The First Entry
Mood:  caffeinated

First things first: does having a blog make me like every other wannabe on the planet? Sure, I had dreams of writing the great novel before I was 16 so I could be the next S.E. Hinton ("The Outsiders" was her first novel, published by Ms. Hinton's 16th birthday) and even made over two dozen attempts at actually starting to write something from the time I was eight through college. Unfortunately, several events in my sophomore year of college caused me to discontinue any sort-of creative writing pursuits, and much of my excitement for writing ended. I made many attempts to be creative, but the brilliance only comes in rare spurts, like once every 15 years (I've counted - it's about at that rate).

So...does having a blog make me like everyone else? I have no idea.

However, what this does make me is one of the few people as of today to have a blog based by someone in Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York.

I am a nonhipster living there. I am not from the New York metro area, and the idea of living in a place the size of a postage stamp for the price of a mortgage payment seemed atrocious to me. I found a loft in Bushwick for a good price. True, I am not in Manhattan, but I am not far from it either. I loved living in Manhattan, but I am not financially solvent to continue to live there.

I am also not a hipster. Not in the least. I don't have a tattoo. The only multiple piercings I have are in my ears. I am rather jaded but that is only because I have been living on my own for so long without the help of my parents or a trust fund. I don't wear ironical t-shirts and become a vegetarian when it suits me. I do not go to the hip places to "see and be seen." I have never been on Page 6. And I think the fact that I have chosen to live in Bushwick says all that.

There is a certain industrial wasteland beauty to where I live. There is literally nothing around me except Northeast Kingdom Restaurant, Wykoff Starr Coffee Shop (thank goodness it's there!), the taqueria on Starr that is run out of a tortilla factory's garage (amazing tacos), and a brothel (also on Starr, but I think it might have gotten closed down). Life Cafe is pretty much the only restaurant of substance that delivers (there are a few others, but not really worth mentioning). By car, things are just about ten minutes away: Western Beef (great supermarket), Rite Aid, a couple of drive-thrus, K-Mart. Ah, to have a car AND live near the city -- it's an amazing thing. I just wish more places had parking, but I guess I wished I was back home. I digress...

I also live in a very torn-up neighborhood racially. Bushwick used to be mostly middle class Italians primarily. Then things got bad in the 60's, and by the 70's, it was mostly Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, and a host of other Latino nations with some African-Americans on the south side of Bushwick. After the riots in the 70's and the drug wars of the 80's and 90's, things are s-l-o-w-l-y moving in a better direction. More youngsters are moving in, buildings are being renovated into lofts, and there is an influx of other cultures into the neighborhood.

It's not a bad area. It's not the best, but there are worse. It's affordable. You get a lot for what you pay for. It's comfortable. It can only get better. And who cares if a chain store comes into the neighborhood? All that means is that the area is getting better. Personally, I'd love to see more shops, restaurants, and the like, especially off of the Jefferson stop. The place needs a new coat of paint. It's not all that bad.