{"id":572,"date":"2017-03-26T21:07:05","date_gmt":"2017-03-26T21:07:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/?p=572"},"modified":"2017-03-26T21:08:30","modified_gmt":"2017-03-26T21:08:30","slug":"settling-in-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/?p=572","title":{"rendered":"Settling In Again"},"content":{"rendered":"<body><p><\/p>\u00a0\n<p>Time and again, I\u2019m reminded how fortunate I am to have a large, loyal circle of friends both near and far. Last weekend, I had the pleasure of catching up with one of them, Lana.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_573\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/LanaMel.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-573\" class=\"wp-image-573 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/LanaMel.jpg?resize=640%2C480\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/LanaMel.jpg?resize=1024%2C768 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/LanaMel.jpg?resize=300%2C225 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/LanaMel.jpg?resize=768%2C576 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/LanaMel.jpg?resize=1600%2C1200 1600w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/LanaMel.jpg?w=1920 1920w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/LanaMel.jpg?w=1280 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-573\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lana and me<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Lana and I initially connected through Airbnb <a href=\"http:\/\/www.singlegalnyc.net\/?p=2648\">back in 2010<\/a>, during my European Dating Blitz. Based in Paris, she last visited NYC in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.singlegalnyc.net\/?p=5305\">December 2013<\/a>, so it was wonderful to see her again. We met up for a late afternoon brunch at The Smith\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/thesmithrestaurant.com\/location\/east-village\/#section-menu\">East Village location<\/a>. The popular bistro offers a hearty menu and friendly waitstaff.<\/p>\n<p>Over a delicious meal (I had the truffled mushroom toast, yum), Lana and I talked about travel\u2014she was just back from Brazil and Bolivia\u2014and taking chances.<\/p>\n<p>Lana was supportive of my decision to try living in L.A. last year, yet curious about why I left a city and a job that I love so much. Considering how difficult the move ended up being, it was surprisingly easy to make the leap. Choosing to return to NYC after only five months out West was harder. \u00a0I felt like I had failed somehow. And, as I mentioned in February, it\u2019s taken some time for me to get my emotional bearings since coming back.<\/p>\n<p>Thankfully, the comforts of being home and near loved ones has helped tremendously. I understand in much a more visceral way now why my mom said walking the streets of NYC gave her strength to weather life\u2019s storms. I know this is where I belong and I am so grateful I found my way back to the Big Apple. As John Steinbeck once said\u2013<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cOnce you have lived in New York and it has become your home, no place else is good enough.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Amen.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 Time and again, I\u2019m reminded how fortunate I am to have a large, loyal circle of friends both near and far. Last weekend, I had the pleasure of catching up with one of them, Lana. Lana and&#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"http:\/\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/?p=572\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"New Blog Post: Settling In To NYC Again","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[52,11],"tags":[170],"class_list":["post-572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catching-up-with-good-friends","category-dining-out","tag-east-village"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4J0fq-9e","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=572"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":575,"href":"http:\/\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572\/revisions\/575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}