Apr 12, 2011

It's hard to believe I left Portland six months ago, but life in NYC seems entirely regular now - I can direct a taxi around with the best of 'em. We live in a loft in Bushwick in a neighborhood filled with secret factories, open space and ample parking, surrounded by comparatively few people who make comparatively few dollars. I work in the East Village at a tiny restaurant called Prune, and am lucky to have two of my close friends from Portland, Lauren and Susan, there working beside me. Once the initial shock of the incessant honking and gratuitous expenses gave away, I have found it quite normal to spend $10 on fresh juice, to be at the tailor with a celebrity, to see only my coworkers and boyfriend for weeks at a time. I spent several months also working at a small natural wine bar in Crown Heights called Thirst and interning for fashion designer Caitlin Mociun. I have been cooking Japanese food, collecting ceramics, waited three hours for the best pizza and had food poisoning twice. When Lauren and Nialls look out their bedroom window on E. 12th St. they see the Empire State Building, perfectly framed in the glass. When I exit my subway stop across the river and walk the block to my apartment there it also stands, perfectly framed, flanked by the buildings on either side.

I have allowed myself these six months to adjust, to absorb, to decompress. The game is on, however. I have a show in July back in Portland at Nationale, and Jess is coming to New York next month to, among many other things, work on it with me. The wheels turn.

2 comments:

g. said...

ahhhh yeah... xoxoxo

ashley said...

thanks for posting about your time there! i have been dying to hear :) it sounds so romantic and lovely. i also love your badlands post...