NYC I love you

As I sit here at penn about to leave on a new journey, a wave of emotions has come over me the last couple days. Everything from sadness, to excitement , to deep contemplation. I've looked back on the past nine years I've spent in the city. I've thought back on everything that has happened. I've realized how much I love this city, New York CIty. How it's changed me from a super scrawny 19 year old kid from the Olympic Peninsula of Washington state, who had never been on an airplane, never been East of Idaho, who's biggest city he had ever seen was San Francisco, who to quote space balls "hadn't seen shit", into a man. This city has had a major influence on the man I've become more than I think most things have.

Now it's easy for you to hate NYC, it really is. It's loud, polluted, strung out on something. People can be real bastards. It feels like the city is always on the verge of collapse certain days of the week. I mean if it rains the subways get shut down. If someone big shows up like the president or Justin Bieber it ends up screwing with your commute on some level. The politicians are morons. If your not a Yankees fan its really awful. New Yorkers feel like they're entitled to everything and look down on the rest of the country. The winters are hell and the summers have caused race riots. They can be very parochial when they say oh I don't go to Brooklyn or I don't go above 14th street. New Yorkers can be a pain in the ass.
But new york city is also the best friend you'll ever have. New Yorkers are the toughest people around. They don't take crap from anyone. They're incredibly loyal. New York City will kick you in the balls and then apologize and help you up. It will give you the best time you'll ever have and make you want more. It's a crazy lover than you can't get out of your mind. It's your first kiss, your first time, it's a new exsperience every single day. It's the rain kissing scene in the notebook.

And so as my train is making its way out west towards sunny California. I think back on what I love and miss about NYC. It is the good, the bad and the ugly.

I will miss you bastard ex-frat boys of Murray hill. You bastards pissed me off . But watching third ave on a Friday, Saturday night was always an amazing sight to behold.

I will miss the fellas of Chelsea. With your fancy cocktails and cute little dogs, yours was the most hilarious time I would have. Your parade was the best time I ever had.

I will miss you hipsters of Brooklyn. With your overly tight pants and ironic attitude about everything. I never could get with it but that was ok I loved you anyway.

I will miss you bridge and tunnel crowd. Coming in to raise hell on the weekends. You loved your coors and jäger , but that was ok you stayed true to yourself.

I will miss you old Jewish ladies. You had memories of a long ago era that is gone. But you where always sweet.

I will miss you Hasidic Jews of Brooklyn. You too where from a different era. You where the worst landlords in the world but your culture was always an interesting site to behold .

I will miss you st paddies day. It was hell to work that day, but you always gave me the greatest stories in the world.
I will miss you scary nieborhood's of NYC. From uptown and the south Bronx to the scary places in Brooklyn , yes you where an adventure for any small town kid. But you showed me that even in the worst conditions a community of people can survive and live.

I will miss you Yankees-Red Sox rivalry. Your both bastards and might be a bigger pain than the Palestinians and Israelis, but you brought back a love for baseball that had died with the crappiness of the mariners.

I will miss you NYC sports championships. For a boy who had never experienced one to see how it's really done, oh how it made me smile with joy.

I will miss you Harlem on a Sunday afternoon. With everyone walking around dressed for church, big smiles, it was a gorgeousness site to behold.

I will miss going out all night with your friends and than drunkedly watching the sun rise over battery park.

I will miss you union square. With your farmers market, flash mobs, activists, tourists, crazies, you where my place to hang.

I will miss you manhattan theatre source. You where the home I was looking for, where I made life long friendships, was lured by a man with chocolate to make sci-fi films, went on crazy adventures with a brilliant paurto rican playwright, called another playwright a dirty beat nick ,Became friends with that African kid from Lorenzo's oil, loved sports with a sassy women from Memphis, licked a gingers cheek in a scifi film, was given lemon cello by a crazy Italian who's childhood was straight up a Bronx tale, was given epic hugs by a man who said indeed. And much more.

I will miss you Washington square park, you are one of the most romantic spots in the city during springtime and summer. A great place to watch live music with a date.

I will miss the epicness of Central Park .So unbelievable that you could exist in such a place.

I will miss rodeo bar, Mccormicks pub and east of 8th. You all became my family, I loved seeing you and the history and stories you gave me I'll cherish forever

I will miss watching football on a Sunday at horseshoe bar and being told my team doesn't count cause Seattle's in Canada

I will miss Zip at the Academy a man who every single person should meet. He truly is the embodiment of I am who I am

I will miss watching the jets every Sunday at home those two years they where good. Ordering wings and gorging myself so I can become as fat as Rex Ryan

I will miss my first Knicks game, best birthday gift ever.

I will miss you Bloomberg. You where a dictator that one day would piss a person off and the next day make you go hey he's a good guy.

I will miss epic snowstorms that would cause chaos and make the city turn into Thunderdome meets iam legend meets the day after tomorrow.

I will miss yes every single crazy parade that hit the city. It would make getting around awful, but it was a beautiful sight to see everyone always so passionate and crazy.

I will miss you times, daily news, post and voice. Voice you had the best art sections, daily news the best what's going down in the city, post the most fucked up tag lines and times you where the best.

I will miss getting up late on a Saturday or Sunday grabbing a cop of coffee and going for an walk and seeing everyone out and about.

I will miss the energy of the city, the people, the way you can't get it out of your soul. How it ruins a lot of places after being there.

Who knows how long I'll be out in California . Maybe only a couple months? A year? Who knows? It is a grand scary adventure I look forward too. But to everyone back in NYC I love you and will never forget the influence you have had on my life. And I will not forget any of you. Look me up when you come out to California . And to NYC you will haunt my dreams, you will haunt my soul. New York City, that city on the Hudson I love you.