Dinner & A Movie

Last week, a friend shared this great deal at Indie Food & Wine and coordinated a night out! So Wednesday after work a group of 6 of us went to see First Position and have yummy sandwiches and wine - all for 25 bucks!! It was a fun night and such a great deal!

It's a perfect, inexpensive date night! Now I just need to find a babysitter... ;)

Here's the trailer for the movie, which was really good! 

Long week.

This week hit me harder than I expected. Mother's Day was nicer than I thought, but Nick's graduation was much more difficult. Then I came back to piles of work after 2 days off... I haven't had a moment to breathe!

I really, really miss you. What's worse? You'd be the person that I'd call to talk through my stress. That makes me miss you more. Sometimes I can't help but feel alone. So lonely. It's a weird thing to be surrounded by people but yet feel lonely. That's how I feel today.

It was a beautiful day here and we had no plans all day! But I ended up staying in and cleaning while nick went out with the boys. I just wasn't feeling like going out. But this afternoon we had a picnic in the park, which made it all a bit better.

Still, I am very much feeling your void today. My heart is heavy. 

Mother's Day

This year Mother's Day was a bit different... it was certainly bitter sweet and frankly, I spent a lot of time pretending that it wasn't happening. But all in all, I have to say that Mother's Day was a really nice day. In fact, it was a nice weekend :)

On Saturday, we took Jack to Philadelphia to see Pennsylvania Ballet's Peter Pan. It was his very first ballet and it made me immensely happy to watch him enjoy it! My Mom loved the ballet. When I was a kid, she would occasionally take us into Lincoln Center and get standing room tickets to see a ballet and she loved to take us to see the Nutcracker at Christmas time! When I got my job, she was over the moon about it - always asking about my students and visiting. So getting to sit next to Jack on Mother's Day weekend while he watched his first ballet felt like a real full-circle moment. It was really wonderful.

Then Saturday afternoon, my sister came down to stay for the weekend and we met up with our Nan and Aunt. We celebrated Mother's Day together and had a nice dinner together. I love to be with the three of them, because we inevitably talk about my Mom - and we often shed a tear or two - but it never feels too sad or too much. It feels therapeutic. I suppose it's because we can all relate to how each other is feeling. It feels really nice and I was so glad to spend some time with them.

Sunday morning my fabulous husband got up with the baby and took him and the dog out for the longest walk ever, so I could sleep until 8:15. In our house, 8:15 is seriously sleeping in! It felt amazing! Then  my boys were all up and they spoiled me with this necklace, which is exactly what I wanted! :) I love having my boys so close to my heart all day.

We spent the morning exploring the Bronx Zoo. It was lots of fun! Jack is totally into animals and Wells just giggles at Jack. It's adorable! The weather was incredible, so it was nice to be outside wandering around. After visiting with the giraffes, zebras, gorillas and the mountain goats, we headed back home. Jen and I had made plans to spend the afternoon with my Dad.

 

 

We decided that Mother's Day might be the perfect day to spread some of Mom's ashes... She had asked to have them spread in Central Park, at the beach and in Battersea Park in London. Up to this point, we hadn't even opened the urn. But we knew that it was time. Jen, Dad and I wanted to spread the Central Park and London ashes together. We've done everything together up until now, so this seemed appropriate. Mother's Day would inevitably be difficult, but at least we could spend the day celebrating Mom in our own way.

So Jen and I took Wells to meet my Dad and head into Central Park. We found 2 lovely spots where we spread Mom's ashes. It seemed like the right thing to do. As my Dad said, we put a piece of her body where her soul already was. I liked that. He's so right. She walks through the Park with me regularly, but I like that I can now walk by certain spots and know that part of her is there - literally. I hope that she likes the spots we picked, though I'm sure she does.

After spreading her ashes, we went to the Boathouse and celebrated Mom with a cocktail. It was perfect. My Mom loved the Boathouse and in turn brought us all there so we could fall in love, too. It's an incredible spot to have a drink on a lovely NYC day. It also happens to be one of the last places my Mom visited in the City as we were all there together for a special day just 2 days before my baby was born!

 

Though I miss my Mom tremendously, I am grateful that I got to spend my weekend with so many of the people who matter most to me, especially my babes. Mother's Day changed for me 2 years ago, when I got to celebrate it with my then 6 day old son. It changed again this year. I imagine that it will change again in the future. All in all, it was a lovely weekend. I absolutely love being a Mommy and I'm so glad to get to celebrate it each year :)

City Living

As you may have read in my little profile, I love a vanilla latte. Seriously, I am gold card carrying Starbucks-a-holic. I love the way Starbucks smells and how familiar it is - even when you're in a brand new place! (I have visited Starbucks in many of the places I've visited. It's become a bit of a joke!) But I love that my vanilla latte always tastes the same. It's always warm and comforting. So it may be no surprise that my local barista and I are on a first name basis. Dave asks me how my kids are and what Nick's been up to if we haven't come in together in a while. He notices when I get my hair cut and always asks how I'm doing. He was one of my first friends in this neighborhood. Not exactly, but I distinctly remember the feeling that I had the first time that he remembered my name. It felt like I was at home. It's when I realized that this big, fabulous City could also be warm. So this past week, Dave invited me to his show. He's a musician who was performing in the neighborhood. Luckily he prefaced the invitation by saying that he knew I had my hands full (understatement) so I didn't feel as badly that I couldn't make it. But it made my day! 

One of my favorite things about Manhattan is when such a massive city can feel intimate and small. In one week recently, I randomly bumped into 2 people that I know within 2 blocks of our apartment. Both happen to work in the neighborhood, which I didn't know! One of them is a friend from high school that I hadn't seen in years - literally, like 8 years! 

I love how NYC has a way of reminding you that though you are literally one in a million, you're still home :)