The LOML

Today's Brightside is a love letter to my apartment. I hope you enjoy.

Dear Apartment F1103,

I think you might be the love of my life. I’m not sure yet - I’m only 28, so there’s a real possibility I end up meeting someone great and falling in love with a human - but right now, it’s you.

Our love story is a tale as old as time. The classic “girl boldly swears off love” and then “the universe laughs and proves her wrong”.

I didn’t want to move back to New York when I left in 2021. I was “done with it here”, “ready for a new adventure”, and convinced I’d find myself moving to a far off land like Austin or LA. I was fresh off a breakup after all, and I wanted everything to be different.

I’d tell my friends that I didn’t like the person New York made me - hardened, cold, materialistic. I was “feeling so much better” in rural Connecticut, in nature. This was true for a few weeks, but truthfully I was quite lonely and missing the heartbeat of the city. But I was committed to my story and regardless, I was biding my time and licking my wounds. I was - ahhhhhh - “healing”.

And then, you fell into my lap.

They say love finds you when you’re not looking for it, and that was certainly true for us. I remember the day I first heard about you - October 16th. I was in the Hudson Valley visiting Helen. I’ve always been a little convinced that Helen is my fairy godmother, but what happened next sealed the deal.

I hadn’t seen Helen in 5 years (she was my favorite college professor) but within 20 minutes of our reunion, she turns to me, squints, looks me up and down and says “I have an apartment for you. It’s in the Lower East Side.” It was like... some serious Jewish matchmaking. I couldn’t get a word in edgewise before she was listing all of your amazing qualities - your natural sunlight, your king sized bed, your window in the bathroom, your terrace. I politely nodded, indulging her descriptions of you as if she were describing her dentist’s son, who happened to be my age and single. Honestly, you sounded too good to be true, and besides, I was lukewarm on the idea of returning to New York. So I was careful to not become too attached.

To add to the auspiciousness of it all - it’s worth noting that the day I first learned about you was right on the heels of the first week I’d spent back in New York, and it just so happened that I’d been staying in the Lower East Side. I was in town to run my first ever Brightsiding workshop at Google, as the offices had just reopened. It was that sweet spot right after everyone had received their second vaccine and just before Omicron descended upon us. The week was a dream. New York showed off it’s most illegally beautiful fall weather and I admit, I did find myself thinking a few times during the stay … “If I did come back here, the Lower East Side wouldn’t be such a bad place to land”.

So when Helen insisted I meet her cousin Ellen who owned the apartment (you), I said what the hell. Ok, sure.

I don’t know if I’m someone who believes in love at first sight, but there was something admittedly curious about the familiarity I felt walking through your doors for the first time. Your pale peach walls and pools of natural sunlight filled the space with a warm vibration that ... I don't know, just felt like coming home.

Before I knew it, I was shaking Ellen’s hands with a plan to move in in early December.

Our start was a whirlwind romance, to be sure. You could say we moved fast, which was a gamble, but I wouldn’t have done it differently. You rescued me from the solitary confinement of my childhood bedroom and gave me a whole new world to explore (or admire at a distance from your breezy balcony when I needed some alone time).

Now we’ve been together for just over a year. I’d say that by now I’ve made you mine, but the truth is, like the best love stories, we’ve made each other ours. You feed me with your sunlight and hold me in the safe embrace of this spacious one-bedroom. The bath has become the place we come back to each other, to rest, in the quiet of each other's company, with the buzz of New York at bay. We’ve hosted countless guests, and you've seen me through the loss of my first love (my childhood home), as well as one of the most intense growth years of my life. Thank you for that.

I like to think I nourish you in my own way, too - bringing you to life with my colorful palette, my disco balls, my plants. We give to each other equally, and for that, I'm so grateful. I want to thank you for showing me what true and equal love looks like.

Apartment F1103, I think we’ll be together for a long, long time. And I can't wait to see what the future holds.

All my love,

Your Bogs

Appropriately, today's tempting purchase is this cobalt blue quilt.