(This entry is revised, since I originally miscalculated the date I moved out here. Thanks, Liesl!)

Exactly ten years ago today, I moved to Los Angeles from Brooklyn, New York. It seems like a lot longer. Technically, I've now lived in Los Angeles longer than I've lived in Brooklyn (lived there until I was 2, moved to Staten Island until I was 12, then moved back to Brooklyn until I was 18... ten years in LA, eight in Brooklyn, and 10 in Staten Island). Screw it. I'm a Brooklynite regardless.

There are definitely parts of moving away from New York that I truly do miss though.

Friends from high school (and earlier!) that I'm still in contact with who live there. Whether it was wandering Greenwich Village until sunrise, going to WWF (now WWE) matches at Madison Square Garden and the Nassau Colisseum, or Lazer Tag until midnight near Times Square, they'll always hold a place in my heart.

The knowledge that I can walk around, in the middle of the city at one in the morning, and still feel safe because there's still a few hundred people out (for as much as its nightlife is touted, I've never quite seen LA as a 24-hour city - downtown is a ghost town after 9pm). I had to leave Brooklyn and come to LA to get mugged for the first time.

I miss Dunkin Donuts, Tad's steakhouse, The Slaughtered Lamb, street corner hot dog vendors (there's nothing in the world like a New York City dirty water dog) and damned if I still haven't found a decent slice of pizza out here.

I miss thunderstorms. Full-on lightning and thunder affairs, not even necessarily with rain, that last for hours. Hell, I remember seeing thunder and lightning while it was /snowing/ in Brooklyn once, as well as standing on the Boardwalk in Coney Island and watching lightning hit the ocean.

Then again, there are just as many reasons I'm glad I moved out here. I think getting the heck out of my house was the best thing I ever did - much as I love my family, them being on the other side of a continent helped me to mature and become independent that much more quickly. I wish my sisters would do the same... I think it would do them a world of good.

I met people out here who became some of my best friends, some who I consider family, and some who became much more than that. And no, not all of those friendships ended well, sad as it is to say. There are some of those people who are no longer friends that I would like to be on speaking terms with again, and some who I really couldn't care less if I never saw again. That's life.

I met my wife. She kicks ass. A lot. The strange part is, there's a decent chance Jen an I would have bumped into each other even if I stayed in NYC - she was considering school there as well. Same goes if she would have stayed in Chicago... I was considering Northwestern University there.

Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not. I lean towards maybe not nowadays.


No matter where you go, there you are.
- Buckaroo Banzai