Manhattan Girl No More

As my previous post shows, I moved out of Manhattan and into Westchester a couple of months ago after having lived in the "city" for a little more than two years. Yes, yes, I know, I know. Why would you move out of the City? Have you gone mad?! Isn't that what you came to New York for? To live in a small, cramped, relatively overpriced apartment with a leaky faucet and sqeaky, slanted floors next to neighbors who know you about as intimately as you know them not because you've met before, but because the walls are so thin that you hear everything and anything that goes on behind them? And what about always being able to walk out onto a vibrant street full of lively people with the convenience of grocery stores, laundromats, and restaurants right at your doorstep? Ok, so never mind that all these damn people are always blocking your way as you need to dash down the street to do your laundry and somehow figure a way to carry several pounds of clean clothes and a week's worth of groceries simultaneously up five flights of stairs. Considering that you will never have to go to the gym and can knock out errands while fitting in a total body work out, it really can be quite time and cost effective.

Despite all of the little inconveniences, I did actually enjoy my time living in the city. Instead, I've traded the City for an extra 500+ square feet, brand new hardwood floors, granite counters, laundry machine and onsite gym complete with a full sized pool which is comforting on those days when I do miss living in the city.

The Fiancee and I had our week of "suburban awe" when we set foot into a Target for the first time in about two years. Not having adjusted to suburban living yet, we entered the store with our old "city mentality" which directed us to only choose necessary items in order to save on storage space, cost and the number of pounds we'd have to lug back with us. But things were so cheap and space so abundant that things started flying off the shelves and into our cart. Dishwashing fluid for only $.89! Let's get 1o! Costco sized soap bars packages for only $3! Let's get 2! Lamps! They're cheaper than IKEA! We need more lights! What about this bathmat? Let's get new shower curtains! It was the same story at the grocery store. Things were so cheap and easy to transport that we felt compelled to buy six pounds of grapes, two full bags of tomatoes, a gallon of olive oil, 4 tubs of yogurt, a couple of pineapples, 10 broccoli crowns, a 20 lb sack of rice and about twice as many "staple" items as we normally would. Meanwhile, we had a load of laundry going on at the apartment. All of these errands done, and we still had the whole day ahead of us.

Alright, so we live in a sleepy suburban town. But with the money and time we save from the conveniences that a suburb offers, we could get used to this. It's not the City, but we're only a 35 minute train ride away when we need the insanity of Manhattan to keep us sane.