A New York Love Letter

As I sit at the airport writing this, I reflect that I don't feel sad or melancholy about leaving the city this time. I don't really know why, it's a hard feeling to capture in words, especially for someone who struggles to make coherent ideas and sentences out of her thoughts. Maybe it's because the city I'm leaving this time is different than the one I left in December. It's changed, and perhaps I've changed with it. I think there's a definite demarcation line--the Julie when she first moved to New York and the Julie after being gone for six weeks. So in my bid to say goodbye to the city one more time, but hopefully not for the last time, here are some things I'll remember and miss about New York:

--the feeling when I first walked into my apartment
--seeing The Godfather at Film Forum with Mark and Maria
--subway performers
--hearing Elder Holland speak to the New York Stake
--reading in Central Park
--apple picking in upstate New York
--walking on sidewalks in new neighborhoods
--wading thru traffic on busy streets
--Gray's Papaya hot dogs
--jam-packed subway cars
--riding a cab at night and rediscovering the city all lit up
--taking a bus and spending the day in Washington, D.C.
--riding Amtrak out to Pennsylvania
--showing my sister and Mom the Top of the Rock
--Matchbox Twenty at Madison Square Garden
--walking in the rain with my rain boots
--feeling like I live in the center of the Universe
--taking the subway to Target
--buying a turkey and carrying it on the subway
--movies in Bryant Park
--the time I went to AsssCat with Stef and it was the funniest thing I'd ever seen
--seeing Jeff perform at the Apollo
--the Ward Christmas Party and Ryan Simmons performance
--Pumpkin Blaze in Tarrytown
--the Nadal Deli just down the street
--riding the subway at 3:00 in the morning
--realizing that New York is not what's portrayed in movies and tv, it's better--most of the time
--working with Tribeca Film Festival
--when the weather gets nice and you don't need a coat or gloves anymore and there's a feeling of excitment in the city
--walking aimlessly down Broadway
--diversity
--fall in the city

That's seems to be a pretty good list for someone with a bad memory...