Thursday, With Two Kids & An Overworked Husband

Sometimes, in my head, I like to pretend that I’m being interviewed in a magazine in a quick, let’s-promote-this-film sort of fashion.  Favorite drink?  Diet Coke or champagne.  Last movie I saw?  Friends With Benefits.  Gadget I can’t live without?  Seam ripper.  Last thing I purchased on itunes?  Gershwin’s Greatest Hits.

I’m never going to have a hip answer to that last question.  Music is so accessible these days that it’s just too much work for me to stay on top of it.  I love that you can buy any song for roughly a dollar and no longer have to sit next to the radio for hours with a blank tape ready and your hand on record.  But it’s no longer as easy as listening to the radio, finding a song you like and that’s that.  Theoretically I could devote some time to not skipping articles about singers or browsing through itunes more often, but there are just too many other things I want to do in life and something has to give.

Getting back to Gershwin, the long way…

Trent and I have a gigantic bedroom.  I mention that not in a “we’re sooooooooooooo lucky” way, but in a “why did the people building this house select that option?” way.  It’s the suburbs, so there are at least 5 other houses exactly like ours on our street and we make a point of checking them out whenever one is for sale.  It’s always fascinating to see how differently people can make identical spaces look.  The thing we’ve realized is that every other house has a normal master bedroom and an extra living room.  Who chooses a big bedroom over an extra room?

Besides our bed and dresser, we currently have a bookshelf, two arm chairs, two ottomans, and a couch in our bedroom, but just haphazardly thrown against the walls.  Our new plan is to move furniture and make an actual sitting area, which we will hopefully do once Trent stops having to work late every night, which hopefully is soon.  So last night I mention that I think I’m going to download some Gershwin.  Trent’s immediate response:  “Great, we can listen to that when we’re hanging out in our room!”

I’m so glad we found each other.

The thing about listening to Gershwin, which I’ve been doing all day, is that it’s transporting me to a dreamy version of New York.  I know I’m not the only suburban housewife with a baby food covered v-neck t-shirt and a ponytail (how cliché) daydreaming about the city.  Maybe it’s the blood of my immigrant great-grandparents and my first generation New Yorker American grandparents and my Brooklyn born, Queens bred mother coursing through my veins, but the first time I went to New York as an adult, I really felt home.

One of my best vacation moments ever took place when I went to Manhattan with my aunt for a medical conference.  Trent and my dad both advised me to stay in the hotel while she was in her meetings. (Note:  I’m an adult and was at the time working on the 22nd floor of a building downtown in the fourth largest city in the US – not sure where they thought I was going from 7-5 every day or how I was getting to work…portkey?)  Since that was one of the most insane bits of advice I’ve ever received, I ignored it and spent my time exploring by myself.  It was heavenly.

So why do I choose to stay in Texas? 


There they are, the reason.  I’m choosing family and not working and sweeping up Cheerios.  As much as I would love to walk out of an apartment every morning for a bagel and cup of coffee, all three of these guys need grassy space to run and build and I wouldn’t trade any of them for anything.  Plus I don’t think I would be very good at yelling at people on the subway. 

But my mom would be great at yelling at people on the subway.  She’s really good at getting into altercations.  Decades after leaving Queens her accent still appears when she’s really mad.  I think it’s worth planning a trip to NYC with her just to witness it.