a wonderful weekend

Every now and then, everybody's entitled to too much perfection.

A quote from "Bed of Roses," one of my all-time-favorite guilty pleasure movies, kept popping in my head as I spent three days in NYC with just my mom. Levi stayed home for an all-daddy weekend (which I think both parties thoroughly enjoyed), and I got to travel sans-diaper bag. We had such a wonderful time, and everything just seemed to line up. In no particular order, points from our perfect weekend:

1. We arrived at exactly the same time. Mom flew from Florida and took a cab, I took the Amtrak and then the Subway, but we walked to the front door of my brother's apartment at the same moment. A sign of things to come!

2. Lovely lunches with sort of slow service. That gave us just the right amount of time to recharge from all our walking and get in all our talking. Not to mention the fact that we got to eat outdoors for one of our lunches, probably one of the last weekends that will be possible this fall.

3. Cream puff. Need I say more? Yes? Ok, it was delicious. The cream custard was so light yet rich, sweet but not too, slightly cool and perfectly smooth. We later find out that Beard Papa's is a chain of cream puff stores located anywhere from Russia to California to Sanford, Florida, about 15 minutes from my parents' house. Hmmm...

4. Billy Elliot, the musical. Despite all the times we've visited the city together, we've never seen a show.  Man, could that kid dance!! I couldn't believe a pre-teen could dance and sing and remember all those lines for such a long show.

5. The movies. My mom and I have always gone to the movies together. I even remember very specifically when we saw Sleepless in Seattle together when I was 10. I can remember where in the theater we sat (toward the back, on the right side of the aisle). So it's only right that we went to a movie together. We saw 50/50, a little uncertain as to how depressing it would be. Spoiler alert if you don't want to know the ending... the guy doesn't die and he gets the girl. I think there's enough sorrow and drama in the world, so I'm glad this movie took the high road.

6. Shopping. No one can power shop like my mom! And without any obligations to keep to a baby schedule, we were on cloud nine. I've added a pair of boots (the perfect kind), a ring from a SoHo street vendor, a hat, a jacket and a new wallet to my collection. And a bright orange NYC taxi t-shirt to Levi's. Me and my loot:

7. Missing Levi. It was fun to watch all the other babies of NYC being strolled and carted around. It gave me a chance to miss Levi and talk about him. I found myself saying these two phrases over and over: He's so funny. He's so cute. Hearing him kiss me through the phone was adorable.

The list could go on, but for now that's my story of too much perfection. Until next time!