I wasn't made to love you--but I've learned how

So, I took a hiatus. This is what was happening:

1. Went to visit parents in Baton Rouge

2. Returned

3. Got deathly ill for a couple of weeks

4. Someone got fired at work, so had to take on the work of two people

5. Had my boss take my idea of doing something in New Orleans for our website seriously (what?! I mean, what?!), so hustled my sick ass into writing up proposals and brainstorming

6. Got in touch with this nice lady (who I met through my failed attempt to return to New Orleans to rebuild houses through AmeriCorps) whose crew I want to work on with a volunteer group of massage therapists. It took us months to get in touch. And now I have all the pieces together, so now I just have to make sure we get it all done.

7. In the meantime, I was taking pictures and watching lots of movies. My fave of the bunch: Hot Fuzz.

8. Also, I've developed insomnia because of my upstairs neighbor, who I can only assume is building a loft and, apparently, dragging corpses around in their coffins day and night. Ah, New York living!

9. Subsequently, I have really been falling in love with New York. Strangely, I have now lived here as long as I've lived in New Orleans (7 years: the longest I've ever lived anywhere--that's how it became my home town). So, weird, New York is becoming home town #2. And there's something very dear about feeling "at home" in a place so inhospitable, a place where you can hear several languages on the street in just a few minutes, where you can find any food, and where people worldwide want to see. You know what else is here? People who were born and raised here: True New Yorkers. From the cop I saw yesterday who was an absolute stereotype (chubby, bristly mustache, big glasses) and SO proud to be a cop, to the young Latina girl in her Baby Phat jacket with her curled updo hair and gold hoop earrings and tight-tight jeans, speaking loudly into her cell phone, SO proud to be Latina, to even the guy sleeping in the laundry cart on the street, about a block from the theaters where Chicago and Spring Awakening are playing.

Yeah, after 7 years, I think I kinda like it here.