The new date night

My 18 month old son was playing “disappear” in the closet as I made a fresh bed. Task completed, I went to retrieve him and he handed me a lovely silver clutch purse. It took a few beats to realize that it was my lovely clutch and that once upon a time I used it quite a bit.

I had to sit down on the floor the force hit me so hard. Remembering days of going out on a whim’s notice. Eating at trendy downtown restaurants, drinking martinis and wine. Meeting with sophisticated (childless) friends to go to a movie. Walking slowly hand-in-hand when the weather was warm. Dressing up in fun (sometimes adventurous) clothes with proper time to do my hair and makeup.

I sat there in a memory haze, kicking myself hard about how I could have taken it all fore granted.

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Romance, Mystery and The Common Cold

Every generation seems to have its version of advice on how to enhance romance. In the 70s, there was Marabel Morgan’s Total Woman, which basically advised women to be a combination of biblical helpmeet and Playboy bunny. (Joan Rivers tried the suggestion that wives wrap themselves in Saran wrap and nothing else, and lie down on the kitchen table, and her husband’s reaction was, “What, leftovers again?”)

In the 90s, there were The Rules, telling women to play hard to get and never to admit how much money they made. And these days you can find hundreds of books recommending that a wife turn over all the finances to her husband because “it’s too hard for li’l ole me”, even if she’s the primary breadwinner.

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Start Spreading the News

I find myself in New York City, which is generally a great place to find oneself.
I get to the Big Apple regularly for work and it always feels a bit like Sex in the City meets The Mom Show - glamour and motherhood collide (which is a very rare occurrence for me). I’m usually meeting with cool mamas, attending great events and seeing some of the funkiest baby/kid gear on offer.
Not bad job perks!
This trip is a bit different and there is a lesson to be shared here. When you have a six-year-old child, I suggest you refrain from promising to do something with her when she is eight. I can assure you, she will remember and hold you to it.
My kid has been interested in NYC ever since she found out daddy-o and I met as NYU grad students back in the mid-1990s. I told her we’d do a trip to NYC for her “Champagne Birthday”. Well, she just turned eight on the eighth (of March), which meant promise fulfilling time came very quickly.
She was not going to let a couple of complications prevent this trip from happening. Forget that I’m three weeks away from having another baby. She also wasn’t bothered that a sister got dragged into the plans either. You can never escape our house with just one kid, so she fully expected (and wanted) another kid in tow anyways. The more the merrier is a familiar mantra in our family, mostly out of necessity.
So this is a different NYC experience for me. I’m not on business and I’m not living the life of a clubbing, pubbing, bad art exhibit attending graduate student. NYC from a kiddie perspective is a whole new thing.
After much planning and research, we are cramming the following attractions into our less than two days:
- Times Square (M&M shop, Hershey Shop, indoor ferris wheel at Toys R Us, Disney Store. Note to self: escape all without making a purchase);
- Mary Poppins on Broadway;
- Museum of Natural History;
- Handsome cab through Central Park;
- Lunch at Alice’s Tea Cup;
- FAO Schwartz and American Girl (Note to self: again, escape without making a purchase);
- Dinner at the Starlight Express (singing wait staff);
- Evening view from the Empire State Building;
Luckily we’re flying on air miles and staying at the seediest hotel in Times Square, or this two-day excursion would require re-mortgaging the house.
So again, let me re-iterate the moral of the story: don’t make promises thinking “they” will forget - it won’t happen. In the meantime, if you have any NYC suggestions, comment quickly - I’m not here much longer!
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Meatloaf and Mood Swings

The only way in which I even remotely resemble Martha Stewart is weekday meal planning - no, I’m not smoking my own lox or carving radish roses, but I’ve learned to prep dinners in the morning, so on hectic days of driving kids to activities until dinnertime, I have something ready to heat up.

This is less a display of organization than a bribe to myself (if I get through the hellish afternoon, I’ll actually have a dinner I enjoy instead of stale leftovers or take-out I can’t afford).

This morning was fairly typical - during the time it took me to assemble one meatloaf, I went through a day’s worth of perimenopausal mood changes.

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Is a minute just 60 seconds?

My dad always used to say that “how long a minute is depends on which side of the bathroom door you’re on.”

I grew up thinking he was just being funny but soon realized just how true it is.

A minute holding a crying baby is longer than a minute in my favorite restaurant.

A minute on the treadmill is longer than a minute watching an action movie.

A minute of in the dentist’s chair with a drill is longer than a minute eating ice cream.

When we are doing something we like, time seems to fly by. When we are faced with doing something we dislike, then a minute seems to drag on and on and on.

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The Celeb Factor

Yes, Chachi loves Mabel (indeed, we like to think he ditched Joannie for Mabel).

 

If you don’t know this already, I’m hopeless with pop culture. Here is my list of admissions/confessions:

 

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