From Unattainable to Commonplace

East 23rd

"New York is famously tough on its newcomers. For most of us -- whether born in Lubbock or Laos -- it is, at first glance, a source of endless intimidation, as indecipherable and unattainable as a well-bred East Coast lover. But time somehow collapses in New York, and within a decade the unattainable becomes commonplace, the love you feel for an impossible mistress turns into something like the love of a middle-aged child for an ailing parent."
Gary Shteyngart, The New York Times