It’s still hard to believe that I’ve been living in this apartment for over five years now. I went from living in a massive, kitchen-renovated, and cockroach-infested apartment above two cheap and nosy Toisan landlords in Elmhurst to transitioning into a tiny one-bedroom apartment in a co-op building on the Upper East Side, where no one even knew I moved in or existed other than Chris. It was an adjustment making do with the much down-sized kitchen space, but we made it work. Hundreds of delicious and laborious meals have come out of this kitchen, probably far more than the landlord would ever have imagined given the space constraints. The kitchen island/bench that Chris purchased for this place has had my presence standing in front of it, chopping vegetables and preparing different dishes for five years now. My favorite place in this apartment is right behind that bench. And oddly, even though I will be going into a far more beautiful, more spacious and much newer kitchen, I will miss this bench dearly. This bench and I have bonded. I’ve even cleaned parts of it that Chris never even thought needed cleaning. Sometimes, it’s the simplest things that you will miss. This is one of them for me. I hope whoever ends up buying it from us will appreciate it.