Tag: new york

Don’t You Just Love New York in the Fall?

Rhiza8 Comments

(I just had to use that line. Again.)

This is my version of Street View: the 5-minute walk from where I’m staying in Staten Island to the nearby public library, one of my hang out spots here. (You know me, where there’s wifi, that’s where I’ll be.) There’s just so much beauty wherever direction I point the camera to, I had to remind myself to breathe and stop acting like a giddy tourist.

Somewhere in this neighborhood is where I stay.

My current office address, LOL.

People waiting for the library to open. Hello, colleagues.

Waiting by the library steps.

David’s D90 yay! :)

Hello from Staten Island :)

Lovely, isn’t it? :) You wish Google’s Street View stills were taken on a beautiful Autumn day!

OAN, last night I had a date with the boyfie fiance. We took the ferry to the city, had dinner at Oh! Taisho somewhere downtown, took the wrong train and got lost in the subway, and walked around the business district while the rain was pouring out. It’s Day 4 of being surrounded by New Yorkers, seeing dried yellow and orange leaves, keeping a metrocard in my pocket all the time, and having to be under layers of clothing.

Most of all, I still can’t get over the fact that I get to spend real time with my boyfriend during lunch breaks and after work hours in a fabulous city such as this, after months/years of being so far away from each other. <3

Breathe, Riz, you’ll get used to it. I’m giving you another week.

Thoughts About Packing and Pocket-Sized Mothers

Rhiza3 Comments

It’s hard to keep up with my life sometimes. I relocated from one apartment to another in the past 5 years faster than I could empty out boxes from my previous move, I would repack my bags even before I’ve fully adjusted to a new place, and I would say goodbye to neighbors, landlords, and caretakers before I’ve even memorized their names.

Don’t get me wrong. I love the thrill that comes with starting over, checking out real estates, holding a plane ticket in my hand, and being in places outside the comforts of my zone. It’s just that.. I’ve never really been anywhere that far. No matter how much I loved all my solo adventures, I’ve always found comfort in the fact that my mother is just in the next city, or that my travels don’t usually extend longer than just a couple of days.

And can I just say, I hate hate hate packing more than anything in the world?? Also, having to say goodbye to people I love. I wish there’s a way I could skip those parts. I wish I could just magically transport everything in my life and take them with me wherever I go. I wish mothers were like pocket-sized mirrors so I could take mine from out of my pocket whenever I start feeling lost, alone, and in need of directions. I wish there’s a way I could put all my loved ones in one place so I won’t have to pack, say goodbye, adjust and readjust all the time. I wish, I wish, I wish.

In a couple of days, I would start stuffing my suitcases again (when I just settled back home, ahh, the story of my life!). And while this is just a trip and not really a permanent change of address (at least not yet), my mind reels with all the preparations and adjustments and homesickness and emotional attachments that are going to strike me from all directions.

It’s tiring, all this moving around, and I’ve contemplated whether or not this is the kind of life that I wanted one too many times.

On the upside, I’ve somehow acquired skills that let me cope more easily whenever time calls forth big and small changes in my life. I’ve learned to acknowledge that all these years of temporarily changing addresses, and being in situations where I have to figure things out on my own, are God’s way of making me strong and preparing me for more permanent things.

You have no idea how much that excites me and scares me at the same time.

New York, movie nights with myself, and the universe throwing signs my way

Rhiza12 Comments

So I accidentally-on-purpose found this old photo of Time Square I took in 2008 with my Holga, and oh my wow, I just.. meh, I feel like my love affair with New York was cut too short I have to go back and pick up where we left off or else I’d spend my entire life counting whys and what-ifs.

Times Square, October 2008

Times Square, October 2008

You see, I’ve been watching movies lately. Last full shows. By myself. And if you must ask, it’s not that I don’t have friends to watch movies with, it’s just that I recently discovered that it’s therapeutic to watch movies alone. For one, I get to freely choose how I want my popcorn and have it all to myself (sour cream with extra salt, please). Secondly, I get to pick which movie to watch without the fear of being judged for my preference (chick flick which doesn’t require too much thinking, please).

It’s my third movie date with myself tonight. The last two movies I watched were Remember Me and When In Rome because the options were either way too comedy or way too action for my taste.

I really don’t want to discuss in length how I thought Remember Me was too depressing to be watched alone, and how confusing it was to see Edward Cullen, James Bond, and Ellis Grey all together in one film; or how mediocre When In Rome was and how, the only interesting part of it was the fact that some scenes in the movie were shot in Rome (You’d think, with that title, that the entire film took place in Rome. Nope.)

I’m going to say my point now, people, my apologies for talking way too much.

What I’m saying is.. What really made my heart leap in both movies was how they brought me back to New York City and wooed me with beautiful moving images of Manhattan, Times Square, Central Park, Staten Island ferry, Brooklyn bridge, those yellow NYC taxi cabs, pigeons flying all over the place, and empty subway stations, so much that it starts to feel like there’s this void in my heart that only New York can fill.

I’m bound for New York again, I know it. I just don’t know exactly how in the universe it’s going to happen and when, but I am so going to be back there.