More, mama, more!
It is a little bit sickening that I can write yet another post about turning thirty, but it's my party and I cry if I want, cry if I - nevermind. The thing is, I need to write this down for me.
On the actual day of my birthday, a Sunday, I did not work at the library, instead I came home from church and laid down to read a book in broad daylight! I didn't even make sure x y and z were done and put away. I just threw myself (slowly and laboriously) on the bed and lounged. Then later in the evening my husband prepared filet mignon on the grill and I ate it and then my mom made this birthday cake according to my specifications and it was awesome and of course, I ate it. It's been a long time since I had a birthday cake made for me. You can't really make one for yourself. I ate a lot of cake.
I got a lot of nice gifts and a lot of birthday wishes, most of them via email. It was wonderful to see my inbox fill up with "happy birthdays". I got a lot of unexpected mail. Since I live far away from most people you'd call "best friends" or just people I've known my whole life, it feels extra good to have them remember you.
Still the very best part about my birthday was a trip to New York I had the chance to take with Lincoln, without Veronika and over night! We hadn't spent that much time together since she was born and that's a long time. I was so excited about it I think I was actually scared. It's a little bit of pressure, when you know this is your first and probably only chance in years (because, if you remember, I'm pregnant and two children apparently are more work.. or whatever) and you want to have a good time and what if you don't, then you blew it and it will feel even worse than it actually is, because you know you won't get to do it over anytime soon. OK, so I have a tendency to overly dramatize things, so? Luckily everything turned out just wonderful although it didn't seem like it at the beginning. On Tuesday night I picked up Lincoln from work, having packed everything up beforehand. We were supposed to be at the Village Vanguard at around 8 or 8.30 for the first set of the Brad Mehldau trio. So I drove to Somers, which is almost half way to NYC only to realize I had packed everything except for Lincoln's shirts and jacket. So we had to turn around at 6 pm and drive all the way home again... which made it look impossible to be back in New York on time. I was really mad at myself not so much for forgetting - because these days I am painfully aware I cannot keep it together on a regular basis - but because there was that overly dramatic voice whispering that yes, indeed, things would go bad, just because.
We arrived at Village Vanguard at 9 o'clock sharp, the exact starting time of the show. With the generous help of my generous belly I cleared my way to the beginning of the line to demand entrance based on the reservation we had made (but which are usually given away 15 minutes before the show starts) and I was let in! You don't mess with a pregnant woman, out after 9 o'clock p.m. for the third time since August 2003 and who hasn't been on a date with her husband for over two years. You don't. You step away and let her in and show her her seat. I didn't have to say any of this, but I'm pretty sure they read it in my raised eyebrows and stern demeanor and also in the enormous belly wrapped up all innocently in a pretty red satin camisole. I had the whole speech ready in case they were going to be difficult. I didn't get to say it though. It was a nice speech.
So once that disaster was averted we could relax and enjoy the show. Afterwards we had tapas (!) at a place called Matador. It was delicious, although the tapas seemed heavily Mexican-influenced, but hey, remember that part about not having been on a date in years? Then we stayed at a nice (it really was nice, although given what we paid for it, I was afraid it wasn't going to be) hotel and slept in. Slept in! And after a huge breakfast (huge for me, tiny for my husband, because I am a pig and he is a delicate flower) we walked several hundred miles up 5th Avenue to the Metropolitan Museum to look at the current Van Gogh: The Drawings Exhibition.
I don't know, reading all this makes me laugh, because it all sounds like I habitually frequent jazz clubs, fancy restaurants in the West Village and hang out on 5th Ave on weekends. It also sounds like we planned it all out down to the last little bit and that's not true either. It was just a wonderful 24 hours, where we got to be a couple only. I wish we had the chance more often, but it's not looking that great because it seems there are no babysitters available in Danbury, CT for any possible time slot that I request. You may feel sorry for me now. But not otherwise... because I'm very lucky.
Posted at 08:29 PM on November 29, 2005
Oh this was such a fun read! And it DOES sound like a good mini-vacation ... even with the drive back to get the shirts and jacket. What can you do? Your pregnant and anything that goes wrong can always be blamed on that, yes?
I'm envious; getting to NYC is a bit of a stretch for us right now, so I can only visit onilne. But yay for you, and hoorah for your 30th!
(I turned 49 ... that's a whopping FORTY NINE which is, of course, awfully close to 50 ... YIKES! ... on the 19th of this month. Isn't November a grand month for a birthday. I think so, at least.)
Have a wonderful year!
Sounds like you had a good time. :)
Happy belated birthday as well.
Maybe we can get together some time again.
Happy belated!
Gosh, this makes me long for a date with my dh. The last time we were out in the city *without the kids* for an actual date, I was pregnant with my first. We went to see Stomp and eat falafel. What fun that was! But that was 10 years ago. Methinks it's time for a 2nd date.
Dinka, Happy belated (30th!!) birthday! Wow, what a great birthday and getaway date you had! We had one of those before our second child was born: an overnight at the Marriot in town, with a wonderful buffet breakfast...I still think back on that date with happiness (it was 2.5 years ago!).
Now I have 3 and it's not going to happen again for a while, maybe another year.
You look beautiful, girl. That Veronika is growing up so fast.
Sounds fabulous!
What was the hotel called? We will be in NYC next summer, so I'm curious. Or we will arrive at your doorstep and demand to stay with you. ;-)
Maryanne, this was the hotel: http://www.414hotel.com/
I got the better rate ($160) by booking through the website. If you do it by phone it's around $200. I think that's because they sell the queen size bed rooms online and the king ones directly. The rooms are small, but very clean and kind of modern classy looking. It's basically an apartment building, so the lobby is tiny, but the staff is awesome - they know all about where to go for less!