Learning to like being alone

I do not do alone well.  I never have.  When I was single and living in PA and had no friends to speak of, I absolutely hated the weekends when I did not work.  I knew going into this trip that for the first 2 weeks before Stephanie joined me, I would be spending the vast bulk of my time alone.  The kids are in school about 12 hours a day.  Both eat then go straight to homework/bed when they get home.  Although fun, the program is physically and mentally exhausting. Neither wants to engage much in the evenings.  I respect and appreciate that as I am the same way during the first few weeks of a new school year.  I appreciate the need to process everything.  I appreciate the need for alone time.

I wondered how I would handle this time.  Quite frankly, it scared the crap out of me to think about it.  The first few days were tough but I have surprised myself with how quickly I have adapted.  I take daily walks around the neighborhood in the morning before the heat and humidity get unbearable.  The only television in the house is in the master bedroom.  I thought I would be spending a lot of time up there.  Surprisingly, I have not.  I am actually enjoying the quiet time.  I have stitched.  A lot!! I have read.  A lot!! I have napped  A lot!! The only thing I have not done is written.  I have spent many hours working out the details of my story in my head.  I feel that I am very close to the time in the process where I will put words on paper, but I am not there yet.

So much for blogging every day...

So, journaling anything has never been my strong point.  As in the past, I swore when I got up here on Saturday that I would faithfully blog every day.  The idea was two-fold.  One, obviously, was to document the trip.  The other was to get my creative writing juices flowing again so I could work on the creative piece I have had floating around in my head for about 3 years.

Clearly, I have failed yet again at the daily journaling thing.  Part of it is because there really hasn't been much to tell since Monday.  After Jeff left Tuesday morning, I pretty much just relaxed.  Worked on some stuff in my head (For me, 80% of the writing process is done there.  By the time I get it into the computer, it is basically done.) but not much else.  I am still getting comfortable in my new "home" and rearranged some stuff.  I did explore the neighborhood and was quite pleased that I made it to CVS and back without getting lost. (For those who know me, you know saying I have absolutely no sense of direction is a major understatement. The fact that I make it anywhere and back on a daily basis is nothing short of a miracle.)  It stormed all afternoon so no outside stuff.  I was pretty proud of myself in that I did not freak out.  I HATE storms anyway.  Being in a strange city, in a strange house, alone just made it all that much worse. The kids got home, told me about their day, ate leftover pizza, then called it a day.  Pretty boring stuff.

Wednesday, I went exploring the neighborhood.  The one thing I hate about teaching is fire drills.  Well, no longer.  There are a lot of home day cares in this neighborhood.  I did not realize that they had to do fire drills in the same way that we do in NYC.  It was SO cute seeing these teeny people--most in the 3 to 4 age range--lined up and behaving way better than most of the kids at my school.  They were just freaking cute and it made me smile.

The energy of this neighborhood is incredible.  I plan to do some more exploring today and even more tomorrow.  Looking forward to seeing Jeff tomorrow night.  As much as I am falling in love with this place, I really miss Jeff, Steph, and the girls.  I also miss my well appointed kitchen!

My Thoughts on the 911 museum/memorial

For those who do not know, Jeff spent many years working in and around the WTC.  He was normally in NYC the for the UN conference during this time period.  Because we had small kids at the time, he chose not to go that year.  That was the first year in about 18 years that he was not in that building on that date. At his request, we visited the museum today.  As much as I did not want to go, I felt that I should to support him.  I was honored to do this for him.

The good--  The outside is amazing.  We have seen it before.  It is very tastefully done.  The fountains evoke a certain reverence which is good considering how many lives were lost in those spots and how many people are still unaccounted for in the area.  Which leads me to the bad.

First, I was not prepared for the fact that the museum was built underground.  When we visited the outside memorial 2 years ago, it appeared that they were constructing a building above ground to simply house artifacts. I thought it was in very poor taste to build in the area where there could still possibly be DNA of those lost in the building.  If they want to honor the victims, the do it some where else such as the memorial garden at the Pentagon.  

Second, the set up was horrible.  They have videos going all over the place next to artifacts with plaques.play  Crowds gathered around the very small video screens and, even if you wanted to read the plaques, it was extremely difficult to get to them.

Third, I thought it was in poor taste to play the answering machine messages of those who died in the buildings.  I have held that opinion since the media started playing them several weeks after the tragedy.  Not only were they playing them, they were playing them LOUDLY.  You could literally hear these voices across the room.  

Fourth, in no way does this place feel sacred to me.  It felt more like a mausoleum then a museum.  

Finally, there needs to be a warning to parents that this is NOT the place to take young children.  I would hesitate to even take a middle schooler let alone a 6 or 7 year old (we saw TONS of children who appeared to be in that age range). 

Our subway adventure

First, NYC in July is hot hot HOT!!! We started out in Brooklyn where there was shade and a gentle breeze blowing.  It actually felt cool outside.  Little did we know when we got off in Chelsea that it would feel like someone had turned the oven on and left the door wide open.  It was hot, humid, and still. That being said, it was still pretty cool to be soaking in the culture that is NYC.  

We found the school pretty easily.  We actually found several different ways for the kids to go.  The NYC transit people are so incredibly helpful. 

We had lunch in Chelsea Market.  I have never been there on all of our trips to the city.  The place is awesome and less than a block from the school.  I was surprised at how reasonably priced the food was in the market.  Again, we encountered nothing but friendly, helpful people.

Speaking of prices, after we got back, we went to the local grocery store. My food budget is not going to stretch nearly has far here as it does back home.  I will be sending Jeff home with a long list of things to bring back with him.  I just about choked on the prices of everything. I was also disappointed at the lack of fresh anything.  My goal for this week is to find somewhere to buy fresh fruit that wont cost me the national debt.  If all else fails, I will be adding that to Jeff's list.

The kids are very excited and anxious to get going tomorrow.  I am so glad that Tyler has a friend here with him.  She is a great kid and I am looking forward to spending time with both of them over the next 4 weeks. We will be going with them then Jeff and I will be hanging out in the city for the day. Just the two of us.  With NO kids! Super excited.  We have not had a full date day in years.  

Here at last!

We have finally arrived in NYC.  Our trip up was pretty uneventful.  Only hit a little bit of traffic.  It was very hot and sticky but cooled down nicely this evening. The house is nice. Older with no central air but the rooms have window units and it is comfortable. The neighborhood is quiet and seems to be very diverse with lots of families. We had dinner at a little neighborhood tavern.  
We met the people who were here before us.  They were a couple and their two adorable little girls from Australia.  Nothing cuter than hearing an Australian accent from a 6 year old! The dad was a drama teacher and the mom was an actress.  Both were very impressed with Tyler (who wouldn't be!) and wished him well.  They gave us lots of good information about the area. Looking forward to lots more exploring tomorrow after a good nights sleep.