My husband Michael and I chose to live in New York City because we just love it here. We understand the conveniences of city living – having everything at the tip of our fingers, right outside our doorstep, or at least have someone deliver it to our doorstep. Since my husband and I work in the city, we chose to live here once we had our girls because we didn’t want a long commute home. We’d rather take that time back and spend it with our girls in our small, downtown New York City apartment. Not a lot of people are up for the crowds, the lack of space, and the noise. What we want to show you that there are perks to living in the best city in the world.
Not only does working and living in New York City make going home an easy 20 minute commute, but it makes going out and having a social life easy, too.
No matter what week you look at in our Family Calendar, there is at least one night that Michael and/or I go out, whether for work or for fun. Sometimes he has a work dinner, a client meeting, or a night out with the boys; I usually have a blogger event to go to or a dinner date with my girlfriends. Nevertheless, our nights could be extremely packed and social, or it could easily be a quiet night at home reading or watching HGTV.
This past week was one of those crazy, social weeks. Our musician friend Dave Wanamaker, had a 10:30pm show at Rockwood in the Lower East Side. Michael, took one for the team and stayed home with the girls while I went to the show with our good friend, John. Since the show started so late, John and I decided to go check out the modern Filipino restaurant, Maharlika on 1st Avenue and 7th Street (which was pretty good for modern Filipino – but if you are looking for traditional Filipino flavors, you’ll have to go somewhere else). I did do all of that, but not before I went home after work, hung out with the girls, had a little appetizer with the family at the dinner table before I headed out.
Yesterday, Michael and I had a date night (yes, on a Sunday!). He got tickets for us to see Jack White at Radio City Music Hall. Thank goodness we didn’t get tickets for the Saturday night show (aka #JackWhiteDebacle). Before the show, we headed to Capital Grille on 51st Street for an amazing date night dinner of filet mignon and the largest sesame seared tuna steak with gingered rice.
The Sunday night Jack White show was, yes, a full set, with a 20-25 minute encore (yeah, sorry Saturday night attendees). Now, I’m not a full-on Jack White fan. I don’t really listen to his music, I basically went as my husband’s date. But, consider me a convert. The show was visually appealing (I love when things look good), Jack and his girls had fantastic stage presence, and the music was amazing. Amazing enough that I’m going to put some Jack White on my iPhone for my commute!
So, yes, we sacrifice on space (we certainly don’t have even close to a 3,000 square foot apartment), and we pay more per square foot than most people, but our girls still do what kids their age do: ride their bike or scoot to school, take dance class, art class, gymnastics, be on the swim team, take soccer lessons and run track.
And Michael and I do what we get to do: go to work, see our kids, have dinner with them, go out and see our friends, then come home. We just do it more easily than most people do because we chose to live in New York City.
What about you? Are you sold on city life?