Fruit in my dessert

Joy

Many of you never doubted it, even when I did, but it's been a week since we've been back in the City, and I'm filled with joy, pure joy (okay, minus the remaining unpacking and organizing that needs to take place).

Some, just some, of the reasons for my joy:

1. Grilled cheese and chocolate shakes ANY time I want from any one of several nearby places.
2. While we're talking food - so many EASY options - TOO many easy options - that do not include cooking.
3. I went to the grocery store at 6am the other day - it's open ALL the time - and it's small enough for me not to be overwhelmed by the experience.
4. Parks - big ones, little ones, surprising ones, playgrounds, fields, and ALL within blocks.
5. 10 minute commute to the office. And the office and the people. I miss my old people and my old office, but these people and this office are fabulous too.
6. Yankee baseball just a subway ride away - speaking of which, thanks to my MIL we get to go tomorrow night (and thanks to my parents for babysitting) to Yankees/Red Sox and sit very, very close to home plate - closer than I ever have before. I may not be able to sleep tonight.
7. Service with a smile. Just how I remembered it here. People here are friendly when you're friendly.
8. A public transportation system that works fast, well, and logically.
9. How did I get to number 9 and not mention our fabulous new apartment and building and neighbors? It's been an awesome week on all fronts here.
10. One floor living. Glorious.
11. Laundry on the floor - sure, we have to pay for it now with a fancy card, but I don't have to go up and down stairs.
12. I mostly can't hear my neighbors so I'm hoping they mostly can't hear us. I've yet to introduce myself to the people downstairs and given the 6-8am circus we have every morning, I'm a little nervous to do so.
13. Museums -  H and I went to the American Museum of Natural History today courtesy of our new membership from Jay and Jane and it is absolutely delicious, and enormous. I am going to learn so much by talking about all of this stuff with H. Next stop: Central Park Zoo.
14. Friends - I miss my Cambridge/Boston friends terribly, but it is very nice to start to reconnect with friends from here after so long away and I had my first five minute chat with a stranger mom today in an elevator after a free gym class.
15. People. Everywhere. All the time.
16. So far - seemingly LOTS of toddler and stroller friendly locations and people. I guess it's imperative for the tourism this city sees. Not something I paid attention to last time I was here. We also live in a kid-ville neighborhood so that helps.
17. Some new food finds (new to me): Jacques Torres hot chocolate, Shake Shack burger (uptown outpost), multiple gelato locations within blocks.
18. So much easier to narrate my day and talk with H about everything we're seeing and doing, and the places we're going.
19. Fridge on top of the freezer - okay, so that last one is a lucky break with the apt. and not related specifically to NY, but I LOVE it, as I do the ceiling fans and the in-the-wall AC units, and the room darkening window covers that the former owner left for us in the master bedroom.

Okay, that is enough for now. I know it's the honeymoon phase, but I'm hoping it lasts forever. Which is charming of me, don't you think? One more thing...

Thank you, B. Really. Thank you. You knew what you wanted and, as is the case so often, you knew what I wanted too, before I knew it. It's why I have been tearing up in the grocery store, and on the subway, and in the park all week. Because I'm so thankful, and not just for being here, but being here with you, the only one for me, and our specialist of special H. I couldn't feel luckier than I do. Xoxox.

Countdown

So, we are starting to have a solid plan on our final resting place...okay, we won't get much rest there, but I like the dramatic sound of that, morbid as it may be. We will be able to settle in to our permanent home, or as permanent as any home can be (I'm hoping for a 10-year minimum on this place, let's see), very soon. I hesitate to write it down like this, but the anxious girl inside of me kind of needs to do it anyway. We are scheduled to close later this week and move in at the start of next week - on the day of my first business trip since H was born. I have absolutely no anxiety about any of this, nor can anyone tell that I do or do not have said anxiety. I am not nervous about the logistics, about leaving my parents' house, which, despite the occasional rockiness and need to move on, has been somewhat of a respite from the "real world." I have spent quite a bit of time in the La-Z-Boy, time that would have and some might argue (mostly me) should have been spent paying bills, and doing the work that needs to get done to prepare more fully for the move, or even just helping more with the dishes. On a side note, we did finally buy my parents a dish wand, so I have started helping more with the dishes.

I am also not nervous about the move going well and smoothly without me being present (I actually don't think I am too nervous about this beyond worrying that furniture will be placed in places that I don't love, but the beauty of the space is that there aren't many options for furniture placement). I am certainly not nervous about H's well-being doing the move with his daddy and being without me for two long days and a night or the trauma that he might experience in his new home for the first night withOUT his mother. I am pretty sure I am the only one who will be crying - in a hotel in DC.

And, I am not the least bit nervous about actually being settled in NY, being there, finally, after the months - or years - of planning this in my head and I have no fear whatsoever about whether this is the right decision for our family, for me. I'm not nervous about H running and jumping on the floors and making noise to make the neighbors hate us, or living in a smaller space, or having to make new mommy friends that will never be my "first" mommy friends.

On the bright side, all of this "not nervousness" makes me TRULY not nervous about having several meetings with members of Congress (mostly their staff, actually) for my first time while I'm on that business trip. I mean, really, how hard can that be?