New York City with its star-like glitter

[All of the photographs in this post were taken by me back in 2013, except for the one of me in the window which was taken by a friend of mine.]

Empire State Building in Midtown and hazy Lower Manhattan in the background

I’d like to share some of my favorite photos from the time I spent working in New York City back in 2013.

Although this isn’t featured as one of my “doings” listed on the homepage and I only briefly mentioned it in my intro, over the last ten years or so I've actually done quite a lot of event management jobs.

As odd as it may sound, for someone who really doesn’t feel comfortable as a guest at parties or other kinds of events, I’ve always loved the behind the scenes of it. Ever since I can remember, if I ever attended any kind of a party, big or small, I would always find ways to make myself useful, to do whatever I could to have some kind of a job, to not just be a guest, left to stand there and forced to mingle in a usually extremely overwhelming setting. Somehow being a host, co-host or even just a support of the host in some way allowed me to not be IN the party but look at it a little bit from an outside perspective. And that, I suppose, helped me remove myself from that environment and watch it a little bit like a film, instead dwelling in that overwhelming collection of sensory stimulation.

Although all of that had to do with me being an HSP as well as with a sizable amount of personal issues I have since done a lot of work on (and I’m now much more able to just enjoy myself without the constant need to do something and help out), years of this kind of behavior did teach me a few things about organizing successful events. That, along with my ability to put myself in other people's shoes, a sprinkle of my organizational skills as well as some event management education made me a pretty good event organizer. Over the years, I’ve done a range of various things, corporate, private, art-related, from parties and business events to bigger festivals of various kinds. And I probably could have made a pretty great career out of it (I still might one day, who knows) if only there hadn't been other things calling my name, louder and more incessantly.

Anyway, back to New York City, now.

In the fall of 2013 I was working on putting together an art exhibit in Manhattan. It was a very demanding job that didn’t leave a lot of time for roaming free around the City, but I loved that I got to do it nevertheless. I did a whole range of things for that project, (from events management, through running errands, all the way to photography coverage of the whole thing), and those jobs themselves took me plenty around the City. There were, therefore, many opportunities for me to see things, revisit many places I had seen before, but also discover many parts of the City I had never had a chance to visit.

I recall that time as being very intense, both professionally and personally, and not always in a positive sense of this word, but I am, and will always be, so glad and grateful I got to be a part of that whole project.

Central Park... probably my number one favorite city park... although London's Hyde Park does come close

Even though I am not a lover of huge cities (and I suppose I could live long-term in one like that only if I had enough money to have a private garden of some sort), I, like many others, find this particular city quite incredible- I always have, even before I first set foot there, back in 2006.

New York City welcomes you with this undeniably enthralling and entrancing energy that I have never experienced anywhere else. Though I’m sure everyone experiences it in their own unique ways, I have never met anyone who’s been there and not felt their own version of it.

Sometimes I wonder what makes it so. Is it the geographical location- is there something about the land it stands on..? Or could it be the accumulation of an insane amount of people in a relatively very small area and everyone’s energy somehow vibrating in a magical synchronicity..? Maybe it’s not everyone, maybe it’s just a lot of people with big dreams- artists, creators, entrepreneurs, all fueling their hard work with hope..? Or maybe it’s all of the above and a bunch of things that haven’t even crossed my mind..? I don’t know, but there certainly is something special about that place.

Now, that isn’t to say that it’s all roses. There are probably a lot more things about the City that I personally (and I’m sure many people, including its residents) strongly dislike about it, yet I suppose they all get outweighed by that incredible energy. Even though it’s just one thing versus many, that one happens to be grand enough to make you do crazy things just to be there, to live there, to get to experience it just once or continuously, on a daily basis. Sometimes it seems to me like the City is a bit of a drug.. Or a lover you're infatuated with. It can blind you to all its flaws by giving you that fantastic feeling that seems to make everything else either completely irrelevant or covered with star-like glitter, so that no matter how bad it actually is, you can’t help but be mesmerized by the sparkle.

But I do need to say, New York City is a beautiful city, even being the concrete jungle that it is. There’s just something about the buildings, the architecture, the urban design and of course the greenery cultivated wherever possible. There are a ton of things I highly admire about this city and if you offered me the opportunity to go there tomorrow, I totally would. Even with my love and need for and high proximity to nature and for great distance from the hustles and bustles. Or maybe that’s exactly the glitter charm working its magic on me…?

So here are some of my favorite photos from the Big Apple, from the fall of 2013.