Recently, I read an interview with the author of a blog about Park Slope, who moved away from New York and one of the things she said really resonated with me. It was this:

There honestly was not one moment that put me over the edge. But I did find, the older I was getting, the less patient I became with the everyday “battlefield” that is life in NYC. And then I would go visit other cities like L.A. and see that everything was so darn pleasant and easy there, and I just wanted some more of that in my life.

I am not a big fan of LA but other than that, that’s exactly how I feel. Life in NY is hard, really hard. But you either don’t notice it or you don’t care until you are older. Or maybe it’s that the good things stop outweighing the grind. Or maybe it just wears you down and you’re done. Either way, the lifestyle that I loved at 25 and 35 is just not appealing now. Once you live somewhere where no one is walking overhead at 3 in the morning and you can just go to one store for everything and load it all in your car and drive right to your door, where you actually have a place to put it all, New York seems less and less like a place you want to be. Not everyone feels this way, of course, but sometimes as you get older, you feel too tired for daily living to be so hard.

None of this is to say I’m moving. I love my job. But I have come to think of New York as a place I visit on weekdays. I am like a commuter with a long, twice a week, commute and a pied-a-terre.

Speaking of the place from where I commute, The Sun published an article/photo essay about my neighborhood last week, and it did well at highlighting the things I love about it: the charming houses, the family/grown-up nature of it (as pointed out earlier, I am no longer young, and I can’t live in Hipstertown), the peace and quiet, the charming main street with the great shops and restaurants, the laid back vibe, and the sense that something great is happening here, which it is. It is awesome to be here.