Sunday, March 23, 2008

NYC trip

Sunday 16 March
We tearfully left the children at 4 am for our flight. We said good bye and gave kisses to a sleepy Luna and Liam. I wondered why we were doing this exactly? Was it premature to leave the kids so young? Everything so far had fallen into place. Their cousins and auntie were there. They were excited. James and I had not travelled alone together since Luna was born. It would be good for us. I had been playing with feelings of guilt for a week now. As we drove further south to the airport it felt right. We hopped on the plane to New York easily, arrived 5 hours later and waited for our luggage. We made it to the Manhattan apartment meeting our kind hosts. A friend’s mother let us stay at their place while they were away. The apartment was directly across from Central Park -- what I wanted to see in NYC.

We met James brother, Ken to go to a Pogues and Billy Bragg show. That was so much fun. We danced, or at least for me, tried to dance. Afterwards we stopped for food in Times Square. Got some knish. After while we looked outside and thought it was sunrise. It was light outside. It was light from all of the lights of Times Square. Ken was ready to go. He was going to stay at Penn Station for a few hours until his train back to DC. I was worried about him. I came to NYC with a lot of fear from television. He assured me he would be fine. J and I returned to the apartment and slept well.


Monday 17 March
We woke up to a sunny day in New York. James scheduled his appointment at the church where he will be interning for Tuesday. We went for a lovely run in Central Park around the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis reservoir. As we ran to the other side, we heard the St Patrick’s Day parade. Bagpipes, singing, marching. I smiled the entire way loving running near people of all levels. It was peaceful, beautiful and fun. I ran 4 times around totaling a 10K. We came back, showered and visited the city. After walking around we hopped on the train to the suburbs. James wanted to see what the housing looked like along the way. Returned to the city and ate dinner at a beautiful vegan restaurant.

Tuesday 18 March
Today was our last day in NYC. We visited the church and met the ministers. We ate at Veggie Castle where we got Jamaican food. It was wonderful. The city where J will intern was beautiful. The church campus was overwhelming and scenic. I was amazed at how much resources this church had. I felt underdressed and reminded of how Californian and informal we are. I loved Manhattan and had moved closer to deciding to go to NY with James next year. But after realizing our lives would not take place in Manhattan and would in fact be in the suburbs. Worse we would live nowhere near the church as it was extremely unaffordable. I worried that the children would be in bad schools. We certainly would not be able to afford the private school that they attend now in NY. What if L and L did not fit in? How would that affect them for the rest of their lives? They have a good life at home, a good school and all of their friends. I did not want to live in a small, dumpy house. If we go I want life to be as easy as possible. I know I can get a job easily. I welcome adventure and the children can adapt. Best of all we were only a few hours form James’s brother and his family. Even still, at this point I was beginning to write off going with James. There is no way we could match the life we have at home. Later at dinner J received a call from the church. They had a lead on a rental house in a nearby town. The rent was within our estimated range, it was big enough and best of all in an area with good schools. We’ll see. They will be emailing us the info.

We left NYC on separate flights. Again everything was smooth. James left 30 mins before me. I took that time to phone the children. Everyone was well and had just spoken with James. I slept about 2 hours on the plane. I could not get comfortable even after a glass of wine. I watched the movie Control about Ian Curtis of Joy Division. Interesting. I love stories about real people’s lives. I dozed off and woke up near London.







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