This coming weekend, my husband and I, along with my great aunt and uncle, are going to New York City. We have a full weekend of fun activities planned, including:

Two musicals: Wicked and The Producers

Lunch at Tavern on the Green in Central Park

A visit to Chelsea Market, an awesome place filled with cool stores, and yummy restaurants and bakeries, including FatWitch Bakery and Amy's Bread. Oh, and Emeril films his show there too. Retch.

A visit to Little Italy. My Italian great aunt and uncle have never been to NYC's Little Italy, although they've both been to Italy, where their parents were born. I'm so excited to show them New York City's version of their "homeland," including Ferrara Cafe, this amazing bakery and cafe with a dessert menu that's five pages long! If you're a fan of Italian pastries and cookies, this place will make you think you've died and gone to heaven.

Every visit to the City is special for me, because I came very close to moving there after college. I planned to graduate, move to London for five months to work, and then return home and move to New York. However, one month before I graduated, I started dating my husband. He has many wonderful attributes, but a love of adventure and new things is not one of them (although eight years of exposure to me has changed that about him...slightly). He wanted no part of moving to New York. So instead I graduated. Moved to London. Returned home. And stayed home. Bought a house. Got hitched. And didn't move to New York.

So my concilation prize is a weekend in New York City every year. And my husband loves visiting almost as much as I do. After all, New York is the home of his beloved Yankees. But despite my promise to buy him season tickets to his favorite team, new golf clubs, and just about anything else my credit card can afford, moving to New York in the near future isn't happening for us, however much I would love it if it did.

Moving to New York would fulfill many a dream of mine. In New York, I believe I could find a job in the publishing world that I would actually enjoy. New York is the headquarters of many publishing houses, travel magazines, and of course, the headquarters of Martha Stewart Omnimedia! I could be Martha's next apprentice! But in all seriousness, I honestly believe that I could find a job to love there.

Moving to New York would mean endless exposure to a cultural scene that's all but absent in my hometown. Musicals, plays, concerts, museums, amazing bakeries, restaurants, and cool stores abound there. There's always something to do there, and always somewhere new to try. I thrive on adventure and new experiences, and if New York is about anything, it's about these things.

Moving to New York would mean I'd never have to drive in rush-hour traffic again, because I'd sell my car and take the subway or bus everywhere. It would mean that I would be surrounded by people who look and talk nothing like me, who come from different countries and cultures, who dress differently than I do and approach the world in ways completely different from the way I do. I would learn so much.

I do enjoy my current life. I love my house (although I desperately want a second bathroom!) and I know I wouldn't be able to afford a house anywhere near the City if we moved downstate. But every time we visit the City, I come away from the trip thinking...I wish this was my city. That black-and-white American Express commercial with Robert DeNiro in which he talks about his love for New York makes me weepy. I would love the City that much as well, if I lived there too.

In other, completely unrelated news, I did my first IVF injection this morning. I'll inject myself in the thigh with Lupron, a drug designed to suppress ovulation, every morning for the next two weeks. Soon, the morning injection will be followed by an evening injection of Gonal-F, the fertility drug designed to make me produce trillions (well, actually just dozens) of eggs. The injection was fairly uneventful, since I had done this type of injection in previous fertility treatment cycles.Three weeks to go until egg retrieval if all goes well.