You've got to have friends

I'm a very lucky person, and I appreciate my luck. I do. I've got several friends in the New York area from high school, college and beyond. I've enjoyed spending time with them.

But, at the end of the day, when I come home to Sunnyside, Queens, there just aren't people I know. That's changing. I'm striking up conversations. Now I know a photographer, an accountant and a special ed teacher, for example. Sounds like the beginning of a joke, as we do indeed walk into a bar.

Not knowing people in your neighborhood isn't healthy.