INTRO.

After four years of living in Manhattan, and four years of debating every year whether I should leave or stay (inevitably choosing to stay each year), I've finally decided to move out of the Big Apple. With 7 more months left to enjoy my life here in New York City, I've become a bit nostalgic and have a rekindled desire to savor the City as much as possible.

That being said, I've come up with a New York bucket list of sorts... a list of things/places to experience over the next 7 months. Not that I will never come back to NYC to visit after I move away, but I want to make the most of this place while I still call it home and can tap into its majestic chaos by just walking out my front door.  This blog will document my last months and days in the City, including my experiences crossing things off the bucket list. I'll also share some of the cooler things I've done in my time here, and write about the random daily occurrences that would only happen in New York.

To kick things off, I'm paying homage to the inspiration for this blog's namesake... the "Shit New Yorkers Say" video.  Here it is in all its glory.. The part that really hits home is the "I love it here... I hate it here..." scene.  If there's anything that's epitomized my time in NYC, it's that internal fight between loving the City one day and hating it the next. Loving it for the crazy people on the streets, amazing food, high energy.  Hating it for the crazy people on the streets, expensive food, high prices of, well, everything.    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRvJylbSg7o

And now for the main event (drum roll, please)... the Bucket List.  I am wide open to suggestions if you have any recommendations for amazing things you've done in the city.  Here goes (in categories for your reading pleasure):

Food
1.  Eataly early July 2012
2. Per Se (this is a reach item.. kind of like Princeton on my college app list)
3. Dos Caminos (seems basic, but it's a Mexican place I've heard great things about, and given my inclination for guac, it's a must-do)  3/2012 (forget which day)
4. Amy's Bread (down the street from my apt. but have yet to be patron) 1/29/12
5. S'mac
6. Lombardi's pizza (I originally had Grimaldi's on here, but per someone's advice that Grimaldi's is over-rated, I switched it out for this one)
7. Lincoln 2/11/12
8. Chelsea Market 1/29/12
9. Carlo's Bake Shop in Hoboken 2/4/12
10. Lani Kai Hawaiin cocktail lounge

Museums/music/culture
11. MoMA
12. Tenement Museum 1/14/12
13. Museum of Natural History 1/8/12
14. NY Philharmonic concert
15. Museum of the Moving Image
16. The Cloisters/day in Harlem
17. Concert @ Terminal 5
18. Blue Note Jazz Club
19. Opera @ the Met
20. At least 1 more broadway show   5/16/12
21. Movie at Lincoln Center movie theater   1/21/12

Everything Else
22. Walk over the Brooklyn Bridge (I've done this once, but this is for my boyfriend Matt... shout out to my Babaayy!)    6/16/2012
23. Bergdorf Goodman
24. 9/11 Memorial
25. Spend a day photographing New York
26. Weekend at the Hamptons (something I've wanted to do every summer but have just not managed to make it happen)
27. Walk the entire perimeter of Central Park
28.  Professional blow-out at Dry Bar (with sister :)

So that's it for now.  What's on your NYC bucket list?