I could write a whole novel about everything I’ve experienced since I’ve been living in NYC (it’d be a juicy one, too). A lot of what I’ve gone through has been difficult, but I’m thankful for all of it – the good AND the bad. Tomorrow, it will have been one whole year since I started living in NYC. When I moved up here, I was in a serious, committed relationship with a man boy I thought would eventually become my husband. Today I am thanking the heavens I dodged that bullet.

Pictured above is one of the women he cheated on me with. Today’s the annual West Indian Day Parade here in Brooklyn.

Throughout last winter, the universe elected to eject him (as well as some other similarly unimportant, unnecessary people) from my life in order to make room for some people who actually matter, most notably my long-lost sister and my new boyfriend (who is a REAL man – not a confused, insecure, empty-hearted boy). I’m thanking my lucky stars for those two today.