Thank you, NYC

Here are some of my priceless New York City experiences from the past 3 years:

• Sleepovers on my roof, both in and out of tents
• Thanksgiving in the city with the family featuring the Macy's Day Parade, the Rockettes, the Charmin Bathroom and the Thanksgiving dinner without a table
• The best night of my life: The Awesome '80's Prom for my 26th birthday
• Scorching radiators in our apartment during a summer heat-wave due to a broken thermostat
  
• Dinner with my 5th Grade teacher, Ellen Reeves
• Slow dancing on the platform of the 59th St stop to a live saxophonist
• Watching ginormous rats feed while waiting for the 3 a.m Staten Island Ferry
  
• Miraculously surviving a motorcycle accident on the Henry Hudson with no serious or permanent injuries
• Tuesday night volunteer shift at the Manhattan Temple
• Living just across the Hudson River from Mayor Cory Booker
• 4-mile run on New Year's Eve 2008 in Central Park
• Taking second place in the stake ping-pong tournament in an exciting final match
  
• Taking the shuttle from 168th Street up to the beloved Inwood 3rd Ward
  
• Knowing the Giants had won the Super Bowl by the screams coming through my neighbor's walls
• Moving in and then out of a fifth-floor walk-up without an elevator.
  
• Pushing my granny cart full of Pathmark groceries up 145th Street at odd hours of the night
• Capture the Flag in the streets of Harlem followed by a dance-off for the "War and Pisces" joint birthday party extraordinaire (almost as good as the Awesome '80's Prom birthday).
  
• Riding my bike through Times Square behind one of those tourist-circle-cycle-thingees for protection
• Standing room tickets for MET operas and then having rich people hand us their orchestra tickets on their way home during intermission
• House guests and visitors from all different eras of my life at Hotel Hamilton Terrace
  
• Cycling from Harlem to Coney Island over the Brooklyn Bridge
• Red velvet cake from Make My Cake
• A kiss on the cheek from a teenage boy after I had fallen asleep on the subway
• Moments of spiritual enlightenment at the MOMA, Frick, Guggenheim and MET
• 9/11 ceremonies around Ground Zero
• Dar Williams in Madison Square Park, Ben Folds in Prospect Park, Bishop Allen in Williamsburg
• Picking up splattered mouse guts off the kitchen counter with a plastic shopping bag
• Easter sunrise service on our roof
• Shouts of "Oh no he didunt" at the Magic Johnson AMC during Spiderman 3
• Getting to said Magic Johnson Theatre 3 hours before the opening of Indiana Jones just to end up being in a theatre that was only a quarter of the way full
• Running 89 blocks to work on a stifling August morning with a change of clothes in my backpack because the subways flooded
• Breakdowns, delays and true love on the Chinatown bus back and forth from Boston and D.C.
  
• Having a friend perform at Amateur Night at the Apollo
  
• Waiting on line for five hours in the rain for free tickets to Macbeth at Shakespeare in the Park
• A fantastic good-bye party on my roof with little white lights, lanterns, skyline shaped rice krispy treats, chocolate dipped marshmallows and wonderful friends
  
• THE AMAZING PEOPLE - FRIENDS, FAMILY, ROOMMATES AND THE CRAZY NEW YORKERS - WITH WHOM I SHARED THESE EXPERIENCES! I'll miss you.