[October 6th, 2015]
Sometimes there are moments where you tap yourself out of the City's metronome—keeping most of us on beat—and you realize again what it was that brought you here. Everyone has their own reason.
Last night I went out to dine with one of my dearest friends in the neighborhood Aviv + I will very soon reclaim as "home". We went to Kiki's on the corner of Orchard + Division—a recent discovery that I can't get enough of. It's a secret hole for delicious Greek food, disguised beneath the inconspicuous Chinese sign posing as its storefront. It's another world in there entirely, and I love the place more and more each time. (As a recommendation: don't leave without trying the whole fish branzino with lemon potatoes. If you're feeling sweet, end it with some baklava + a coffee, no question!)
So we fulfilled our mission, us girls: we caught up on each other's lives + left feeling fully nourished. We walked out around 9pm, kissed each other goodbye and went our separate ways...thank you, Kiki!
At that moment, I realized that it was the first time all day that I was alone and in the outdoors (can you believe it?), with the freedom to walk and stroll without much purpose; NYC metronome placed on silent.
I thought about how often I tend to turn spiteful against that metronome—that incessant beat that keeps us busy in this city with priorities that we often wish we could call secondary. Tic-toc, tic-toc...
As I strolled north on Orchard, I looked around. More than ever, The Lower East Side has been filled up with beautiful graffiti: artwork and obscure galleries are popping up like wildflowers—much more so than when we lived here three years ago.
Most of the artwork is done at night—when most of us are sound asleep subconsciously waiting for the next alarm clock to sound. toc-tic-toc...
I continued taking steps towards Wooster Street, and I recalled again what it was that drew me to this city in the first place: actually, it was the music.
The music that these types of creatives have composed; the beat of their creativity moving with the ever-sounding NYC metronome.
Look around: NYC has millions of people living the life of 9a-6p, 7,..8,..9...you get the picture. But it also has at least a million others who have added the beat of their own drum to that tic-toc-tic-toc—and they are making that music contagious in this place. That's what brought me here—and finally finally, it feels like we're picking up our own instruments too.
Here's to finding space for your own beat, and here's to making some music to it.
To an ever inspiring Tuesday, friends, Leaving Wooster style.
-P
