My Ninth Month as a New Yorker

I know I'm starting to sound like a broken record with these month recaps, but guess what? March was pretty awesome. In fact, my life is pretty much all-around awesome. I don't say that to brag or to sound like some sort of super human who is above sadness or failure or general unhappiness — I most definitely am not that. But, I'm also just really, really happy — in New York, at my new(ish) job, with my friends, with the adventures I've taken and the ones I have planned.

Sometimes, I catch a glimpse of my reflection as I'm walking to work in the morning and I realize that I've essentially become (or am very, very close to becoming) the person I've always wanted to be. It's a really odd realization actually, and sometimes it's downright scary to admit to yourself that you're happy — it can feel too fragile, too precarious, too intangible.

I have always had a hard time living in the present. I'm always looking back on what I've done or planning for the future. I still struggle to live in the moment, but I'm actively trying to force myself to be present, to be thankful and alert and to allow time in my schedule for aimless wandering. I made the choice more than ten months ago (and in some ways, long before that) to start actually living my life the way I had always only ever dreamed about. It's a strange feeling when your real life and your dream life start to align, but I don't want to miss one second of it.

A few highlights from my very happy March:

I walked by one of the few remaining free-standing phone booths  /  I creeped on Kathleen Kelly's apartment from You've Got Mail before returning to Cafe Lalo for my first "meal" after being sick  /  I took a Sunday walk across Central Park to the East Side, where I picked up Ladurée macarons (my first!) for an Oscar party  /  I met Grace at the Lexington Candy Shop for lunch (and a very necessary milkshake).

I fell in love with the skull-themed tombstones at Trinity Churchyard cemetery in lower Manhattan  /  I walked around downtown and spied on the new World Trade Center (but I didn't sneak to the top)  /  I explored the Lower East Side before taking a tour at the Tenement Museum /  Jim and I had our first (and second) knishes at Yonah Schimmel, in business since 1910/  Daylight Savings time allowed me to walk home through Central Park and finally catch beautiful sunsets again.

Mozart continued to be the sweetest animal on the planet  /  I took a warm, sunny bench nap in the de Blasio's backyard  /  I attended a lecture on urban cemeteries and then found a skull bead on my walk to work through Central Park the next morning  /  A brochure I designed was printed  /  I continued to discover amazing and different manhole covers — this one was across the street from my apartment  /  I explored Trinity Cemetery and Mausoleum, the only active cemetery left in Manhattan.

I found an awesome coffee shop in Hamilton Heights and had a life-changing almond cookie  /  I tricked Alisha into taking a windy adventure with me to the Little Red Lighthouse and signed up for Walk MS to raise money for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society /  I walked past the most amazing apartment building every morning (a former cancer hospital)  /  I totally scored in the dollar section at the Strand  /  I visited the oldest tree in Manhattan  /  I discovered the prettiest manhole cover in the middle of a lawn in Central Park.

I tried to walk to work as much as possible and found out it was nearly 2.5 miles each way  /  Jim and a co-worker of mine took a candlelit ghost tour of the most haunted house in Manhattan, the Merchant's House  /  I crossed another stand-alone diner off of my list /  I spent a wonderful, wandering Saturday checking out flea markets, watching a bubble-maker in Washington Square Park and visited the smallest cemetery in Manhattan.

I got my fortune from a sidewalk Zoltar in the East Village  /  Trent, Jim and I went to the Orchid Show for a glimpse of spring  /  Jim, Katie and I were tourists for a night and ate at the Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square (we made reservations)  /  My friend Melissa visited from Ohio and we walked the Brooklyn Bridge in the rain (her first time!) and ate pizza with ziti on top  /  I spent a lazy Sunday lounging with my favorite gray lady.

I'm going to go out on an optimistic limb and say that I think this winter is FINALLY coming to an end due to a forecast that has the temperature in the 50s for the foreseeable future (much appreciated). I already have a few trips planned for April — Texas to see my sister and then back to Ohio for a weekend — and my to-do, to-see, to-eat and to-read lists just keep getting longer and longer. I am totally loving my new camera and I can't wait to finally see (and photograph) my beloved cherry blossoms again. Even though it snowed yesterday, spring is so close I can taste it — and it tastes like a Cadbury Egg, which coincidentally, I am eating as I type this.