Living With the Lus: THE NEW YORK HOURS

Thursday, January 15, 2015

THE NEW YORK HOURS

To my surprise, I made it up to New York this past month. My single self loved that city so hard and now my married and mother of one self reminices the heck out of what once was. I used to go up there quite a lot, all of which came to a screeching halt when 1) I had baby and 2) I realized Ken was not the 'travel-to-NYC-for-the-wknd' type. We did make a trip up there together when Sloane was 5 months old and our time up there was sweet but it was way too short of a trip (36 hours) for the 12 hour ride up and 12 hour ride back down (!!) that it took for us to travel that particular weekend. With these life changes, it takes a little more wrangling to get me to spend time in that city, so even though I've been feeling the winter blues extra hard this year, or maybe because of that, when it looked like I was going to be able to make that visit, AND see my sister, AND make the trip with my parents, I told myself to pull it together and make it happen.

I love so many things about New York - the same reasons why probably anyone loves (and also sometimes gets annoyed by) that city - but I also have affection for it because of all the memories I have of that place with family and friends. We used to live in NJ, 20 minutes across the bridge into the city and made some memories as a family together there. And then all those times I visited my friend or my sister up there, I made sure to explore as many places as I possibly could and often feel a pang for that city. Being able to go with my parents on a trip there was extra special for that reason - it sort of made me feel like a kid again.

Even though it was especially cold while we were there, I really needed this trip. The day to day of December was hard because of work and the winter blues, and this trip - road tripping with my parents, spending uninterrupted time with my sister, feeling the energy of the city infuse into my bones, eating food I wouldn't be able to at home, walking a ton, getting to visit the MOMA and attending an amazing jazz show- refreshed me and reminded me of a part of myself that is really important to me.

This is a total random assortment of photos, and they are not in order or anything, but I've gathered them together - from my phone and from my actual camera - and here they are.

We tried twice to get into this place and it was ridiculously packed. We could barely walk in the door! We made up for it with a trip to Sables and Zabar and my craving for NY bagels and smoked fish was properly attended to.

I love being squished in between my parents. And my sister's kitchen - I love the floors and the open pantry!

Our fabulous hosts. Our last night, which also happened to be New Years, we made an assortment of delicious foods at their place and ate it all up while watching the movie, Mrs. Doubtfire, for old time's sake. It was marvelous.

My parents, who are game for anything. They are my inspiration. My dad is the best and most patient driver I have ever known.

The tremendous spirit that is my mother.

My beauitful sister

MOMA's audio tour devices are on point. We went to see the Matisse exhibit, the Robert Gober exhibit and The Forever Now exhibit. I thought the Robert Gober exhibit was particularly amazing.

I WILL have your kokosh again, mark my words.

This smoked trout and cream cheese on bagel and matzo ball soup from Sables was probably one of our favorite meals there. We visited zabar's afterwards for some grocery shopping and the whole place was covered in congetti.