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I am loving the NYmag cover article for this week.  With 50.5% of New Yorkers moving here from somewhere outside of NY, this article chronicles the experiences of people's 'First New York'.  From Amy Sedaris seeing a man shitting against a wall to Diane Von Furstenberg's charmed Park Avenue life, the stories are as varied as the city itself.  

I had always known I was going to eventually end up in NYC.  At the end of August 2003, I moved here with no job, no apartment and no money (a long story for another time).  But before I moved, I came and I visited a friend for fun.  I figured this would be a good time to bring a few bags and leave it in her apartment to make the move easier.  It just so happened that my visit was on August 14, 2003 and my bus pulled into Port Authority in the middle of The Blackout.

I ended up strapping on one bag, wheeling another and trekking from Port Authority crosstown to the Waldorf (dropped my bags off at a family friend's restaurant), up to 86th St, hopped a bus crosstown and waited at my friend's apartment.  During my wait on that ridiculously hot day, a nice random lady asked me who I was waiting for, and when I told her my story, she pointed out where she lived, gave me her phone number and told me that I could stay with her if I couldn't get in touch with my friend.  It started to get dark, and as nice as the offer was, I didn't want to stay at a random person's house.  I got in touch with another old friend, who was at Columbia Law at the time.  So I hiked it up another 30 blocks to 121st street, and up a bunch of stairs, and spent the night giggling with friends and sleeping on the floor in my filthy clothes.  

I remember being asked "are you sure you still want to move there?"  And there was no doubt in my mind that the answer was still yes. What's your story? xx