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I Spy a City

By Sarah Stodola

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Yesterday, I saw New York City as if for the first time. I didn’t have a spiritual revelation. I didn’t fall in love. I didn’t leave for a long period of time and just return.

No, I got my eyes checked.

Some guy who is barely older than me and dresses just like every other Williamsburg hipster checked my eyes at a shop on Bedford Avenue and gave me a sample pair of contacts to wear around for the next couple of days until my order for more lenses comes in.

I knew I hadn’t had my eyes checked in awhile, but I didn’t know what a difference it would make when I finally got around to it. Looking over the East River to Manhattan from Brooklyn, I could actually make out details of the skyline! Walking down Bedford, it seemed to me that a hundred or so trees had suddenly blossomed along the street! Standing in the subway, I could read the ads on the other side of the platform!

And the people watching! I know I was staring, and I apologize to everyone who happened to cross my path yesterday - I’m not crazy or creepy, and I don’t usually stare, I swear. But yesterday, everyone just looked so interesting! The rumors are true; there are a ton of beautiful people in New York City. And they wear a lot of really interesting things on their bodies.

New York City is indeed a phenomenal place, I rediscovered yesterday.

Last night, I also smoked weed for the first time in a year. And if I thought the sites of the city were incredible right after my eye exam, the sites after smoking weed after my eye exam were nothing short of awe-inspiring. Why didn’t anyone ever tell how magnificent the Empire State Building looks at night, shooting up from the city like a fireworks display frozen in time? New York City at night - I’ve never seen anything like it! Paris is called the “City of Lights.” But they stole the honor from its rightful owner, I do believe. Regardless, I have rediscovered why I used to smoke so much of the stuff in college, back when I could see just perfectly.

So, now I’m in love with New York in just the same way that I was three years ago when I moved here, when I would take three-hour walks just for the sake of soaking the whole place in, back when I didn’t care that I only knew two people in the whole city, when the idea of living in a 400 square foot apartment seemed like a gift. I moved here jobless and heartbroken, with few friends and fewer leads. But I was happy. I was happy simply to have done it, to have that accomplishment under my belt.

Now, of course, I’m a bit more jaded. There have been days when I have walked all the way to a destination within the city without once looking up to take in my surroundings. There have been other days that I haven’t even bothered to leave my apartment, and on these days I have wondered why I’m paying $800 a month for my share of rent when I could be doing the exact same thing in an apartment in Cincinnati for less than half that.

But alas, Cincinnati is still Cincinnati, even if it is cheap. And now that I have my new prescription, I realize that New York is still New York, three years later still as dazzling as it was the first time I laid eyes on it.

So here’s to seeing things for all that they are, for once. Thank you, Doctor.

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Sarah Stodola is the Managing Editor of Me Three.  She can be contacted at [email protected].

© 2003 Me Three