You solved my puzzle!

Excellently done! I hope you had fun. Like I said, I find making puzzles so unbelievably fun, and I hope that people enjoy solving them as much as I enjoy making them, haha.

This puzzle was inspired by three main factors:

Showing off my city

I know you said that you'd never want to come to NYC, which I deeply understand. Still, the city can be really beautiful, and more than anything I wanted to share a taste of what my summers look like. Moving back with my parents and away from my friends as a grown adult has been kind of lonely, and I thought I'd give you a glimpse into how I spend my days.

The Yiddish Policeman's Union

This was my first try at making a somewhat-themed puzzle! It was honestly even more fun this way, trying to figure out how to fit certain thematic bits into the puzzle. It's not too obvious or too strict ("you've solved my Sitka puzzle!"), and it wasn't even my original intention, but I already had a pride flag, and when I decided to snap a pic of MESSIAH IS HERE, I decided that tightening the theme up with the chess puzzle wouldn't be remiss. Stay tuned next for a House of Leaves one...??

New Camera

This one speaks for itself. I got a fixer-upper Polaroid for $15 and wanted to use it for something other than photos of my drunk friends.

Anyway, congratulations on solving this! Here's a certificate of achievement:

And thank you for being such an awesome friend. Between TTRPGs, getting to share and talk about our silly little interests, and the support and advice you've given me for physical and mental health stuff, our friendship means so much to me and I'm so glad we're penpals! I hope I can come see you in Florida this summer (read: I hope I get a job), and if not, I hope we can meet in person sometime! But either way, here's to more good fun in the future. Enjoy House of Leaves!

-Leo the Puzzlemaster