From the start in your own way

Don't you hate it when you're in Central Park at a free Philharmonic concert and you look all cute and then you fall into a lake and get drenched to the bone?

Okay, I didn't actually fall into a lake, but I did get caught in one of the northeast's infamous summer thunderstorms without an umbrella. There I was with Dianne on the corner of 65th and Central Park West, holding a towel over our heads that was quickly soaked through, doing the dance of Mr. Taxi Driver, Please Take Pity and Pull Over, shouting about how I'm not familiar with the Manhattan bus system, when I realized something: I want to live in New York.

I know this isn't exactly a crashing revelation. In fact, I do believe I've written this blog entry ten or twenty zillion times before. But we're coming down to the wire now, and it's time to start thinking about jobs and apartments and neighborhoods and the future, and yesterday I walked around the Upper West Side -- where, if I am unbelievably lucky, my mom's boss can get me an apartment at a reduced rent -- and there was a Jewish Community Center and a running store and the 2/3 train which will take me express down to Penn Station if I need to catch the LIRR out to Long Island to teach -- and it all felt within my grasp, as opposed to some distant dream. And I thought: If I want to live here...why don't I live here?

So I think I am (almost) officially done dithering about; when it comes down to concentrating the job search, it will be concentrated in New York. In fact, I've started getting my ducks in a row when it comes to New York teaching certification (because haven't you heard? In this ever-changing world in which Rachel lives in, teaching is back in vogue!).

Today one of the other interns was talking about how she was happy she'd chosen to go to college in Chicago instead of New York even though she doesn't plan to stay in Chicago, because of the chance she's gotten to get to know another city. I started talking about Boston and it made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I love that dirty water; Boston, you're my (second) home.