As our plane was flying above the city I thought to myself "I wonder what it would be like if there was a treasure map of light to the city"? Imagine places where there would almost be some kind of special light/ glow causing you to pause and open your eyes a little wider. What if every city had a guide highlighting it's most magical corners and incredible inhabitants who perhaps are tucked into random areas, often overlooked?
Looking back at the last couple of days I am certain that I stumbled upon this treasure map of light. I am constantly enthralled in wonder...
Our original plan to fly standby into Laguardia did not work out, but we managed to catch a flight to Newark. When we arrived we decided to be daring and rent a car, because of all of my luggage (six suitcases). My dad did a phenomenal job of navigating the crazy streets of New York. We pulled into Sunset Park Monday evening around 8:30/9pm and my incredible roommate, Shaun, received us with such genuine warmth and hospitality. As the neighbors looked on with curiousity my suitcases were lugged into the apartment (thank you Shaun for your help). When I opened the door to my "shoebox - 9x6" room I felt immediately at home. Shaun had made my bed with a lovely quilt, set a present wrapped in Parisian paper and a "Welcome Home" sign on the pillow. Those special touches made me feel like maybe I could really feel at home in this BIG city.
Tuesday, we had a plan to tackle my room. After finding the perfect bedding, curtains, and lamp at Ikea (fyi: my Mom is a rockstar decorator) we pulled away and Mom spotted what looked like it might be cool lofts or an abandoned warehouse. My Dad graciously drove us over to satisfy our curiosity.Turns out that fascinating building was:
480-500 Van Brunt Street
Brooklyn, NY 11231
(718) 694-6868
I was overwhelmed by the Fairway Market. Let's just talk about their olive oil and olive bar for a second... The olive bar is spectacular, buckets upon buckets of different olives filled with almonds, garlic, imported from here or there, seasoned with this and that. And as if their olive bar didn't win me over already they had to go and out do themselves with the olive oil. The photo you see below is just a portion of what they offer. Oh and in case you don't want to stare in despair at all of the bottles trying to rack your mind for any tidbits of Julia Child or Martha Stewart wisdom that may help in narrowing which olive oil you should take from the shelf, they have a bar with bread so you can try the different oils and tapenades.
Wow! I just realized this post barely covers our first two days and has already gotten quite long.. Did I lose you Courtney? I think I will wrap this up now and come back in the next couple of days to share part two with you. But before I end this post, I just want to say I would not be here without you. Each of you have in some way invested into my life and sent me to New York in such a way that has made it really easy (fingers crossed, knock on wood) to transition into this new chapter in my life. I know I am not the only one in the midst of a change, there are quite a few of you out there at a fork in your own journey and I just encourage you to DREAM BIG, or as my Mom says "The dream you don't even dare to dream" (THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM). It doesn't matter if you are moving cross country, starting a new job, taking what may seem like a small risk or just stepping back to evaluate where you are in your life - each is an equally important step towards becoming who you are. I can't wait to hear your stories, because I have a feeling they are going to be pretty gosh dang amazing.
top image: heat map of tweets and photos by Eric Fischer