I went into NYC over the weekend to celebrate my brother-in-law’s 50th birthday with all my husband’s siblings (and his mother). My husband had gone in on Friday night, and then I came in on Saturday. My 17-year-old drove me to the local train station and then I took the train directly to Penn Station. Normally I go into Philadelphia but this totally worked and the station is very close so…something to keep in mind. I read a few of my sonnets from my sonnet-writing project during the ride, and it was fun to see what I’ve created over the last 18 months.
Anyway, we saw a matinee of Six (a pop musical about the wives of Henry VIII), and then ate dinner at Aquavit. We stayed in the Marriott Marquis on Times Square and I have to say…the crowds around that place are just kind of overwhelming. I guess, despite living in NYC for 9 years during my 20s and early 30s, I have become a total suburbanite! We came back home around noon on Sunday after a brief wait in the new Amtrak lounge at Moynihan Train Hall — that is definitely nicer than anything that was there during my NYC frequent train taking tenure…
The rest of Sunday featured food photography for my 12-year-old’s school project (a book of recipes; see the photo accompanying this post…), haircuts for the older boys, a walk at Chanticleer with my husband and 17-year-old (it was nice he came with us!) and then the usual round of evening activities, including Scouts, trumpet, and parkour.
Anyway, I wound up doing a reasonable amount of work this weekend — both ways on the train, and then about 90 minutes (albeit interrupted) on Sunday evening because I know this will be an interrupted week. We have no childcare today (well, 3 hours of preschool for the 4-year-old) so I’ll mostly be attempting to work in that time. Then there are several other during-the-day kid activities going on — the third grade wax museum, the sixth grade “genius hour” presentations… This week also features two end-of-year picnics, a class amusement park trip, another field day, and a modified finals schedule for the high schooler so… a lot of extras to keep track of.
The good news is that — working for myself — I know what I need to accomplish in any given week. Obviously there’s a universe of other things I could be doing, but if I do the immediate stuff and a reasonable level of progress toward the longer term stuff, then I’m good. So if I assign times to those things, then it’s simple enough to not assign stuff to the time when I need to do other things. There’s still a reasonable volume (hence the work on the train and Sunday night) but it can mostly move around.
Now on to get the little boys up and ready for school!
I love reading about your trips to NYC. It must be so cool to live that close yet have a comfortable suburban life. I actually live as close to a capital but only go there for work. (Have to add, I live in a large city so there is also plenty to do here. But it does feel a bit more exciting to go somewhere else!)
@Maggie – I have to remind myself sometimes how close we are. There was a bridge out for 2.5 years (long story) which made our local train station a bit more of a trip but now it really isn’t – and there are 4-5 trains/day that would have me in NYC in 2 hours. It’s kind of mind-blowing, honestly.