Sometimes great days happen organically, and sometimes great days require some planning. Yesterday was a great day that falls into the latter category.
At the beginning of December, following a 3pm dentist appointment, I found myself with an hour to kill before I needed to get home to relieve Julia. I decided to go to the Village and check out a cool new store called Regeneration. While I was shopping, I ended up chatting with a neighborhood mom who was out with her 17-month-old son. Come to find out, she lives 3 blocks from us. We exchanged contact info, and I proceeded to round out my free 45 minutes with a martini and appetizer at a great local restaurant. The mom and I started e-mailing that night about getting together. She joked that we were "cut from the same cloth", because I was celebrating an unexpected free moment to myself with mussels and a martini.
Fast forward nearly a month; I thought it might be one of those notions of a friendship that would never come to fruition. Schedules, holidays, busy lives, etc. seemed to keep getting in the way of getting together. Finally, however, with the MLK holiday upon us, the stars aligned and we had our first playdate! She & her now 18-month-old son came over in the morning. She is super cool, funny, and down-to-earth. The best part is that she lives so close! This parenting business is tough stuff, and sometimes you just need a friend nearby to call at the last minute for impromptu plans to break up a stressful day. She sent me a hilarious e-mail a few hours later about "Mommy dating", so I think we will definitely get to be better friends over the next few months. I need to remember that making new friends takes time, and sometimes you just need a little patience.
The second half of my day was also great, but this too required advance planning. I decided several weeks ago that I wanted to see a movie. Kinda funny for me, considering I have seen less than 5 movies in a movie theater in about as many years. I guess I was yearning for a little escapism. I tried to make the movie thing happen the week of New Year's (I was going to take a Thursday off from work but still have Julia come for the usual 2-6 nanny time), but an unexpected blizzard foiled my plans. From that week on, I set my sights on Martin Luther King Day. For these types of hospital holidays, if Julia is willing to work I am happy to take her up on it! It allows me to do a little shopping once in awhile without the kids. This time I decided it was all about seeing a matinee, something that is pretty much impossible to do under the current schedule.
At our last get-together I mentioned to my MOT friend, Wendy, that this was my plan. She got a glimmer in her eye and said she would check if her husband had the day off so that she could join me. He ended up being scheduled to work, but he's such a good husband that he took a VACATION day so that she could have an afternoon of fun with me! We met up for a late, long lunch at PF Chang - it was the first time we've ever gotten together without 4 little ones needing our attention! After lunch we headed over to the theatre. Unfortunately "The Fighter" didn't have any showtimes that fit with my nanny schedule, so we ended up settling on "True Grit". I have to say, it was exactly what I was in the mood for! Buttery popcorn and soda, a quiet, dark movie theatre, and a (funny!) Coen brothers western featuring the toughest 14-year-old heroine you could ever imagine. It wasn't the movie that either Wendy or I would choose if we had our pick of any, but it definitely provided 2 hours of mindless entertainment. We even had time to sneak into H&M for 20 minutes of shopping before I needed to head home.
It's amazing how rejuvenated I feel after these kinds of great days. I've already put the bug in Wendy's ear about the possibilities for President's Day ;) All it takes is a little planning...
At the beginning of December, following a 3pm dentist appointment, I found myself with an hour to kill before I needed to get home to relieve Julia. I decided to go to the Village and check out a cool new store called Regeneration. While I was shopping, I ended up chatting with a neighborhood mom who was out with her 17-month-old son. Come to find out, she lives 3 blocks from us. We exchanged contact info, and I proceeded to round out my free 45 minutes with a martini and appetizer at a great local restaurant. The mom and I started e-mailing that night about getting together. She joked that we were "cut from the same cloth", because I was celebrating an unexpected free moment to myself with mussels and a martini.
Fast forward nearly a month; I thought it might be one of those notions of a friendship that would never come to fruition. Schedules, holidays, busy lives, etc. seemed to keep getting in the way of getting together. Finally, however, with the MLK holiday upon us, the stars aligned and we had our first playdate! She & her now 18-month-old son came over in the morning. She is super cool, funny, and down-to-earth. The best part is that she lives so close! This parenting business is tough stuff, and sometimes you just need a friend nearby to call at the last minute for impromptu plans to break up a stressful day. She sent me a hilarious e-mail a few hours later about "Mommy dating", so I think we will definitely get to be better friends over the next few months. I need to remember that making new friends takes time, and sometimes you just need a little patience.
The second half of my day was also great, but this too required advance planning. I decided several weeks ago that I wanted to see a movie. Kinda funny for me, considering I have seen less than 5 movies in a movie theater in about as many years. I guess I was yearning for a little escapism. I tried to make the movie thing happen the week of New Year's (I was going to take a Thursday off from work but still have Julia come for the usual 2-6 nanny time), but an unexpected blizzard foiled my plans. From that week on, I set my sights on Martin Luther King Day. For these types of hospital holidays, if Julia is willing to work I am happy to take her up on it! It allows me to do a little shopping once in awhile without the kids. This time I decided it was all about seeing a matinee, something that is pretty much impossible to do under the current schedule.
At our last get-together I mentioned to my MOT friend, Wendy, that this was my plan. She got a glimmer in her eye and said she would check if her husband had the day off so that she could join me. He ended up being scheduled to work, but he's such a good husband that he took a VACATION day so that she could have an afternoon of fun with me! We met up for a late, long lunch at PF Chang - it was the first time we've ever gotten together without 4 little ones needing our attention! After lunch we headed over to the theatre. Unfortunately "The Fighter" didn't have any showtimes that fit with my nanny schedule, so we ended up settling on "True Grit". I have to say, it was exactly what I was in the mood for! Buttery popcorn and soda, a quiet, dark movie theatre, and a (funny!) Coen brothers western featuring the toughest 14-year-old heroine you could ever imagine. It wasn't the movie that either Wendy or I would choose if we had our pick of any, but it definitely provided 2 hours of mindless entertainment. We even had time to sneak into H&M for 20 minutes of shopping before I needed to head home.
It's amazing how rejuvenated I feel after these kinds of great days. I've already put the bug in Wendy's ear about the possibilities for President's Day ;) All it takes is a little planning...
Oh, I'm TOTALLY in for Presidents Day...this time I want the movie.
ReplyDeleteHow can we figure that out?
Let's talk to my nanny! She'll totally take all 3 kids so the mommies can play!
ReplyDelete