In reverse order:

Today is my birthday. I am in double digits: 33. I should change the little lead-in to the blog, because I am no longer a "32 year old momma." huh.

The entire time I was growing up, my mom started calling me my NEXT age about a month after my birthday. For example. I turned 10 on December 4, 1982. By January 10 of 1983, she was saying, "Zuska, you are 11 years old, you should know better than to do that!" Or, "Zuska, it's about time you start acting like an 11 year old!" Or perhaps, "Zuska, you are 11, and your sister is only 8, it is YOUR responsibility to guide her and teach her!"

things like that.

but ever since, i can't shake it. basically, i've been telling people i'm 33 since at least august. if not .... june (i'm also, thanks to mom, keenly aware that my 1/2 birthday is on June 4. Thing One's half bday is March 25, and Thing Two just had hers, on November 24. My beloved had his the day after mine.)

So today - when I am truly turning 33 - no big deal.

Beloved and i went to NYC yesterday. We thought we'd try for some Rush tickets to see Wicked .... at least the illusion of that as a possibility got us out of CT at a proper hour, and kept us from sleeping our day away. There were no Rush tickets for Wicked.

Unfortunately, i've been nursing a cold lately (part of why i didn't make it to any updates re: the new job), and while i woke up excited about the day, and had many hours in NY without difficulty, I ran out of energy and health at about 3 p.m. But this was our day:

10:00: Arrive at Grand Central Station on a train which we took from Brewster, NY (which is a 20 minute drive from my folks' house).
10:10: Arrive at the TKTS booth in Times Square, see that there are NO tickets for Wicked, or our 2nd choice show, or our third choice, or our fourth choice .....
10:25: Arrive in an insanely long line for a nonfat caramel macchiato for me, and a tall soy peppermint hot cocoa for my beloved
10:50: Arrive (just across the street, mind you) at the Hershey's store, where we purchased a 1/2 lb. Mr. Goodbar for Thing Two, and a 1/2 lb. Hershey's Milk Chocolate Bar for Thing One. We're thinking they'll be Solstice gifts.
11:30: Arrive at Rockefeller Center. Wander around. See the tree. Watch the ice skaters. Look for Eddie Bauer b/c Beloved forgot to bring a hat or gloves or a scarf, and it was C-O-L-D. But he's kind of picky, so we never found anything, and yet - he survived!! I had it all, including a new coat.
12:30: Go to Carnegie Deli; see the 2 mile line; try the place across the street; see the 30 minute wait time; decide to go eat at the museum cafe.
1:00: Arrive at the MoMA. Eat delicious beets (both red and golden) and "okay" pumpkin raviolis. Then wander around the exhibits. Miss Thing One and Thing Two while looking at Starry Night -- the *real* Starry Night. [they were in fact quite jealous that they missed it]
4:00: Go to the museum store - find nothing. Sit on a bench and pour over Time Out New York {yes, we're pathetic tourists} to try and find a place to eat.
5:00: Sit for dinner (or at least our first beer) at P.J. Harvey's - a 120 year old "saloon" at 3rd and 55th. Somehow - even while in NY, we find a very Boston-like joint to eat in. It was GREAT. They had a raw bar, and we had the best jumbo shrimp cocktail that I've had in at least 10 years. Then washed that down with a beer, and went on to burgers! mmmm.
6:50: Barely make it back onto a train where I promptly fell asleep on beloved's shoulder.
8:00: back in brewster, head home for an OnDemand movie {my parents have premium cable - something we're not used to!!} and then SLEEP!!

We woke up this a.m. to snow on the ground. It was verra verra pretty outside.

beloved sang happy bday, then my parents and kids (look! i'm the inside of a sandwich!) called to sing at me. we went and got brunch in my folks' small town, filled up their obnoxious SUV with gas (for the second time ... .grrrrr ... Honestly!! When we rent zipcars, we can get to CT on a 1/4 tank of gas, and don't have to fill the tank unless we go on an extra trip to New Haven or something. In this car (SUV!!! grrr), it's already below the 3/4 mark when we're less than 1/2 way there! And the tank is twice as big!

Plus, my beloved and i end up driving around in a car with a "Pray for our troops" yellow ribbon decal slapped on the side. Between the type of car, the age of the car (brand new), the gas mileage of the car, and the magnet on the car ... I feel like the car I'm in grossly miscommunicates my identity.

We arrived home to cake, dinner, more snow, and a decent evening. Thing One and Thing Two have my cold of last week, so I managed to convince them that sleep was paramount, and they're in bed already ... it's 8:10. That's just unbelievable!!

I think that the other topics of this post need their own posts.

posted by Zuska @ 7:21 PM

1 Comments:

At Thursday, December 08, 2005 9:28:00 PM, Anonymous said…

Happy Birthday. When I turned 29, my mom told me it was the last birthday I would have for a while... she was right.