pa-jammy
Again, taken on the right day, posted late. I had to get the pic first thing in the morning, because they had a soccer game 3.5 hours away and didn’t get home until after midnight. But they won the game! Now onto round 3 of the playoffs. This is very stressful.
I kind of like the light crocs/dark pants and dark crocs/light pants symmetry going on here.
My birthday celebrations started this weekend, so I’m a little late posting, even though I took it on the right day!
I am in Istanbul right now, so George had to take the picture, which is why you can’t see their feet. I can’t believe my tiny babies are 17! SEVENTEEN. I can’t wait to give them hugs tomorrow night!
Gah! 17 in a month? 17 sounds so old! Blah.
And I’ll be on a work trip for their birthday, which makes me sad. Oh well.
I will not say the past three months flew by, because they didn’t. They passed at a reasonable speed. I feel like I’ve been away for a long time, and I’m actually ready to go back. Or, at least, I’m not sad to be going back. No matter how much one might love one’s job, not working is still infinitely better. Especially if you’re still getting paid.
(Background: we get 3 months off paid every five years. My last sabbatical was Dec 2018-March 2019.)
First, we went to Baton Rouge where I discovered how good I am at golf and we had dinner with my aunt.
Then, I took a short trip to Canada to hang out with friends. We went to Schitt’s Creek!
My flights were all forked up getting home, but I got to spend a night with Kiki in Virginia!
Which made me a bit late taking the boys’ 200th monthly pic, but we got there.
Then I spent some time getting the boys’ car from their grandparents. (They very generously gave it to them.) I had to transfer the title, get it towed to a mechanic, etc etc.) And now I don’t have to drive to school to pick them up every afternoon! Yay!
I got another tattoo.
I spent some time with Kiki in Virginia. We went to a little town called Sperryville and went on a foggy hike and ate at a fancy restaurant.
Then we went on a quick trip to Chicago to see Pulp (again.)
There was a hurricane threat, and then I went to Florida with my mom and stepdad. I drove a U-Haul. I got to experience The Villages as well as see their new house. And sit on a lot of sofas.
I organized and got rid of stuff and did other random things around the house.
I made things. I got an iPad so I could learn to draw. Still working on that, but there are lots of fun Procreate tutorials out there.
I took the boys to an LSU game for an early birthday present (courtesy of Grandee and Larry)
I saw Johnny Marr in concert with friends.
I snuggled my friend’s new baby.
The boys started in another vaccine trial. I saw friends. I went on walks. Ziggy was cute. I made ice cream. Got a heated jacket for soccer. I sent 200 postcards. I early voted.
So. I can comfortably say I packed my sabbatical with fun things, but I also didn’t stress about much and relaxed quite a lot. Now. Back to work!
It was a gross, rainy, gray day on the 4th so the picture quality isn’t the best, but here it is!
Miles got a haircut the next day, and now I keep calling him Oliver. Oops.
At least this month it’s on time!
Miles does have eyes, I’m pretty sure.
The penultimate first day of school picture. I’m fine. Totally fine.
Last year:
Freshman year:
And, of course, the very first year:
But the best part was this:
Miles in the driver’s seat.
I have to thank my children, sincerely, for putting up with me. The 100th picture wasn’t so bad; eight year olds are a lot more tolerant than 16 year olds, and rightly so. But they did it, they took the picture with little complaining, only calling it “corny” seven hundred and sixty two times. Fair enough.
Yes, thanks to American Airlines, this photo is three days late. I wonder if I can get compensation for this?
Now, just for fun, the 100th. I think I’m most proud that they all have fairly clean socks on this time.
Since I’m on sabbatical now, I have plenty of time to make a montage of all 200 pics so far. Sorry boys!
Do you know why I hate July?
Well, the heat, obviously. But also because it means the boys are closer to their next birthday than to their last birthday, and that means they will be 17 in five months and THAT IS NOT OKAY.
But also…when did Linus get taller than Oliver? By like, a lot? I don’t think the backyard is sloped, but maybe it is?!? I need to measure them again.
By the way, this is picture 199. Thank goodness I’ll be on sabbatical next month, because number 200 has to be something good. (Do I still have the gold sparkly backdrop from 100? I’ll have to look.) (Note to self: no dirty, mismatched socks this time.)
We got home a week ago from our second-ever family vacation (I mean, that was only the five of us, not the entire extended family.) We were originally going to go to the Pacific Northwest, but uncertainties around the costs of car insurance for teenage drivers and because our mortgage went up a LOT thanks to stupid *$#%& homeowner’s insurance, we opted to save a bit of money and go to New York instead.
Why New York? I mean, why not? The boys had only been once before, and loved it, and I love it, and George loves it. And I was able to get a good deal on our plane tickets, thanks to Southwest miles. (Not to be confused with Southwest Miles, which is Miles in New Mexico.) (Sorry, dumb joke.) (You know what, I’m not sorry.)
We stayed in a fantastic hotel, one I highly recommend, the Life Hotel. It was small, so not overwhelming, and the rooms were absolutely adorable (but not tiny.) And I mean, two big hotel rooms for five nights in NYC is going to be a lot of money no matter what, but for what it was, it was quite reasonable. (And it’s the former home of Life magazine. Pretty cool!)
So, on to what we did:
Arrived in the late afternoon. After a taxi ride to the hotel (did you know that even the minivan taxis can’t really accommodate a family of five? George and the boys had to sit four across in the back seat. Yeesh.) we unpacked and rested for a little bit before going to find some dinner.
