I've picked quite an amazing time to return back to New York City: it's the coldest that its been for the past five years, the Inauguration is going on nearby in DC, and the day that I flew in, a 747 made a splash landing in the Hudson with everyone's lives spared. The day before I left L.A., it was 86 degrees and balmy. I wondered why it was necessary for me to come at this time and almost rescheduled my flight out of fear that I was being selfish by taking some alone time away from my family.
But when I arrived, I remembered why I came back. The last time I was here solo, I was taping for the "I'm From Rolling Stone" show and living in a gorgeous apartment in Gramercy for two months. From what I was told, MTV hired interior decorators to design the place just for me, and they designed each apartment specifically for each cast member (Russell got the gayest place! HAHA). Colin lived four floors below me and the night we all moved in and started taping, he found a slip of paper on the floor that was not supposed to be read, a message from the fourth wall. It said "Krishtine - Bohemian Chic".
There were tons of indian silk tapestries on my wall, a framed picture of a rice terrace and books about Goa and revolution. I'm sure they got the inspiration from my namesake, Indian philosopher, Krishnamurti, and ran with it, but it felt like someone was really paying attention to my history and tried to be thoughftul. Nonetheless I knew it was temporary and didn't get too attached. I gave everything away when I moved out - a lamp and some stools to the production guys that I was cool with, a coffee table to my neighbor that I smoked bud with once - and went back home to my apartment in SF.
Two-and-a-half years later, I'm back and staying with my childhood best friend in Hell's Kitchen. Her building is gorgeous; a majestic foyer complete with overstuffed chairs, a giant vase of lush greens and a doorman! Upstairs, she has a view of the Empire State Building and the entire city. She just finished her Masters Degree in Social Work at Rutgers and is living her dream as well. I am so proud.
When we were kids, we wanted to move to NYC together, and technically we did, but not with each other. I moved for the show and two weeks later, she moved with her longtime beau to start grad school. When I left to go back home to California, she stayed. New York was the place for her, not me. I needed wide open spaces, my family close by, and lenient marijuana laws. She just needed to be away. Now that I'm back, we've spent the past two nights talking for hours about our seperate paths until it was time to hit the sack. Once we were in bed and the lights were off, we kept talking for at least two more hours. Like we did in high school.
I'm happy I came back, not just for me, but for her too. We live on opposite coasts now and sometimes we don't talk for months on end, knowing that our friendship would always be there. I have the remainder of my business meetings tomorrow and a last day to enjoy NYC despite its below-freezing temperatures. 3 days is not nearly enough time to do everything I would like to do, but its enough to remind me of how far her and I have come in these 15 fifteen years we've been best friends. But from now on, I'm only gonna come in the spring/fall. I'm freezing my sunny Cali bum off!
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