One Foot Out the Door . . . a cautious guide to commitment

The Secret to Happiness

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The secret to happiness is sunshine and a great bed. To this I can personally attest, having done without either for far too long.

Yesterday I had a luscious king-sized mattress delivered. To all of you who live out in the real America, this may sound uneventfully quotidian. Please understand that for two years I've been sleeping on an upholstered board. I had traded my bed for a convertible sofa to have more liveable space in my postage-stamp West Village apartment. I attributed my sleep issues to hormone imbalance and stress. Why is it that only in retrospect do I see that, between the cat bugging me and the ventilation system next door cycling on and off erratically, anyone but the dead would have sleep issues.

Not to give you the wrong idea: Brooklyn isn't exactly pastoral. There is plenty of noise that rises to the 15th floor to challenge my newly acquired serenity. But it's white noise. And I have yet to hear a single orgasm through the wall.

Maybe it's like my friend Ron says: You have to live like a rat for awhile as part of paying your NYC dues. It's like a hazing. But in my determined manner, I adopted it as a lifestyle and not only lived like a rat, I became a rat.

That's all changed. I've barely opened my moving boxes, haven't yet located the best places to shop in the neighborhood, and the internet won't be connected for another two weeks. But after the first night on the new bed, today I woke refreshed and happy with where I am for the first time since I left San Francisco.

posted by Karen @ 3:21 PM