New York, NEW YORK!!!

I made it to NYC today. 2 weeks to the day that The Sundance Channel offered me the job. And thanks to so MANY great and wonderful friends I moved out of my apartment of 12.5 years in LA, sold most of my stuff, packed up and drove a U-haul to Oakland and SF and shipped boxes to New York and then got up at 4am today West Coast time (which means my pal Jon did too as he drove me!) and got on a plane and landed here. ALL IN TWO WEEKS! I couldn’t seem to put photos in albums in 12 years, but this happened in 2 weeks.



I got a taxi to my sublet on W. 80th Street just off the park. Really lovely. Really an understatement. It started raining and I stepped out on the stoop of “my” brownstone and saw a rainbow! I also met Lily and Karen two of my neighbors. My landlords seem really great. I walked in the light rain to Fairway Market on Broadway and bought some provisions. Including the “Life Begins at 40” coffee which I thought was appropriate, if 5 years late, but no one in New York has to know that, okay? “I’m 39 the sun in LA is harsh...”



I also met these Norwegians who were in the States for the first time. Like me they just landed in New York today. We met in the coffee aisle at Fairway. I told them how I had brought a copy of my friend Brian’s Great-great great grandfather’s autobiography _ Gulbrand Berge 1827-1886 – to read on the plane with me. He was from Valders, Norway and they were from Oslo and we just had the greatest chat. Everyone in New York is SO nice! I was even walking the streets with that happy smirk on my face that no one else was wearing quite so proudly as I. It is New in Town syndrome and I LOVE IT! And I am just so amazed and happy to finally be here.



From the moment I “got the call” I have been as crazy and neurotic as usual, but with the help of SO many people each leg of this crazy journey has really just gone so smoothly. It was a lot of work, but it really, really went well thanks to being blessed with such GREAT friends and siblings who have supported me all the way. I don’t marvel at it enough. No joke, it all just happened in spite of me!



Okay, the ONLY hiccup was the taxi driver dropped me off at 120 W. 88th St. instead of 120 W. 80th St. And I knocked on the door and no one answered. I even confirmed with him that I was on 80th St. So I had to heft 100 pounds of checked baggage (Lisa and I weighed them!) and a pipe case and a laptop computer with a 572 page hardback book in it 8 blocks. If that was the only thing I am pretty lucky.

So I begin life in New York today. I have no idea what the future will bring, of course, but here I am and I am ready to make a real go of it. I have my father, a native Manhattanite, watching over me and as I tread through his town, I feel at peace and at home.