I started this blog. Swore I was
going to update all the time. Months go by, new job, new friends, new projects,
and very few updates. So few in fact that I didn't realize my domain had
expired. Oops.
But I'm starting fresh, because you know what Liz did? I accepted a job in New York! This is the most exciting thing to happen to me in a long time. It was unexpected, but I was approached with a fantastic opportunity and couldn't pass it up. Plus, I've had the itch to move for a while. Boston is my home. There is no where I feel more comfortable, but almost too comfortable. I have a PHD in this city. Every sight, every restaurant, every haunt. It's time to stretch myself.
So it this is how it went down.
While in New York for work on June 5th, the opportunity was presented to me as
a possibility, pending a few changes that were still TBD. I had a sinking feeling that this
"potential opportunity" was real. I knew it in my gut that my life
just changed. It came up during my last
meeting of the day and I left for Penn Station in a tizzy. Had a few scotches
on the train ride home, and immediately opened Craigslist to see where I might
be living. Oh, and I met John Slattery
while waiting for my car. I think the
universe was telling me that this was supposed to happen. I work in advertising. I just met Roger Sterling on the street. New York was meant to be.
And then I kept it to myself. My own
little secret. Afraid to tell anyone until I knew it was real because I would
feel like a loser if I told everyone I might be going, only to have it fall
through. So fast forward a few weeks and S&%T got real. The job was real and they needed an answer. Tomorrow. I toughed through a
conversation with my boss' boss where I am trying to play hard ball career lady
and talk relocation packages, cost of living increases blah blah while fighting
back tears. The first of many that day.
I leave the office and drive to meet
my Be-Fri Jen for dinner, and utilize the car ride to call my parents. My dad
answers, and I'm choking up. After some small talk, I break the news. He is
totally supportive, yet raising all of the points and concerns any parent
would. I know he is on board. He suggests calling my sister Wendy, a New Yorker
of 15 years to get advice on apartments etc.
Here's the kicker. My amazing sister
Wendy moved to New York fresh out of college, and is just a week away from
leaving the city to start a new life California. I'm excited to tell her but
beyond disappointed that we won't get to share the city together. I break the
news and after a gasp of disbelief, she calls us "ships passing in the
night" and is immediately on Craigslist determined to find me a home. Damn
she's a good dooby. She knows this city. I mean really knows it. It makes my
PHD in Boston look like a PHD in flip flops. Beyond my disappointment in not
getting to live there with her is the uneasiness that she won't be able to help
me find a place and give her seal of approval to my neighborhood. She also told
me that if this happened six months ago her husband never would've dragged her
out of New York. But everything happens for a reason. She is starting a new
chapter with her family, and I am forced to do this on my own. It is terrifying
but so exciting. Much like this whole experience. I hang up the phone with her,
and it's on to dinner with Jen.
So ten minutes into our Chipotle
burritos, I blurt out that I have to tell her something before I lose the
nerve. I can see some skepticism in her face and I just spew "I'M MOVING!"
She was understandably taken off guard, and of course I start crying, and
explain the situation. At the end of the day I know she is happy for me no
matter what, but she is upset I never talked it over with her. I know she is
hurt. And I realize at that moment that we are so close that this isn't just a
big change for me, it is for her too. We do everything together, and haven't
been separated in ten years. I have instant guilt, and I think to be honest,
she isn't over me not telling her before it was a done deal. But there is no
one I am more excited to have visit me than her. We are always on the same
page, love to travel together, and I can’t wait to explore my new city with
her!
Now onto my mom. I told my dad he
could give her the spoiler alert, so when I called she knew what to expect. I
was bracing myself for devil's advocate the whole way. I was ready for her to
poke holes in everything from the career potential to the financials. I
couldn’t have been more wrong. She was 210% supportive and recognized what a
great opportunity it is for me. What I was really left with was the quote that
I will take with me through this whole experience. "Suck it up, Go for it, It's nothing that can't be undone." Cue
the waterworks. I hang up the phone with her and weep. It's real, I am going.
And it means the world to me to have so much love and support. But I still have
one sister to go…
Ugh, telling Barbara. I couldn't
tell her the same night as everyone else because at this point it's 9pm, and
she is 9+ months pregnant and well asleep. I wait through the next day at work,
which happens to be her due date, and call her after work. From the second she
picks up the phone I am dreading every second. Her husband and my nieces are
hustling around getting ready for an event at church. I hear my little niece's
voices and I'm getting upset thinking about how I won’t see them as often. I just can’t let myself go there. We talk about her doctor’s appointments and
her annoyance of being so pregnant, and I am half concentrating on the
conversation, and half pondering whether to tell her before or after her
husband and kids leave for church. This will devastate her. I am preparing
myself for her to rebut "It's so far away" "You will never see
the kids" and on and on. So eventually I open with "I have some news
that might send you into labor" and without hesitation she responds
"Where is it?" It's weird about sisters right? You just get it. I
tell her it's New York and she says "Thank God it's not London or Chicago.
If there was one place I could pick, I'd pick New York". She knew I had
itchy feet and it was just a matter of time before I went somewhere. What she didn’t
know was that both Chicago and London were on the table at one point, and boy
that would be tough. In telling both Barbara and my mom, it was not the
response I expected, but it was the response I needed. And that felt pretty
damn good.
So all in all, I am overwhelmed by
support and love. I still don't know when exactly I am going, but I think it
will be mid August. There is still a lot to do in Boston (that means a lot to
eat). A lot of friends to hug and pictures to take, but I am so ready for this
adventure. And the weird thing is it is ten years exactly from when I moved to New
York to intern at Letterman. And my office is around the corner from the Ed
Sullivan Theater at that.
This month just feels epic in a lot
of ways. One sister is moving clear across the country, and the other is going
to have a beautiful baby boy at any moment (literally). My best friend got a
new job in Charlotte, but the new job means she gets to travel to New Jersey a
lot, just a quick train ride from NYC. Sometime I sit there and think to myself
"I'm moving to New York" and I get a tingly nervous feeling in my
chest. I tear up a lot, and think about all of the people and things I will
miss, but that are only a train ride away.
You can take the girl out of Boston,
but you will never take Boston out of the girl. This is my home, and I will be
back a lot. I worry about feeling like I am a visitor in this city. My city.
But I think the experience of living in New York is something you just can't
pass up. And I can always come home.
Suck it up, Go for it, It's nothing that can't be undone.
