Familiarity...

New York is an interesting place. It's interesting because it's different than the west. I can travel to many cities in many states out west and find familiar restaurants and shops. When we first got here, everything was unfamiliar. Of course the east coast has different restaurants and grocery store chains. That's fine. We introduced ourselves to new places to buy food and carried on with life.

After a couple weeks, we were pretty homesick. Painfully homesick. One Monday night, I googled "Village Inn." I'm not a big fan of the restaurant, but I knew I had seen one somewhere. And it's familiar. I knew every one of the children could find something they like to eat there. Who doesn't like pancakes? Besides Chris, I mean. He's not a big fan. Unless the pancakes are laced with chocolate chips. We carefully followed our GPS to the Village Inn . . . and guess what?! It was part of a shopping center! There were other stores around! Familiar ones. Ones we have in the west.

Now in my heart of hearts, I always have thought I'm the sort of person who values small, local business above the big box store. In city planning (my major), we criticize the "Anytown, USA." That's a reference to a city that has nothing distinct or personalized about that city. Even small towns need a distinct identity. As an example, I refuse to shop at WalMart. Absolutely refuse. There. That's because I oppose the whole idea of all of this.

But then I saw a familiar spread of restaurants and stores and I felt myself relax. After we ate a (not-so-tasty) familiar dinner at Village Inn--or was it Denny's? I don't remember--we walked next door to Barnes and Noble. I love Barnes and Noble. Love it. Even though it's a national chain that is probably responsible for many Shops Around the Corner going out of business.

For reasons I have not yet explained in the blog, we did not have any books with us. All of our belongings were in storage. So, even though we were almost broke, I bought each of the children a new book. I don't really have the right words to explain how this changed our attitudes and emotions. Each of the children spent the next couple days reading. Even Nathan, who doesn't exactly enjoy reading, couldn't wait for me to sit with him and read. He had that book read before I knew what had happened.

Books. Even more so than having a familiar store to buy them in, having books to read is what started to make New York our home. We love books.