that there's someone I know who's nearby.


Now I just need a bike and some closet space and I'll be set. That and someone needs to come by and fix my electrical outlets that are falling into the walls. Ah, the little problems you have when you move into a non-new apartment. I love using the word "charming" to describe stuff like that.