Sunday, September 23, 2012

home

Yesterday afternoon, once I got off work, I took the subway out to Bushwick. I had an appointment to sign a lease for an apartment at 4:30. Since I was a good half hour early for my apartment, I wandered around what is soon to be new neighborhood for a while, walking past memories of when this used to my neighborhood five or so years ago. I sat on a park bench in Maria Hernandez Park across from my old apartment. I looked up at the apartment's window and wondered if Niki still lived there, wondered if I was going to run into her now that I lived a couple of blocks away.

A circle seemed like it was being made. I wasn't sure what this meant, whether this was a good or a bag thing.

I signed the lease on the stoop of what is to be my new building on DeKalb Avenue. I am really excited about living in this neighborhood again. That stretch of Knickerbocker is full of so much life and really calls to mind images of what I imagined New York to be when I was a kid. Fruit and vegetables piled on sidewalks for sale. Taco shops, pizza shops, 99 cent stores, booming sound systems, kids cruising by on their BMX bikes, a crush of life.

There is the neighborhood. And then there is the apartment. It is a tiny 1 bedroom and it all mine. I can't wait to hit restart, to be on my own, to not see Jacob anymore, to be out of this place that used to be our home, to forget. The bathroom has a sink. There is a non-working fireplace. There is an empty apartment that I will fill with stuff and position just so and make into a cozy place to call home.




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