Eight Years: New York City, 2021
In just about two weeks, we are leaving to visit New York City for the first time in eight years. I wish I could say I was excited about it. I’m not. I wish I could say I look forward to it. I don’t. – journal, June, 2021, Los Angeles, California Eight years. One of those a pandemic . How is that possible? Eight years. I have now been away from New York for the same span of time that it took to establish myself as a New Yorker . I recall, with significant horror, the day I left New York. There is so much to do when one changes residences, and it seems there is no end in sight. No matter how well one plans and how stridently one sticks to the plan, when moving day arrives, it is never anything less than stressful, draining, panicky. This was that and then some. As good as I am at barricading my feelings in order to plow through big tasks, this almost broke me. Twenty five years in one place is a long time, especially when memory constricts you with every object you wrap, every...