It’s not even August yet, much less October, but I’m already positively squirming in anticipation of my favorite season. Every morning that I wake up and it’s still hot out, I remind myself that July is the worst of it and July is nearly over. The end-of-season summer sales are especially encouraging, as are the fall catalogs that are starting to overwhelm my poor, undersized mailbox. It may be 92 degrees today, but by god fall is coming!

Next month, actually, it will be seven years that I’ve lived in New York. I moved here in August 1999 to start my freshman year at NYU, and I haven’t left for more than a week or so since then. My first semester here I hated it - moving from a town of about 3000 people to a city of 8.1 million was something of a shock. Now, though, it feels like home. There are few neighborhoods in Manhattan I haven’t spent considerable time in for one reason or another (work, school, various apartments), although the Village is likely to be my favorite one for the forseeable future. It may be too expensive and not as neat as it used to be, but it’s where I’ve spent the bulk of my time here and I love it more than any other part of the city.

Here’s a fun fact: since I moved here, I have not been to the Statue of Liberty. I went once when I was a kid on a trip with my family, but not since then. I don’t feel any particular urge to go, either.