Coming Home

Hello all,

I am sitting in a hotel room, (a nice hotel thank you cousin Erick) and I am thinking about my present...
I am from NY. I love NY, I am bred inside and out NY. Anyone who knows me can tell you this, from Atlanta to New York to California; all the people I met have told me this, but even as I try to explain to them, I know they just don't totally understand.

It truly is a state of mind, yet it is more than that. I was raised on survival, on what you need to do to make it in this world, especially when the odds are against you. I believe that my personality, my being, my persona, was shaped and honed by my environment. I am a Pisces; we FEEL what is around us, we internalize it and shape it into US and who we are and THAT is what NY did for me. I cannot regulate myself to the slow laid back nonchalant way this is Cali; I could not (definitely not) redefine myself to fit the slow behind the times, backward thinking ways that still exist in the South. I must be true to ME and that just means being the brisk, abrupt, call it rude, but I call it blunt, sassy and outspoken personality that New York has made me. You have to be outspoken, or no one will HEAR you! You have to be abrupt, or people will walk all over you. You have to be forward thinking, or you will never understand the changes that come fast and furious at you. You have no choice but to get that HUSTLE spirit and can apply it to ANYTHING!! Some say I am rude, but if telling people what I think (especially when they ASK, IJS) then I simply call that real; honest. I can't tell someone their baby is cute, when their baby... is NOT cute! I mean I will deflect and when asked, 'isn't little Chloe adorable?' (this is the mom thrusting her bald headed big face grown looking baby in your face seeking compliments probably because SHE knows little Chloe is definitely going to need reconstructive surgery to pass for cute or at the very least a clever makeup consultation ASAP) and I will simply answer, 'OOOO, I love her little outfit!" No ma'am, I am NOT going to tell you that baby is cute. Perfect example, at the airport today this guy says, 'Would you mind giving me a cigarette?' My first instinctive response, (which I usually always defer to) was 'Yes, actually, I do mind giving a perfect stranger anything of mine" No sorry. (people kill me when they tell people 'sorry' cause they don't have change or a hand out when they are solicited! The truth is, you are NOT sorry you don't have it, you are probably GLAD) He gave me a look like I was rude!! RUDE? Rude is being out here begging me for a cigarette. Rude is expecting me to keep you in the vice of your choice because I am supposed to be afraid of being considered mean and socially incorrect by saying NO?!
Get YOU outta here man!

I am from NY and I have been to cities and lived in cities that are purported to be just as bustling, just as hip, just as RAW and just as real, and maybe perhaps I am sweating NY and I need to listen to Mariah Carey Obsessed 1000 times and get off NY's 'piece', but they do NOT measure up. They are cool in their own right (maybe LA, but Atlanta, I cannot even give you that; sorry. -insert sarcasm on that sorry-) but I beg to differ. We ARE truly the city that never sleeps, (c'mon, how can you even compare when the damn trains stop at 1a.m and the buses even before that!? How am I supposed to get home drunk??!!) How can you compare to my beloved NY when even your street people have on Prada (LA) and your downtown area is literally 4 square miles (ATL). The answer is you can't.
Sorry. (again, dripping with sarcasm)
Bottom line is, my heart is bursting, my spirit is full, and my insides are bubbling over with joy and excitement because I am coming H O M E people. I am the prodigal daughter; I am the returning hero, I am the lost heir reclaiming her fortune; and that fortune is my city, my state, MY HOME. I have missed you NY and so many have come from you and been more successful, paid you a bigger homage and given back to you 100 times over, but I swear they have never struggled to not miss you, they have not cried over you like an ex, and they have not yearned for you to be in around and over them as I have since I've been gone.
all that's left to say is... IM BAAAACCCCCKKKK!!
Cheesy, I know, but deal with it, errr. sorry.