It’s Day 3 on my cruise.  Boyfriend and I are eager to get to Orlando today and venture to Universal Studios: Islands of Adventure park (cough, cough..HARRY POTTER WORLD) and spend the day riding huge rollercoasters and trying butterbeer.

My second installment in guest posting this week comes from Valerie of Turning Phrases.  Val and I went to high school together but I didn’t know she had a blog until recently.  While she mostly concentrates on fiction and creative non-fiction, I convinced her to write a post about her favorite place, the city she now lives in, just outside of New York City.  She loves theater and literature and NYC is the best place for her!

Hello! My name is Valerie and I have a quirky little blog called Turning Phrases.  I have known Marie since high school [from which I graduated six years ago…yikes!] and am beyond honored to be guest posting here.  This post is about New York [where I now live] and why I love it so much.  Well, a little about why I love it so much; I find new things to add to the list every day.

It’s hard to explain the feeling. It’s more than determination, more than a dream. It’s knowing.

It’s how I felt the first time I came to visit New York when I was thirteen. I knew right then and there that I would live there someday.
About five years later I was packing my bags and on my way. Of course, there’s always that fear – what if it WAS just a dream? What if my expectations are too high? What if I’m not cut out for this?

As it turns out, New York has exceeded every one of my expectations. I’ve even exceeded my expectations.

When Marie asked me to write about why I love living in New York I was like, “Oh you’re looking for novels?”. Over the past five years, sometimes college was annoying, sometimes grad school was hard, sometimes my jobs sucked. But my love for this city never wavered. Any time I was craving a change, that was the only thing I knew I wanted to remain constant.

In the past week, I have gone to the movies in Times Square, had brunch in the financial district, went to a mall in Brooklyn, had a game night in Queens, saw a Broadway show by myself (for $5!), and went to a library. One week!

I’m sure you could do most of these things almost anywhere. But it wouldn’t have the same electric energy this city has. You wouldn’t have been able to walk to two different bars after the movies or get your show tickets from a somewhat sketchy man outside a Starbucks.

I suppose it’s not the activities themselves. It’s the entire experience surrounding these activities. It’s never knowing what will come next. It’s meeting the most interesting people and doing the most interesting things on a day-to-day basis.

So, I guess my favorite thing to do in the city is to just go where it takes me. To always say yes to any adventure that is presented to me. Whether it’s taking a day to walk around my neighborhood to see what I can see, spending the night bar hopping with some of my favorite people, or going on a spur of the moment trip to a museum, this city never ceases to make my heart flutter with excitement.

What is your favorite place to live or visit?