End of the End

When we landed in New York, the rain that had given us a break in Seattle was parked firmly over the city.

We collected our small tonnage of luggage and hobbled out to the curb to catch a cab. I was still feeling anxious. I had everything we needed to do growing and expanding in my head. The idea of finding an apartment without jobs, and with a hole in our resumes a year big, was weighing on me. But as the big cabbie that met us at the curb sang a little song while helping us pile the bags in back, our spirits started to rise.

New York welcomed us with its irrepressible randomness

Soon, bombing down the Long Island Expressway, Magda was luminescent, beaming out the windows as the cloud shrouded skyscrapers of Manhattan welcomed us home. She was making a long list of people we needed to see and planning our grand re-entry. I was also happy, but as in Seattle was shocked slightly by the unfamiliar feeling of being in a familiar place. Everything around us seemed disquietingly normal, as if we hadn't been anywhere or seen anything.

I imagine that we've changed, but I for-see falling back into our routines, forgetting lessons we've learned. Taking things for granted. I am already annoyed with my new philosophies, and annoyed with others for not following them.

Fortunately, New York City is unflappable. It doesn't coddle anybody, it has welcomed us home with its irrepressible randomness which tends to speak to any situation. A giant banner, hanging in the bagel store that as far as I know has never been anyplace other than Williamsburg,inexplicably read "Welcome Back to Brooklyn" as we walked in on the first morning back.  I couldn't think of any other reason for it being there other than as a message of return for two travelers who have finally come home.

And so, it ends. We've found a place on the Lower East Side, the neighborhood we first lived in when we moved to the city. We've shunned Brooklyn's welcome and returned to what we came here for originally. Manhattan. Now we wait. We look for work and we get ready to move a great quantity of stuff up five flights of stairs. We return to normal.

Fortunately, it may not be possible to ever be normal again.