Welcome To New York

"Welcome To New York"

Dear readers,
Welcome To New York. Arriving to this vast and beautiful city is something I will never forget. I have never seen so many lights down below from the sky. It was like stage lights shining bright right off the bat for me. I honestly got chills seeing it. It was something truly special. We arrived at our airbnb at 2am. I thought it was going to be a great stay in this home that looked so appealing in photos and reviews. It was a literal nightmare. We walked into our rooms and each room had its own problem. My room had salvia stains on the bed and a massive hole on the door. The hole looked as if someone was trying to break in the house. I mean I wouldn't be surprised. The backyards entrance was through my room. In Dash's room she had a broken bed, extreme amount of dust and blood stains on her wall. The bathroom was filthy and was noticeably not cleaned, they didn't even leave toilet paper, they left urine on the floor. The pillows had mold stains and the guest room had other peoples hair, almost as if someone rolled through the bed, prior to us arriving. It was a straight up nightmare. I hated what I saw. I was only able to sleep for an hour and 30 mins. As soon as it was 5am, I got up, ready and out of there. Dash was still asleep, she was dead tired, so I left. I couldn't stay in that environment. I ended up finding a bench that overlooked the Hudson River. I sat there and basically took a cat nap. It is such a beautiful view and it calmed me and reminded me, i'm not here for no horrible service, I'm here to see what a life living here, can be. I spoke to Dan first thing in the morning and he basically told me, I need to get moving somewhere else and start getting my flow back. Because if I stay there, it will be as if i'm stuck in the bay area again and I came here to not be stuck. I came here to test my limits and see what I can do. By the time Dash got up, it was already afternoon. So I came back and we handled the airbnb and got our 1k back. 1k for this dump. It took almost 5 hours before a full refund was approved. It was a nightmare. We ended up getting an airbnb in Brooklyn/Bushwick. I immediately felt at home knowing that I'm living in the same town as Rachel and Kurt, lol. In all seriousness, it felt so good to be somewhere that wasn't that hell hole that we were just in. The new airbnb has been great. We were greeted by the owner who I somehow managed to become friends with. He wants to grab dinner tonight, I hope we are able to, because i'll take whatever new friends I can get. Dash had a broadway show to attend, so we took the subway together and I dropped her off in time's square. It was pretty simple at first. We got to where we needed to be and even got to walk around central park. After I dropped her off things got messy again. I needed to get back to Brooklyn to get some things done. I'm performing here tomorrow (Friday) and I need to get situated before I show my face around on a stage. I made it back to Brooklyn safely... but when I went back to Manhattan to pick up Dash... I somehow took the wrong subway and ended up in Coney Island. Their subway system is so confusing. If you are not from here, it is more than easy to get lost. I thought the thousands of people in Time's Square would freak me out.... boy was I wrong. As soon as that subway went over water, I was so done. It is bad enough that I get really bad anxiety. I backtracked and found my way back to Dash about an hour later. I hope I don't get lost again. I really need to sit down and study the subway map to clearly understand how it works, because it is so confusing. I kinda felt like I lived all this before. In a way, I did. When I first moved to LA, I had a VERY similar experience. I was 17 and didn't know any better. I knew LA, but I didn't know the city part of it so well. Growing up and spending time around LA, but never the heart of it, I was a fish out of water. We went to view many apartments, all of which were trash. Especially the Korea Town one. I must say, the airbnb we first stayed at when we arrived in New York, it beats all the apartments in LA, it was worst and trash doesn't even do justice when describing that disgrace. Anyways, it wasn't that good when I was first starting out on my own in LA. But look what happened, I ended up truly calling LA my home. I learned so much about myself and that city and in the end I got my 2nd album. I got to work with people in the industry on songs that I wrote because of my experiences. They wanted to work with me because of my journey that I documented through lyrics. I also ended up with a killer apartment in a great neighborhood with affordable rent. That's hard to come by, as we all know. I may have gotten Glaucoma after all that, but my time in LA set me up for something else. Maybe it got me prepped for here, for New York. No matter how bad the first day was, at least I learned from it. It threw me way off balance, but hey, it got me on track and i'll keep figuring things out as I go. I still have the rest of the week here to gather my thoughts and see what else can be. I'm going to be on my own for most of the week. In a way, that is good for me because it will really give me myself to rely on and figure things out. My welcome to New York wasn't what I imagined, but it was what I needed and if I do end up living here, I need to be strong minded and self dependent, even if I do have someone with me. It's 9am now, I better do vocal lessons and get ready to head out and explore on my own. I need to see what this life can be. Little by little, piece by piece.

Love, Dom

Photographer: Dashia Robinson

What i'm wearing: Coat - Alfani, Sweater - Banana Republic, Jeans - H&M, Shoes - New Balance, Hat - Ronin, Scarf - Adam Levine Collection 

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Every post I will include the song that inspired me to build a post around it's title

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​Stories From My Life - Chapter 12