Dress 22: Follow Your Heart

New York is a transient place.  Shops and restaurants that were there on the street corner you can wake up and the next day they are gone.  A police incident can occur one minute and then in a blink of an eye the street is hustling and bustling again like nothing ever happened.  Things come and go and the landscape can change quickly. For New York life this ever changing world also includes one other thing : roommates. 

I hadn’t had a great success with roommates in my first year in renting on the Upper East Side.  Now I know when I say Upper East Side visions of Carrie’s massive cute Upper East Side apartment come to mind .. rent control or not that apartment is not real!!!  I did live on the Upper East Side but as far away from 5^th Avenue as possible.  You could be surprised to learn that as glamorous as the movies and TV shows have you believe this part of Manhattan is there are some really family, low key and low priced places to be found.

After my latest Aussie roommate did what so many of us do – find the one place you love most in NY and find a way to be there (in this case he fell in love with Brooklyn) it was time to consult back with the bible of Manhattan : Craigslist.  Back in 2006 Craigslist was a trusted, well known Internet classified’s site where you could find anything from true love, preloved furniture and a new roommate to love.  Within hours of posting for a roommate on Craigslist the hardest part was culling through the 100’s of emails you received in response.

Generally I tried to find other Aussies to help out.  New York can be brutal when it comes to finding someone normal and safe to live with and I figured I had at least one of those to offer!  This time around I had an email from an Aussie girl who had just moved to New York.  We arranged for her to come over to view the apartment and have a chat and four hours later we realised we hadn’t stopped talking!  Her name was Anne and her ambition was to live in New York forever.  Originally from Western Australia she had come for a two week holiday to New York, fallen in love with the city and by the end of that holiday had, as only Anne could, already scored herself a job. 

Anne was extremely ambitious, smart and driven.  She moved into the apartment and we shared a mutual love of cooking for each other (coming from a Vietnamese background her cooking was amazing), heading to the local karaoke bar and a cocktail … or two.  Her Dad came to stay with us and I have never met such a happy man.  He was originally from Vietnam and you could see how proud he was of his daughter.  After a year she decided to move in with her best American girlfriend.  We were actually both really sad to be leaving each other but I consoled myself with Craigslist and sorting through again the many many replies.

Anne and I would meet up for brunches and swap the latest gossip every few weeks.  After she returned from Australia one year though something had changed : New York had big competition for her heart.  She had met up with an old high school friend from Facebook and they realised how much they liked each other.  A few months after she returned Toby came to visit her in New York.  I immediately saw a lovely guy and pretty much told her that she could move on from New York but he was a keeper.  They ended up travelling around the world and she moved back with him to Western Australia.  Talk about a fairy-tale romance!!

I was happy for her.  There are so many times that you can think you are in the right place until someone comes to steal your heart away and you find your true destiny in the one place you never expected it : right there where you started.  Last year Anne and Toby got married in Perth.  She invited me to the wedding and it had been a year or two since we had last seen each other. 

This was my very first visit to Perth, even though my mum had grown up there and spent much of her early adult years there.  It was so nice to set the backdrop to so many of my families stories.  The wedding was beautiful and as Anne didn’t have a big bridal party I was able to make myself useful and help with all the wedding preparations.  I even got to make her bridal bouquet and discover a talent I never knew I had!!  It was such a lovely visit to Peth to see Anne’s dad again and meet the rest of her family and friends.  When you get to know someone overseas you only really get to know one facet of their life, I was now able to fit the jigsaw pieces together to form one whole Anne.

The last day I was in Perth and Anne and Toby had headed off on their honeymoon and I was left to my own devices.  So I decided what better way to finish up my time there than checking out the shopping in Perth!  It was amazing.  I must have been there at the right time because there were so many specials!  The dress I am wearing today is a dress I bought in Perth. 

If anything Anne has really taught me to believe in helpless, romantic, unbelievable fairy tale love… after all she found it twice, once with a city and then with her now husband.  Because you always hear about stories like hers, but now I have actually seen it happen in real life I know they can come true.

Yours in dresses

Skye

Day 22: Follow Your Heart

Bought: 1 Year Ago ago
Price Range: 29.95
From: Perth, Western Australia
What I like about it: I really like the blend of colours and fun print
Tag Info: Made in China, Paper Scissors, 92% Rayon, 8% Spandex
Photo Credit: KMcKinnon