I wonder if I'll have groupies............

So I'm sure if you go digging through your dresser drawers, some of you may come up with one of those t-shirts from your favorite singer/band. You know the ones. They usually say something like "U.S. Tour 2005" on them. I'm wondering if I should get t-shirts made b/c with all the traveling I"m doing this summer, it feels like the Abby U.S. Tour 2008. Maybe I'm coming to a city near you.

My husband is an attorney as I've previously mentioned and is working on and International Trade Comission case that is being tried in D.C. in September so he has been out of town a lot lately. He spent a couple weeks out of the country, has been home a total of 9 days in July and in fact just got back tonight from a week-long trip to CA. Unfortunately Pumpkin and I leave at 6 a.m. to go out west for my family's yearly vacation. Hubs was planning on coming but alas the trial prep work roared its ugly head and demanded all of his time and attention. And I found out yesterday that hubs has to leave to go back to CA 5 days before I am supposed to return. So in the interest in salvaging our marriage from becoming a "long-distance relationship", Pumpkin and I will be heading out there too, after which we will return to Idaho for another family event I've committed to attend. So off we are this morning to Salt Lake City, then to Idaho, then to Salt Lake City (is it normal to stop in the same city twice on one tour? Salt Lake must have great fans), then to San Francisco, then to Boise, then finally back to my humble abode here in Texas for a couple weeks before we head out to D.C. for the month of September. (that trial again) Feels a little crazy to me, especially since I don't even have a bus with my face on the side of it. But I'm definitely gonna mull over that t-shirt idea. So maybe you could pick one up when we stop at a city near you!!!!

As promised.......

(At a park in DUMBO sportin some borrowed digs)


As promised I am finally reporting on my NYC trip. We had an absolutely fabulous time. I was a little concerned about taking Pumpkin with us as I've never been there w/ a child and knew it was going to make things very different and well, it did. I'm sure some of you (as if to imply that more than 3 people read my blog...lol) will be surprised to hear that I did not visit many, if any of the usual tourist attractions. We went to no shows, we did not frequent Times Square nor did I spend any time at the Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero, the New York Stock Exchange (lol), or Central Park (gasp!). This is what I meant by the trip being different. We gotta make time for some naps or we have one cranky kid on our hands! Lucky for me I have lived there so it wasn't a big deal that I didn't get to see any of the above. Instead I spent most of my time hanging out with old college friends. We visited a few darling baby shops, went to an apparent Soho hot spot called Pinkberry (yum) and a cute little cookie shop in Brooklyn called One Girl Cookies. I got in plenty of clothes shopping at all my favorite places and of course made the trip to Chinatown where I am sad to admit did not find a new handbag as I had hoped. (sad face) As you can see, Chinatown was a bit too much to handle for the munchkin!

The first night we did actually drop by Times Square so that Pumpkin could ride the ferris wheel in Toys R Us (like she cares) and we could get some cute pictures (ah, the real motive). (See how much she cares) The second night I was there I had dinner with some good friends, all fellow social workers and one my old roommate. As always, it was so good to catch up and had the BEST Thai food that I have had in several years.After dinner we took a walk to the above-mentioned cookie shop. I, being the kind friend I am let my newly married friends Cait and Jeff practice some parenting skills (for future use) by pushing my stroller and carrying my diaper bag (which Jeff subsequently left sitting on the counter at the cookie shop in clear view of anyone with evil intentions. Should we really give this guy a kid afterall?) See what a good job they did.
All in all it was a good trip and reminded me of some of the things I really miss about the city and some things I can definitely continue to do without. The list:


Things I miss:

• walking and riding the subway everywhere. It makes it very easy to pop in to a store when you realize you are out of milk and there's no unbuckling of car seats and lugging of children into the cart. You just blip the stroller in, grab the milk and pay and blip the stroller out. There is so much to look at and so many neat places to go that it really gives you a chance to spend A LOT of time outside w/o too much hassle except....(see number 1 on Things I can live without)
• the un-Walmartization (so not in the dictionary) which means there are blocks upon blocks of cute little mom ~n~ pop stores and funky one-of-a-kind boutiques that you don't get anywhere else
• being around people all of the time. I didn't realize how rarely Pumpkin sees people outside of church and family until we went on this trip and I saw how utterly intrigued she was.
• street vendors. I know you get these in other cities but it's nothing like in New York, at least in my experience. And while I did not buy any grafiti ball caps, $5 purses, or used books, I did pick up some out of this world finger puppets for cheap!

Things I can do without:

• lugging a stroller up and down all the stairs to/from the subway and to/from the street.


• piles of garbage on the side of the road that collect rats


• not being able to drive a car even when I want to


• everything costing a fortune

At one point these lists were both much longer but because I'm a few days past when I wanted this posted, this is the best I can do. Bottom line: I love New York and miss living there but I can also appreciate the benefits of living elsewhere.

I'm a big kid now!

I have been in Manhattan since Monday on a visit since hubs had to be here for business. I've had a fabulous time seeing some friends again and going to my favorite New York places and I will blog all about that, with pictures, when I return to Texas. However, I had a very "big girl" moment tonight that I wanted to mention very quickly.

We are staying at a fairly nice hotel thanks to hubs' work picking up the tab. But last night at about 1 a.m., some of our young, unruly hotel neighbors went running up and down the hall laughing and screaming like they were on fire or something. (Okay I've never ACTUALLY heard of anyone laughing when they were on fire. But screaming, yeah.) And from the closet, Pumpkin begins screaming (like she's on fire?) (yes we have her porta-crib in the closet; it sounds harsh but its actually quite spacious, for a closet). So hubs brings her into bed with us for awhile but after enduring a few hours of periodic kicks to the kidneys, it was back to the closet crib for her.

Anyway, well tonight after I put her down for bed, these same neighbors are walking through the hall laughing and talking very LOUDLY. So I opened my door and told them my daughter was sleeping and could they please be quieter. It was, afterall, almost 11 p.m. And not 15 minutes later, I hear what sounds like a herd of elephants in the hall carrying a herd (?) of laughing hyenas. (Interesting image)

(And here comes the big girl part) So, I did what as a teenager I swore I would never do: the lame grown-up thing. I called the front-desk and they sent up security. Afterwards, I sat on the bed quietly as my 15-year old self scolded me in my head for being "no fun." But a few minutes after I heard the crackling of the security guards' walkie-talkies, I also heard my young hotel neighbors WALKING down the hallway WHISPERING to each other and a satisfied smile slowly spread across my face. And my 15-year old self demanded "Admit it, you've turned into a no fun, lame adult!"

So here I go: I've turned into a no fun, lame adult and I'm enjoying it, especially if it means my daughter has a restful, uninterrupted nights sleep.