I was so close to doing it. I was really going to move out west. I was ready, I had a job lined up in Jackson Hole Wyoming, I had 5 grand banked and my cousin Lani was already out there, well established and waiting. It had been my dream since I pretty much started skiing in 2000. To go live the ski bum lifestyle, to look up and see mountains daily, big beautiful, majestic mountains. I swear they talk to me when I'm in them. Theres something that I feel that I can't describe and I love them. I think it has to do with growing up without them. To have never known them until I was older, until I could realize that they were there and that I couldn't have them everyday. So I decided it was where I was going, until I got the phone call that changed everything. That call was Rick and he was calling to ask me out on a date. Anyway what I'm getting at here is that I've sealed my deal here on Long Island and I'm here to stay. I'm closing on my house here in 3 weeks and though its bitter sweet in ways, I'm learning to appreciate what I've got right at my doorstep. Granted its not the beautiful mountains that talk to me and make me happy, it could at the same time be a way lot worse. So in an attempt to celebrate my Long Islandness, I thought I'd give a shout out to my motherland. My Island where I was born and raised and where I'm staying. Long Island, the largest and ironically the longest island in the contiguous United States stretching a whole 118 miles from New York Harbor to Montauk cramming a whopping 7.5 million people in between making it one of the most densely populated regions in the U.S. With that many people LI's was bound to spawn some of the more notorious household names. Just to name a few: Billy Joel (duh), Mariah Carey (born nowhere near the ghetto), LL Cool Jay (Bayshore really?), Steve Buschemi (Valley Stream.. Holla), the Baldwin Bros (holding down the south shore some more) . Lindsay Lohan (typical south shore but who cares), Jim Breuer (Holla Valley Stream some mo), Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (bet you didn't guess that one) the Karate Kid Ralph Macchio (Huntington, ugh finally the north shore), Billy Chrystal (Long Beach), Yankee hater Bob Costas (Commack so must be a Mets fan) ultra fab designer Michael Kors (Merrick, wow more south shore), Prodigy (holding down the Hempstead factor) , Pro cyclist George Hincapie (Farmingdale, had to throw him in) Eddie Money and even funnier Eddie Murphy, the obvious Howard Stern and the not so obvious Dee Snider. The home of poet Walt Whitman and the home of Method Man, Long Island is so diverse and so different in so many aspects. But dang I can't help but notice most peeps rolled outta the south shore. Holla!! I'm a north shore gal and I love it here and I love all my different friends and all the different towns and different landscapes. Long Island ain't just the tail off Manhattan, shit Manhattan wouldn't be crap if it weren't for us out here. After all who the hell else would be working in the city right? And where the hell would all the people living in Manhattan go on the weekends? Power to my LI peeps, and to my LI commuter peeps and to my famous LI peeps , as the slogan for the NY Islanders (And I'm a Rangers Fan)... We are all Islanders. And as much as the traffic sucks and the fact that there are no mountains for a couple hundred miles, I have to say it could be worse for me. Stay cool and enjoy. Here's to beautiful Long Island!
