I assume

that every single person, more or less, has some peculiar and inexplicable habits that can't be got away with. In my case, when it comes to walking with somebody, I do need to walk by the right side of him or her. Otherwise, I feel uneasy. Likewise, I feel insecure, whenever I go to the West Side of the city. My living situation in Manhattan had been always in the East Side, whether it was uptown or downtown. As a consequent, areas where I hung out were also in the East Side. Here I am now though, last week, I moved in the West Side. Well, I sort of needed to move for some reasons, which is too complicated to explain here. This apartment was love at first sight. What is great about it is the view from the windows. The windows are facing the interior garden and gigantic trees stand over the building. The trees are so tall that I can almost touch the trees from the windows. In my former apartment, on the other hands, I had no views what-so-ever. I was on the ground floor and all I could see was gigantic ventilation machines in the buildings, which polluted airs were blowing off continuously. So, I am quite happy now, seeing the trees with the birds singing. However, this is about the apartment, not about the east-west side fetish. I, in fact, extremely feel off-balanced in the neighborhood, as I mentioned. I am missing the former neighborhood, which was Gramercy. I lived there for 3 years, and my life in NY really started from there. I loved Gramercy Park, which I never was inside. I loved the street, Irving Place. As much as I hated Third Avenue and the Third avenue-people, I felt safe there. I was pretty much grounded in the East Side. It isn’t easy to leave something that you are so accustomed to. Yes, I am the one who wanted to move. Now, I see this as a practice. Like the principles of Yin and Yang, anything can’t be only in one-side, which is the unviersal law of nature. The energy has to flow. Therefore this could be the lesson to balance myself out. Like this: once in a while, you force yourself to switch a shoulder for having your bag. (Well, for my walking fetish, I can’t compromise though!)