We ate Detroit-style pizza, as one does in New York. (Look, it was somewhere we’d eaten in 2019 and so it was an easy decision.) On the way, we went into the lobby of the Empire State Building, and then we passed a Paris St Germain shop (Miles’s team) so had to peruse the goods there before heading to dinner. We took the subway to a nerd store for George, then we walked around some more and headed back to the hotel to sleep.
TIP: You won’t spend more than $34 per person riding the subway/bus if you tap to pay with your phone. And we took the subway (and buses) a lot. I put my Apple card on the boys’ phones so I wouldn’t have to tap them in at every station, and we ended up hitting the cap on Monday.
We went to visit my company’s office space. It was gorgeous! There were free snacks and lovely views and a weird vibrating chair.
Then we walked to a store that sold vintage soccer jerseys, and after that, headed to the 9/11 memorial. (We were going to take the Staten Island ferry there and back, but decided against it when we learned we’d have to wait an hour for a ferry back.) Ate some lunch, then I made them go with me to the Peloton store so I could get a shirt for my classes.
So it turns out, I have a really terrible sense of direction in Manhattan, because I was constantly getting us lost. I cursed Google Maps many, many times, and used the compass app on my phone a lot. And we retraced our steps frequently. And don’t tell the others, but once we stayed on the bus a bit too long and had to backtrack.
We rested for a bit, then took a shorter ferry over to Brooklyn, then went to Grimaldi’s for pizza.
It was a long and exhausting day so I was about to drop by the time we got back to the hotel.
(Did I mention the heat was worse in NYC than in New Orleans? It was so draining – at least in New Orleans, we hibernate when it’s this hot. We don’t walk miles around a city.)
In the morning, we met up with Erica and her family at Bryant Park. I finally got to meet her son!! (and her husband, who I know I hadn’t met before, but it felt like it, you know?) We had some food and hung out, then went across the street to the library (not the huge one with the lions, but the building across the street) where there’s a terrace on the 7th floor that was perfect for 2 year olds to run around and grown ups to chat (and teenagers to lounge, sulkily.)
After saying goodbye, we went to the Natural History Museum, which was of course fabulous. Sitting in the Planetarium for a show saved us, but we nevertheless only lasted a couple of hours there, because we were all still pretty wiped from the day before. We did eat an overpriced lunch there, where we had…pizza. (Among other things.) We took the bus back to the hotel (stopping at the PSG store again as well as the Apple Store) and chilled until dinner.
Did I mention the amount of ice cream the boys ate? It was a lot. They’re big soft serve fans, and basically wanted to get a cone any time we passed a truck, which was often.
Dinner was takeout pizza from a really adorable place near the hotel where everyone was delightful. After this, George and I vowed no more pizza.
My first Peloton class!
After, we took the subway to Brooklyn to meet Madi and her boyfriend Aaron at a cute little cafe. Madison used to be so shy and now she is almost THIRTY which I cannot handle and it was such a delight to hang out with them. And I was happy to see a part of Brooklyn I hadn’t been to.
We decided to go to the Transit Museum after, because it wasn’t too far away. It was an unexpected delight! It wasn’t huge, but the lower floor was an old platform that was filled with old train cars. We had a lot of fun critiquing them, and sitting a lot.
The boys and I went to Rockefeller Center after that to go to Oliver’s team store as well as another vintage soccer shirt store, and I had banana pudding, so even though we got lost a bunch, it was worth it.
We went back to the hotel for a while, then George really wanted to go to a diner, so we went to the Tick Tock diner that turned out to be in the lobby of the hotel we’d stayed in for our fifth anniversary trip, so it wasn’t our first time eating there. The breakfast fiends were in heaven.
My second Peloton class!
Afterwards, I went to Mood and I was VERY PROUD of myself for being decisive and just buying two gorgeous pieces of fabric and then getting the hell out.
The boys and George were sitting in Bryant Park again, so I met up with them and we went to the Intrepid, which was George’s big ask of the trip. (And after I went to two Peloton classes, I couldn’t exactly say no, not that I would have.)
We spent several hours there. George was in heaven. It was pretty good, but I had my backpack and it was very heavy and I kind of wish I’d dropped it off at the hotel before we went, but I survived.
We walked around Central Park a bit after that and then went back to the hotel.
Our hotel was in Koreatown, so we found a ramen place around the corner and had delicious soup for dinner. It was the boys’ first time having “real” ramen, and they all enjoyed it.
Sadly, time to go home. I went for a nice peaceful walk by myself because it was FINALLY not sweltering. I also went into the Harry Potter store but did not buy anything because I’m not about to put another dime in that evil woman’s wallet, but it was fun to look around anyway.
And then it was time to head to the airport. In an Uber this time.
And then we came home and picked up Ziggy and all was well with the world.
This blog has turned into a stream of “three boys standing against a wall” and I really need to post about other things.
But! They are halfway to 17 and I’m not okay with that. (I mean okay really they’re halfway to 33 but you know what I mean.)
So I’m going to throw some other things in this post, like…
Miles is working! So is Oliver! They have gotten paychecks and it’s very exciting.
Miles has his driver’s license! He got it two days ago and for his first solo trip, he went to IHOP and got takeout. He had been saying that’s what he was going to do, and by golly, he did it. Gotta respect that.
I’m going to Montreal next week for work, that’s fun! I’ve never been. I’m excited.
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