Ani Vrabel on Kanye West’s “Runaway” (from My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, 2010)
(iTunes, Rdio, Spotify)It has been a year of four ZIP codes in three cities, nine different roommates, six months of storing clothes in a suitcase, and more than 200 nights spent on an inflatable bed. It’s been a year of feeling temporary, discovering new neighborhoods, and cramming my belongings into plastic stacking drawers that become a makeshift dresser in unfurnished sublets.
It has also been a year of Kanye West.
Read about why in Unbest, which (!) the New York Times was nice enough to include on its list of “The Top 10 Top 10 Lists of 2011.”
Story of my life.
But, at the risk of being the kind of New York-obsessed person on Tumblr/Twitter/etc. who used to sort of annoy me…I think I’m set, at least for a bit.
….again. I’m taking the two suitcases I’ve been living out of since I left Chicago and some sheets & towels to my new apartment across town. It’s finally feeling like I’ve really moved to New York.
A brief history of my moves, starting May 2010. That last one will become official tomorrow night.
Given my family’s history of moving (I’d had 7 addresses by the time I turned 11), you’d expect me to either want to put down roots ASAP or keep that sense of wanderlust going. Clearly, I’ve gone with the latter. The idea of signing a one-year lease is overwhelming for me (more overwhelming than moving my shoes, even!). As much as I have always liked routine, I have also like changes of scenery. I don’t even mind the packing & moving. There’s something kind of nice about the loneliness of the solitary act of organizing all my things — the funny little gifts people have given me, the books I just can’t be without — into boxes and suitcases, something gratifying about finding a new home for each object in my new room. Maybe in my 24th year I’ll do something that resembles “settling down,” but I can’t make any promises.
Shoes: the worst part of moving.
I snapped this while strolling around my soon-to-be neighborhood. Right now, practically too many things are going well.
