Pimento Cheese and Palmetto Trees

It's that time of year again.
The endlessness of winter in New York.
Like seriously, this is what the weather is right now!
It has me dreaming of warmer climes, noshing (see still in NY) on pimento cheese and tomato sandwiches preferably on a beach in Charleston somewhere.
See, I have to remind myself that we chose to move back here.  And I certainly don't want to move back to L.A.  In fact the thought of moving back to L.A. makes me want to throw-up a little in my mouth (probably from being carsick in endless traffic).
Now don't get me wrong, New York and Brooklyn in particular is an amazing place to live.  If I started today and went out every single night for the next 5 years, I'd probably not be able to eat in every restaurant, see every play, attend every exhibit or reading I wanted to.  It's a place magical with opportunity.
It's also a place that between the months of November and May, can be a little trying.
Lugging strollers up and down subway stairs, finding indoor activities for a 2 1/2 year old ACTIVE boy for five months is well, trying.  Which leads me to my next gripe.
For those of you who don't know (and bless you), the preschool process in NYC is a bit like being a piece of raw meat in a pond full of piranha.  Maybe that's a little harsh, but the preschool acceptances went out this week (believe me, I know, I scoff as I write this acceptances???), and it turns out that out of my group of friends NOT A SINGLE ONE OF US GOT IN ANYWHERE.  It's a wait-list (or "wait-pool" as one of the schools so politely put it) waste-land over here.  
What, might you ask, does this have anything to do with pimento cheese and palmetto trees?
Nothin' really, I just like to imagine that living in southern hospitality land the preschool rat race is more of a jog, and the wait-pool is really a wading pool.  
I'm sure the preschool thing will sort itself it, I'm actually not that worried about it, and our kids will go on get accepted to any number of Ivy League schools.
And as for my pimento cheese hankering?  Well, while I won't be sitting in a park, or on the beach anytime soon, thankfully Van Horn Sandwich Shop is literally right around the corner, and they make a mean pimento cheese and tomato sandwich.  
See, it is magical here, after all.