NYC trip

Thursday was probably my last full workday of the year. I started off with a stop at the NBC 10 studios in suburban Philly, where I taped a segment with the wonderful Tracy Davidson on how to spend time better in the new year. It should air on New Year’s Day. Then, though I had packed my bags, I decided I had enough time to drive home and see the boys off on the bus. I took Uber to 30th street station and took the train to NYC, and the subway downtown to meet my new editor at Portfolio.

Off the Clock will be my 5th book with Portfolio (part of Penguin Random House) and I’m now on my 4th editor, but they’ve all been great! Leah and I (and Natalie, the editor on I Know How She Does It, which is out in paperback on January 3) all had lunch and discussed how the project would take shape. We also discussed family road trips. I am grateful that this Christmas I am not spending 11 hours in a minivan traveling to Indiana; other people have come to see us. But Leah totally had me beat. She is the second of 9 children, and she once took a family road trip in a 12-passenger van that (if I recall correctly) involved Yellowstone AND Florida.

Then I went to midtown to tape a FB Live segment with Marketwatch on I Know How She Does It. You can watch it here. (I sometimes do FB Lives on my own FB site too — please like me here to follow along!)

Then it was on to the personal portion of the trip – a portion I consider my early Christmas present. I walked around midtown a bit until my husband met me at our hotel (booked courtesy his SPG points). He thought the Metropolitan Museum of Art was open late on Thursday night, so we took a nice walk up 5th Avenue — only to find it was closing at 5:30, something he’d neglected to notice when he pre-booked our tickets. Fortunately, the ticket counter lady comped us so we could go in for 20 minutes and then use our tickets the next day. We took a whirlwind run through the El Grecos and Titians and the like, and then walked down Madison Avenue, doing a little window shopping. We relaxed in our hotel for an hour before walking 2 blocks to the restaurant Aquavit.

We went to Aquavit on our third date, so it has some special history for us. While the meal was good, and sometimes surprising (a sour cherry dessert wine was involved!) I suppose it will never be quite what it was that first time, when we were falling in love and I’d not had other meals like that. We toasted our nearly 14 years together, and noticed that a few fellow guests had brought their children with them. Alas, our kids are less into Michelin stars, and more into cuisine that comes with toys.

On Friday we slept in (!) and then had breakfast at a bagel place near the Met. After viewing the collection of Van Goghs, Monets, and so forth, we went through the Jerusalem 1000-1400 exhibit, which had a number of illuminated manuscripts, and interesting artifacts showing cross-cultural interaction: a Crusader sword, for instance, stamped with Arabic when it later entered a Muslim person’s collection. We also noted from the archeological record that selling junk to tourists appears to be an eternal human past time.

Then it was back to collect our bags and head to Penn Station, where all of humanity was apparently attempting to leave the island of Manhattan. I am writing this on the train back to Philadelphia. I probably will not be blogging much next week, so here’s to a very happy holidays and a wonderful New Year! One way to celebrate the New Year? I’ll be doing a Time Tracking Challenge on January 9-16, so if you’ve ever thought about tracking your time, that would be a good week if you want moral support. Cheers!

PS. If you enjoy reading this blog, would you consider pre-ordering a paperback copy of I Know How She Does It? Based on 1001 days in the lives of professional women and their families, this book gives practical strategies for managing work and life and succeeding at both. Thank you!

Photos: West Village, near the Penguin offices, and a Menorah in a medieval manuscript.