Monday, June 30, 2008

And Me Without A Camara

And I even brought one! Can you believe it. I went on a trip and forgot to take pictures. Well, not forgot, really. I forgot to take my camera with me to my point of interest. And interesting it was! I'll have to up load some pictures from the internet. Until then I'll give you an update.

A friend invited me to go on a little weekend trip with her. ALONE! And that actually means that I didn't have the kids with me! Can you believe it!? I really didn't think I was going to be able to do it. I sat on the invitation for a few days before talking to Webby about it. He knew I wanted to go. And I did...bad. I love New York City. I don't know why. I've only been there 3 times in my life and I've hardly seen anything, but it still draws me to it. So when the invitation came, boy I wanted to go. My friend's sister has a place in Stamford, CT, so we were going to stay at her place and hang out with her. I wasn't sure if Webby was going to go for it. But he said he was supportive, if I really wanted to go. Then I looked at the calendar. Webby had committed to going to Boyscout Camp overnight on Friday. How I overlooked that, I don't know, probably because I wanted to go so bad. So I hung my head and accepted defeat. But Webby was up for the fight. All on his own he found an overnight sitter for the girls, cashed in some copper (or will soon) so I would have money and sent me on my way! I could hardly believe it...I was really going!

We left Friday evening and drove to Stamford. MapQuest sucks and took us the wrong way and it took us more than an hour longer to get there. It was after midnight when we got there and we met her sister at the bar she works at and stayed until 3am. Do you know how long it's been since I stayed up that late outside my own house? Well, let's just say a very long time. I don't even know. We slept till 10 the next morning. And let me just tell you it's been a long time since I wasn't woken up early to feed someone breakfast.

We took the train to Grand Central Station. WOW! What a beautiful building. I've never been there before. The ceiling has some star constellations painted on it. Really amazing and huge!


We then went to Time Square so that I could pick up some souvenirs for the girls and I swear to you I couldn't find anything. Nothing. There were a few people on corners, but not as many as I expected and everyone was selling adult hats and t-shirts and crystal figurines. Who would want to buy a crystal figurine? Well, those and watches and handbags. And you know me I'm a sucker for a handbag. And if you believe that you don't know me. We walked through the park and ended up at Columbus Circle and dropped into the Whole Foods, which I've actually been to before. Remember it was a Saturday afternoon, and the lines were literally across the store! And quite frankly, with like 40 checkout lines you don't really expect that.

After that we jumped on a train and headed to Battery Park, which had plenty of vendors that had kid's shirts and everything else I couldn't find in Time Square. I picked up a couple of t-shirts for the kids. The same, of course, because I didn't want to hear the whining about which was better. We saw the Statue of Liberty, some kids playing in a sprinkler thing that they have in the middle of the park and saw this. We didn't know what it was and decided that it was where they sacrificed pigeons. I guess what it really is makes more sense. I used to be this.

And then the skies opened up and it began to pour! We took cover in a wine shop...for like 20 minutes. I think that even if you're into wine, 20 minutes is a long time to hang out in a store looking at wine bottles. Across the street there was this statue of a Bull where tons of people had assembled before the monsoon ...I mean rain and took pictures. but I have no idea what that's all about. I read that it symbolizes the crash of the stock exchange but how does it relate? How it relates escapes me. Feel free to let me in on the secret.



After the rain cleared and the Bull people came back we walked up and through China Town. I was looking to buy some earrings and boy did I luck out. Just as we were getting to Little Italy we walked past a jewelry shop. They had a whole wall of earrings that were 50% off. I bought half a dozen pairs of dangly (how do you spell that?) earrings. Score for me! We wen to little Italy and my friends sister had her palm read. Little Italy was great. I'd like to go back again and spend more time there. You know, I am part Italian. I must feel a kinship there.

Then we walked up to the East Village to eat at the Lan Cafe. and Oh. My. Goodness! The food was amazing. The place was small (like 10 tables) and simple but the food was out of this world! My friend is a vegetarian and this place is Vegan, Vietnamese. It was amazing! Did I mention the food was good? Because it was! If you ever find yourself in the East Village stop in. Your taste buds will thank you. We hung out and walked around and took the train back to CT at 1am. We dozed on the train and feel into bed when we got home. And once again I slept until I woke up all on my own. And once again it was about 11am.

We drove home on Sunday and were only a little delayed by some accident. We had no idea how to get back to where we needed to be. We banded together with another car trying to get back to our state. I called Webby, my own personal GPS, and he helped us get back to the route we needed to be on.

Honestly, I expected thing to be a bit chaotic when I got home. I've only been away for the night/ weekend a couple of times. And I've never been away from Sweet Girl. The last time I went away I was 5 months pregnant with her and I went to NYC to visit a college friend. So it was a much needed vacation. Anyway, this were in order. Webby had the girls ready for bed and was reading stories when I came in. The house was clean and there was even dinner in the oven waiting for me. Webby did a great job keeping the girls entertained and feed. I'm so proud of him.

Thanks Jess for inviting me. I had a great time!

Thank you Webby for making this happen. I love you.

3 comments:

Liz McCoy said...

what an adventure!!! sounds like a wonderful time...you found great pictures to highlight your story but your descriptions really made it I felt like I was there!!

Kelly said...

I'm so happy you got to go. I remember how much you've always loved NYC. What a sweetie husband, too! Way to score some points, Justin!

Sherry Carpet said...

you deserve it!!! i would have had harsh words if you had passed that up. nice work.