missing brooklyn and love.

The other day I had this aching need to walk.  Around Brooklyn.  Wander and get lost amidst the brownstones, shops and trees.  Since I got back, walks around my neighborhood have not been the same.  I missed Brooklyn.  And this thought came over me: it's amazing how love can happen so instantaneously.  One day, you're just walking and living life as you always knew it, and the next, you run into something (or someone) you didn't know, but always somehow believed that the moment you met, you'd fall in love.

And life as you knew it would never be the same.     

brooklyn love.

It's amazing how quickly I fell in love with this place.  Each time I walk the streets, it feels like coming home.  Feels like I'm home.

breakfast love.

I found this gem in the neighborhood called Ted & Honey Café Market.

The one discovery I made in my thirties that I wish I could tell my teenage and/or twenty-something self is to eat breakfast.  I think we've all heard how it's the most important meal of the day, but somehow, it's that advice many people, including myself, ignore(d).  Foolishly, pre-thirties, I prided in the fact that I could go on an entire day without feeding my body anything but a slice of bread and ten cups of coffee.  And now, well, I guess this is the perfect time for this overdue confession: I don't drink coffee anymore.  Okay, I'll have my occasional decaf in the morning, but as a longtime coffee drinker, I don't consider decaf coffee as coffee.  

And I know, this blog is called coffee moments because I loved coffee.  And I still love the smell of it, the idea of it, and occasionally, the taste of it (thus, the decaf), but I don't drink it anymore.  Honestly, I lost the need for it.  (But that's for another post.)  And I thought about changing the name of this blog, but I couldn't because of what "coffee moments" meant to me.

But, anyway, back to breakfast and how it's good for you.  I had the egg, avocado, tomato and harvati cheese breakfast sandwich, and it was amazing.  I'm definitely coming back here because I've just fallen in love with the charming interior with its wooden chairs and tables.  I love the exterior bright red paint, as well.  And, it's just one of those places where the people who work there call the regulars by their names, and gives the aura of community, connection, familiarity.  You see, as much as I love trying out new things and places, I also love routine.  And things that are familiar.  So, this is a place I'll be going back to.  A new routine in the making.

Brooklyn.

After much anticipation, I'm finally here.  And it's everything and nothing I imagined it would be.

At first, as I walked to the apartment I'd be calling home for a little, I had this longing for familiar things.  Parking my car in the garage.  Being greeted by my red couch.  My neighbor's screaming kids.  I started to doubt what I was doing.  What I had intended to do.  And I started wishing that my stopover in DC wasn't so brief.  I started to miss my godfather's Italian history lessons (which I have to share one day), and my godmother's cooking.  It's amazing how we could be attached to something (someones) in such a brief time.

But, after spending an entire day in Manhattan, I came back to the apartment, sat on the couch, with a mug of hot chocolate in hand, and I felt it.  That feeling of certainty.  That I did the right thing.  By coming here.  To write.  Although honestly, I haven't done that much writing.  But, I've memorized the stops on the F train to downtown Brooklyn, and have gotten lost several dozen times in the city.  I've strolled through Central Park, Bryant Park, Washington Square Park, Prospect Park.  I've walked over the Brooklyn Bridge, and sat and pondered across City Hall.  

And last night I met up with a new friend for dinner.  Shared with her my adventures since arriving here, my plans and ideas, and she said, you're no longer a tourist.  New York suits you.   

As we walked around Greenwich Village, I stopped missing L.A.  And afterwards, on the subway back to Brooklyn, I thought, why didn't I do this before?  Then, I remembered why.  And I realized, as much as I beat myself up for it, I wasn't ready before.  And so, I couldn't do it.

But now I am.            

Come check out the neighborhood with me:

St. Agnes Church up the street from the apartment.

View from Union Street Bridge.