Seen from across Roy Thomson Hall at King and Simcoe.

September is here, which means things like chilly weather and moving and work and stress are starting to overlap, so naturally I\’ve gotten sick. I\’ve moved into a beautiful old house in Little Italy with two other Jens and a cat named Nin and a rotary telephone in the kitchen and a gnome in the backyard and fantastic neighbours with a rooftop deck, so I really can\’t complain. Life, as they say, is pretty frickin\’ great. A few more mugs of hot chocolate on the porch while it\’s sunny out and I\’ll be healthy and ready to plan a series of really epic, year-round housewarmings. I\’ve decided that a continual stream of visitors is the best way to keep out the cold.

In the morning exactly two weeks ago I decided to go to New York City and catch Hurricane Irene. I bought bus tickets and a Canon 7D hours later, and was on my way by evening. It was one of those big, impulsive, potentially stupid but ultimately rewarding decisions that I don\’t often enough get to make, and although there wasn\’t really a hurricane to speak of in the end, I loved every moment of it. I slept little, wandered lots, and took only a modest number of exposures that I have yet to sort through. I didn\’t care so much about photography but about being there, which is something I should do more often, rather than making photography the purpose and the end goal. As it was my first time in NYC for more than a few hours, I knew I\’d run the risk of falling in love and not wanting to come home. Now I\’m one of those people who would gladly live in a shoebox and work for peanuts if it meant I could stay for a while.

Boy, are those two paragraphs hypocritical. Yes, I am extremely happy and content with and grateful for my current situation, but if we don\’t keep wanting what we don\’t have, how can summon the motivation to change and move forward?