Manhattanniversary.

Yesterday was my four-year mark in New York City. Aside from my hometown, this is the longest I've lived anywhere. (Technically, I lived in Utah for 5 years during college, but between summers home, an internship, and study abroad, it was actually under 4 years cumulatively.) It's strange to think that so much time has passed when it many ways these years have seemed to go by faster than any other period in my life.

I have waxed poetic about New York many times in the past and likely will again in the future, so I'll spare you that now. But I will say that I have grown to love this city that has become my second home. I remember during my first weeks here, leaving my apartment in the mornings and just feeling like everything was right. I didn't really have any friends and I was making $12 an hour at my job, but I knew I was in the right place.

Something about this year (unrelated to Mayan shenanigans) feels like a year of change. I don't don't really have any idea what that change is, but I'm excited for more adventures to come.

Planner.

It probably won't come as a shock to most people that I love to plan. It's a trait that comes from my dad and is one that I've adopted with a somewhat manic enthusiasm. At the end of my freshman year of college when I picked my major, I charted out all of my classes (pre-reqs, GEs, major electives, etc.) and credits for the rest of my college career. I also had alternate charts for scenarios including Study Abroad and getting a minor in Management (both of which I did). I love schedules of any kind. I like any excuse to make spreadsheets or add things to my calendar. I check my budgets daily on Mint.com. I get immense satisfaction from making lists. It is probably a great travesty that I have never pursued a career in event planning.

What I love more than anything is talking about my plans with other people. So here are a few things that are currently bringing me great enjoyment:

Making preparations for this year's Warrior Dash, including a 10-person cabin in the Poconos.

Researching every aspect of our trip to Peru, obviously.

Adding to a shared "Summer Bucket List" on Google Docs. As oppressively hot and humid as Summer is in the city, it's also REALLY fun.

Crafting my training schedule for the New York Marathon.

Bookmarking places to eat when Becca and Krissy come to town in July.

And my favorite hobby at the moment: checking and double-checking my flight itinerary for my trip home to California and seeing 3 days until departure in the little box.

Be mine.

I'm going to be honest with you: I think it's kind of dumb when people get grouchy about Valentine's Day. There's only been one year when I actually had a romantic Valentine for the holiday. It was in college and we'd been dating a few weeks, and he came over with a handmade card and a mix CD and told me how much he liked me. And then he took me out for a smoothie and it was adorable. (Actually, scratch that, there were two times. The other was in the 4th grade when Cory Cozzens and I exchanged valentines and both of us had written, "I like you, do you like me?" inside. Super romantic.)

Anyway, my point is that I've still always liked Valentine's Day. Maybe it's because when I was growing up, my parents would leave us little cards and candy outside our bedroom doors in the morning. Or because of sisters who would send me packages with boyfriends-in-a-box and valentines for my friends. Maybe it's because of roommates who would bake delicious cookies and pass out gorgeous handmade cards. Maybe it's because I really like to hug. I know people will complain that it's so commercialized, or that it's a conspiracy by greeting card companies to humiliate single people, or whatever. But really, what holiday HASN'T been commercialized at this point? And I am willing to bet that those single people still have one or two people in their lives that love them. So why not celebrate that?

Sure, maybe it's silly to have one day where you're expected to show people you love them, when you should really be doing that every day. But hey, I love eating a lot all the time and it's still nice to have Thanksgiving to give me an extra reason to indulge. I guess I'm just lucky that I've always had family and friends that have made this day mean something--not by spending tons of money or giving extravagant gifts (although that's certainly nice), but by doing small things to make others feel special.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is, will you be my Valentine?

End of an era.

Until New Year's Eve, I hadn't really thought much about the fact that midnight would mark the end of a decade. Between that and the fact that my three-year Manhattanniversary was this weekend, I've been feeling a little sentimental and have had time to wax nostalgic about the last 10 years. I think that for me, they can be summed up as The Decade I Grew Up. Although I still don't really consider myself an adult, 2001-2010 contained some of the most significant moments of my life thus far. I went to prom. I graduated high school. I got a passport. I left the country for the first time. I went to college. I had my first boyfriend. I lived in a foreign country. I got my degree. I moved away from home. I landed my first grown-up job. I also made some lifelong friendships, learned what it means to make major decisions, and discovered how to rely on myself.

In the car on the way to the airport to come back after Christmas, my mom and I were talking, and she asked, "What do you think the next decade will bring?" When I imagine myself 10 years ago, it's hard to remember what I thought the next decade would be like. I picture the skinny girl with the braces and the new driver's license and the basically zero life experience and I think, you have no idea. No idea how great and hard and exciting and challenging and hilarious and amazing and scary and FUN things were about to get.

Even if I had the chance to go back in time and tell Past Me about everything, I wouldn't want to (not the least of reasons being that I'd have to prove that I was really from the future, and in the movies they always use their knowledge of the outcomes of sports games as evidence, and I would totally suck at that). For better and worse, I'm glad I didn't understand back then what I was getting myself into. And that's why I won't even try to predict what's next. Because I'm fairly certain that I really just have no idea.

Sometimes.

Sometimes I get really fed up with living here. Sometimes I wish I could get from Point A to Point B without having to rely on public transportation. Sometimes having my own big, new apartment with walk-in closets for less than I'm paying now doesn't sound so bad. Sometimes I just want simple tasks like doing my laundry or going to Ikea to not be a production that I have to plan my whole day around.

Last night was not one of those times. Lying in the grass in Central Park, listening to the New York Philharmonic play "Rhapsody In Blue" and selections from West Side Story, watching fireflies float lazily through the warm air, I felt perfectly content. When I hugged my friend goodbye later, I said, "This was magical." And for once, I wasn't being facetious.

People often ask me what I like best about living in New York, and I always have a hard time answering. Because it's those random, perfect moments that happen every now and then that make people so in love with this city. Running along the river at sunset, looking at the Rockefeller Christmas lights, people-watching in Columbus Circle--I freeze-frame those moments and put them in a mental album entitled This Is Why You Live Here (And Pay A Lot Of Money To Do So). And luckily, it's enough to get me through those other times that aren't quite so magical.