A KY girl gone NYC: i have arrived...

it's finally happened.

i have arrived.

i write you now not as a girl in kentucky wanting to move to nyc.
not as a girl in kentucky waiting to move to nyc.
not as a girl in kentucky moving to nyc.
but as a girl from kentucky who now lives in nyc.

after about 15 hours of driving and pulling a 5' x 8' uhaul trailer and sitting with my doggie in a very STUFFED car, hours of unloading and days of unpacking, i sit here on my new couch (well, new to me, the place came furnished) listing to my new surround sound system (again, new to me thanks to my landlord) and writing my first blog to you as a new yorker.

i am still not sure the reality has set in. perhaps tomorrow when i go off to work my first day at my new job. i haven't really met anybody cool or semi-famous (that was included for my cousin) yet, but i have been busy as a bee getting settled in. my apartment is adorably cute (though my kitchen is red, and i really hate red, because it clashes with my pink kitchenaid accessories) and i love it. i think that ikea should actually come use my house as one of their floor samples of how to use 700 square feet effectively. i think i have done a really good job. (see pictures below).

roxie is adjusting, though i think she is traumatized. she hates the balcony and im not sure if it is because she is scared of heights or the sound of the air conditioning out there, but i can't get her to go out there. she also is terrified of the dogs at the dog park. i took her there yesterday and she hid behind me and shook like a polaroid picture if another dog came near. that being said, she has adjusted to going to the bathroom on concrete quite well, including the first time when she pooped right in the middle of 1st avenue. well done, roxie, well done. way to let nyc know we have arrived.

i too have adjusted to going to the bathroom on concrete quite well. wait, did you say im not supposed to do that??!?! shoot! why didnt you tell me! just kidding, i use the grass. otherwise, i think im going to love it here. ive already eaten some delicious new york pizza, found a reasonably price discount store, and done my first set of laundry in the basement, and tonight, i will take in 4th of july in fashion when i walk roxie down the street to catch the macy's fireworks. i hope they are as spectacular as i imagine them to be. what an adventure that lies in front of me.

my cousin (who i mentioned above) commented to me last week that it is fitting that i have moved here over the 4th of July as it symbolizes freedom. i think it is so fitting that the people who signed that declaration of independence all those years ago did it with people like me in mind. giving someone a chance to pursue and then live the american dream...whatever it is. my american dream may not be yours, but what i have learned from many of you through this experience is that everyone out there has a dream. some of you may have followed it already...some may be following theirs right now...and some of you may feel you may never reach your dream. but i stand as proof that your dream CAN come true. it may not happen when you want it to, but it will happen if you work hard and dont give up. i sit here, a resident of 90th street in manhattan as a testimony to that very statement.

Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, "Take the first step in faith. You don't have to
see the whole staircase, just take the first step." whatever dreams are in front of you, take the first step, the rest, i promise you will fall into order, as it has for me. today i took the first step of the journey of living in new york. granted, it took me to Duane Reade, but, i look forward to the rest of the steps that will come, though i have no idea where they will take me. that's half the fun, folks.

happy stepping. step bravely.

akygirlGONEnyc.