I am a New York girl. I always will be. Just this past week, I forgot where I was and forgot to acknowledge in a group discussion that I live in Los Angeles. I was noting that no one in the room lived in the actual city of LA. They all gave me a funny look. As I noticed their stares I then realized that I had a slip of the tongue. Or perhaps it was a Freudian slip-my favorite type of slip.  Because I label myself as a New Yorker,  I always feel that NYC is in my heart. You can take me out of the city, but you surely cannot take the city out of the girl.  Thus, even though I live in Los Angeles-in the middle of downtown nevertheless-I just forget at times I am a resident.  Even still, I find ways to note what I do like about Los Angeles. I like the tacos and the restaurants. I like that it is beginning to be like my beloved New York.

I lived in a number of places in New York city, namely the Bronx and Manhattan. I was, as my mom often noted, made in Brooklyn. Can I get such a t-shirt made?  When I lived in Manhattan, I lived near the flatiron and then in Battery Park near Ground Zero.  It was dark.  There were skyscrapers after skyscrapers being built and as such it was often dark.  Unsurprisingly, I picked downtown LA to live in as it is one of the few areas that is like NYC.  I live in a big skyscraper amongst others being built. Each block here has a new building that is rapidly being built up.   In  away, downtown Los Angeles feels more like Blade Runner than NYC. Well, that is my thought today, tomorrow it may very well change.  I have an unbelievable view of the post-industrial Los Angeles.  Sometimes at night I feel like I am living in Gotham and I fully expect to see Batman fly down the side of my building.   I often wonder what would happen If I were to place a bat signal outside my balcony. Who would come? Most certainly, someone would. This is LA after all.

At night, downtown Los Angeles looks like New York City.   However, in the morning, it is a totally different scene. Despite the grit and the newness of the city, it is worth waking up early in order to catch the morning sunrise.   Among all the industrial commercial spaces, the sun rises mightily and brightly.

And it is a wonderful life treat.

Every morning, I rise and shine with the sun. I grab my camera and take a photograph of the sun. It is always so poised and ready for its head shot.  In this vein, I am surprised that I can get to see such magnificence sunrises when I live among such giant buildings. I had expected darkness. Yet, I often get to witness a fiery sun. That is my reward for being such an early bird.

The past few months there have been times when I have been waking up stressed wondering whether I got done what I needed to do or whether this country is on the wrong tracks or side of history.   However, I always remind myself that the sun also rises with me and it is magnificent.  I make sure to take a second or two to admire it. Sadly, I don’t get as many chances as I would like, to soak in the sun but I will take this skyscraper-mediated relationship.

Today the sun has risen and tomorrow it will as well. And hopefully the next tomorrow and the tomorrow after that.