The Greatest City in the World*

Remember that brain reboot I needed? A nap was nice, but this past weekend I found an even better way to push reset. Early on Thursday morning Bryan drove me to the local airport where I caught a bus into New York City. That's where I met up with my dear friend Brett, the other half of my two-person book club, who had flown out from Utah for an adventure. We spent Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and a bit of Sunday packing in as much history, delicious food, deep conversation, walking/subway-ing/running, and Broadway as possible.

It was fantastic!

Want details? Here's what Thursday looked like:

After we found each other near Bryant Park, we walked to our hotel just half a block away from the iconic New York Public Library. Then we grabbed bagels for breakfast at Zuckers. I decided it was my job to take pictures of each place we ate. I missed two, but did well otherwise.

After that we booked it down to City Hall Park for a Revolutionary War walking tour. This is when we learned that Lyft is not effective in NYC. We stuck to our feet and the subway for the rest of the weekend.

Photo credit: Brett

We learned lots of cool facts and saw the graves of Alexander and Eliza Hamilton. One of the things we learned was that our year of reading about the Revolutionary War (2017) helped us sound like historians. We shared some knowledge our tour guide didn't have. I guess all that reading I do has some benefits.

Photo credit: Brett

We walked by Federal Hall. The next day we came back and actually went inside.

Photo credit: Brett

As soon as the tour (which I enjoyed a lot) was over, we hurried to the subway station to get to the next event on our itinerary. We had a traveling lunch of some delicious New York style pizza. And no, I didn't take a picture of this place, so I have no idea what it was called.

Photo credit: Brett

We made it to our first (yes, first) Broadway show of the weekend. Moulin Rouge was my choice.

Unfortunately, it's not one that I can recommend. 

The music is mostly great, lots of fun mashups of modern pop songs, and the sets were amazing. The choreography and costumes however, well, I spent a lot of time studying the ceiling of the theater rather than watching what was happening on stage. Afterward we learned that we had both thought about leaving, but didn't. The movie is rated PG-13, and so was the play, but a much stronger PG-13. Also, the speakers were all turned up so high, my head was pounding by the time we left the theater.

Photo credit: Brett

After Moulin Rouge we needed food. We went to Los Tacos No. 1, a hole-in-the-wall place that a friend in my ward had recommended. It was amazing! Seriously some of the best food we had all weekend.

They only had like four things on the menu, including tacos and quesadillas. Here's one of Brett's tacos, and look, I'm in the background waiting for my order.

Photo credit: Brett

After eating we finally checked into the hotel and rested for a few minutes. Then we headed to our second Broadway show of the week. I am thrilled to report that Aaron Sorkin's adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird made up for the disappointment of Moulin Rouge. It was incredible!

Jeff Daniels played Atticus Finch, which was cool, but the most interesting part for me was how he portrayed the character. It was as if Mr. Daniels had followed around my father-in-law doing a character study. The way he moved, delivered his lines, sat, sighed, it was like I was watching Bryan's dad on stage. So, surprise Ron, it turns out you're actually Atticus Finch.

Photo credit: Brett

After the wonderful play, we got our tired selves to the hotel and slept the restful slumber of two moms on breaks from their kids. Ah, sleep.

*What am I quoting?

Handsome Boys

Having kids at three schools means keeping track of three school calendars. This is doable, but does require organization and attention. One of the first scheduled activities of the year is picture day. Peter's picture day was the first week of September, Cooper's is today, the girls don't have their picture day until the last Friday of the month. I snapped a picture of Cooper before he got on the bus this morning so he could practice his smile.

We've already received the digital copy of Peter's picture. When I showed it to him he commented that his smile didn't look right. True that it's not quite his natural smile, but it's not a bad picture either.

Ice Cream Mustache

Head Over Heels

You Don't Actually Sit on the Babies

Last night Bryan and I had to divide and conquer. Peter's school and Phoebe's grade had their Open Houses at the same time, and school-age children were not welcome. Bryan learned all about 8th grade and the rapidly approaching pressures of high school, while I sat in a colorful classroom and learned about 3rd grade. I'm very thankful that Peter is old enough to babysit. I did take Topher with me, and we spent part of the evening listening from the hall, but it was much more manageable than it would have been with all five of them there.

I know teenagers are supposed to be awful, but teenage Peter is pretty great.

When Peter Comes Home

Each afternoon we walk to the bus stop to meet Phoebe and Sophie. They happily hop off the bus and give Topher hugs. Peter's bus comes a few minutes later, Cooper's comes an hour after that. The first few days of the school year Peter got off the bus and ignored us while talking to his friends, so we didn't wait for him. 

Then this week, as we started to leave the bus stop, Topher wouldn't go. He kept turning back to where Peter's bus would soon be. When the bus pulled up Topher started waving excitedly. Peter came down the stairs and, instead of talking to his friends, came running for Topher. Topher grinned when Peter scooped him up, then wrapped his little arms around his big brother's neck.

I think we have a new bus stop tradition.

Reboot In Process

I took a nap yesterday.

It helped a lot.

That is all.

Have You Tried Turning It Off and On Again

Sometimes I wish I could reboot my brain. You know when your phone or laptop get overheated it can help to turn them off and let them cool down? Yeah, my brain could benefit from that. It's only the third week of school and I'm already feeling seriously overwhelmed. Why?

I don't exactly know.

I think it's a combination of tired kids, growing paper piles from school, ignored chores, all three of my church callings being back in session after doing only one during the summer break, Topher discovering he can climb EVERYTHING, getting back into dance lessons and scouts and possible after school clubs, having exceptionally loud children and an echo-y home, carrying the mental load of who needs to be where and when for the whole house, running (ideally) daily devotionals with my family, and a general lack of consistent sleep on my part.

Yup, my brain is definitely overloaded.

One side-effect of this overwhelm is that I'm suddenly even worse at answering texts and emails than I already am. They come to my phone, I read them, then my brain shuts down when I try to respond; I simply can't find words to write back. So I put my phone away and assure myself that I'll get back to them after bedtime. Of course, by that point in the day my circuits are really fried, so I probably won't answer then either. This goes on for a few days, and then I have guilt.

Maybe instead of cooking and cleaning during Topher's mid-day nap, I'll take a cue from him and snooze as well. That's kind of like turning my brain off and on again, right?

We Take Our Time

We only had four days of school this week.

We missed the bus two and a half of those days.

I think we're already tired and we're only two weeks into the new school year.

Fort-itude