Yesterday, I was euphoric, the opposite of the stressful feeling I’ve been experiencing since January.

I went on a “run” (at this point, it’s a fast-paced walk as I’m picking up the habit again, hopefully) yesterday, going up our new street during the sunset. It’s an average slope, one that makes you breathe hard if you go as fast as I did. I continued to make a loop in the park at the end of the street and came back the same way. There’s a curve free of buildings right before our street merges with the main road, and the evening colored the sky in purple-blue. I looked down the slope.

Each apartment building is different, and each one is lit with slightly different lights. Some extend their lobby like an arm into the sidewalks, while others have a pathway and lit stairs leading into an internal U inside a courtyard. There was no traffic, and coming from Broadway, with all of its ambulances and loud music blasting from passing cars, it felt like I was in a different place, on a vacation in a different town somewhere.

Even though I know the area quite well, I didn’t shop here before. My partner and I are surprised by the neighborhood-ish feeling of the local supermarket, the pharmacy, and the pizza place. It’s part of Manhattan, yet somehow it’s not. I can’t stop smiling. When I got back from my walk-run, I had enough energy to finish unpacking most of what was left in our common area. We are waiting for a few more new furniture to arrive in boxes so we can put away the other stuff we have.