Gabrielle's Birthday Weekend 2013

The weekend of January 18^th, Serena and I took our first Mommy-Daughter trip to NYC, and we had a fabulous time.  We took a taxi to the Route 128 – Westwood station to catch a train, and it was SO cold that night!  Before the train came, I asked Serena (who was busy chatting with a friend on her cell phone before we left) if she was interested in sitting in the quiet car.  I LOVE the quiet car, and, in fact, I ride in the quiet car every day after work on the commuter rail.  I would ride it in the morning, too, except that it’s the last car in the morning, and I need to be in the first car to make sure that I get to work on time.  Serena and I were catching a 7:00 pm train, and she had already told me that she was planning to sleep the whole time, so I thought the quiet car would be a good idea.  Thankfully, she was interested.  

Unfortunately, we didn’t get to sit together at first.  You’d think folks would’ve tried to work it out so we could sit together, but we sat in aisle seats diagonally across from one another, so that wasn’t so bad.  Once we got to Rhode Island, the woman sitting next to Serena got off, so I went over and sat next to her (which was a good thing, because Serena was knocked out, and her head was progressively slumping over toward the woman’s shoulder.  I remember taking a bus ride with my parents when I was around her age, and not only falling asleep on the shoulder of the person sitting next to me, but there was a good deal of drool involved.  Oops! J). 

I was really enjoying sitting with Serena.  She was asleep on my lap, and now that she’s a tween, we don’t have tons of moments like that, so I treasure each and every one.  The problem, however, was that one of the women sitting in front of us was drenched in perfume. I am very sensitive to smells in general, but this was over the top.  Thankfully, a bunch of folks got off at the next stop, and we moved far away from her.  Sheesh!  Someone needs to make some kind of nostril inserts to ward off unwanted smells.  There are nostril shields for folks with allergies, but I haven’t found odor blocker inserts yet.  If someone shows up with something like that on Shark Tank, they should definitely get some funding.

Anyway, when we got to the station, Mommy was there waiting for us, and we all went to meet up with Daddy, who was waiting in the car.  On the way to Staten Island, they told us all about the damage done to lower Manhattan with Super Storm Sandy.  As we drove down the West Side Highway past the World Trade Center site, and through the Battery Tunnel, it was hard to imagine the tunnel being completely filled with water!  Wow.  New York survives devastating blow after devastating blow.  Survivors, for sure.

We stayed up chatting a bit, and Mommy surprised me the next morning with a vegetable crescent, which is veggie-filled, whole wheat crusted deliciousness.  She tricked me, too, because the night before, she asked me what I was going to have for breakfast, because she was planning on making omelets, and she and I like very different egg consistencies (Mommy likes very soft, gooey, runny eggs, and I like my eggs very well-done).  Alas, I woke up to the veggie crescent, and it was serendipitous!

We drove downtown Brooklyn for Gabrielle’s birthday brunch at Soco, and we had a great time. I hadn't spent Gabby's birthday with her in years!  The atmosphere was lovely, and the food was delicious.  They gave us complimentary bread baskets with cornbread and banana bread. Serena had the red velvet waffles and chicken, and I had a really tasty salad, chicken sausage and creamy, cheesy grits, a sweet tea, and for dessert I had a really good strawberry shortcake.  We were there with my parents, Gabby, two of her girlfriends, my sister (Thresa , a.k.a. Bootsie J), and my nephew, Amir.  Journey (my wonderful 16-year-old niece) wasn’t able to come, much to Serena’s chagrin (she LOVES Journey) because she takes college courses on Saturday (she is an academic BEAST!!  To the point that she has already passed senior AP English, and she’s a junior.  She’s taking a psych college course now, and will be taking a law course.  I hope she comes to school up near us.  Boston is a great college town!).  Serena went home with my sister so she could meet up with Journey.  


We drove Gabby’s friend, Amanda, to the train (it was great to spend time with her.  She’s very, very sweet, just like Gabby J). It's always nice when your family has good friends.  We drove past the new Barclays Center (really cool looking, except that whole rust thing going on on the outside. Not feeling that!). 

My dad picked Serena and Journey up later when he went back to Brooklyn for a speaking engagement, and I got to spend some quality time with the two young ladies that evening talking and watching Parks and Recreation (my recent guilty pleasure).  We also watched several performances of Hallelujah, which Journey loves, Feeling Good by Carly Rose Sonenclar on X-Factory (very impressive), and some American Idol performances. 

On Sunday, we woke up and just chilled in the house (I got to hang out with my dad, chatting and watching Sunday Morning) until it was time to go back to Brooklyn to see The Suit at Brooklyn Academy of Music’s (BAM) Harvey theater.  It was really nice to be back in Brooklyn.  I didn’t know anything about The Suit before we saw it, but it was a really good show.  It’s set in South Africa during apartheid, and the plot revolves around a husband’s very interesting reaction to his wife’s infidelity, and the consequences of unforgiveness.  Very powerful.  Nonhlanhla Kheswa played the wife – beautiful voice, powerful performance.  I looked her up on Google and wrote her through Facebook to let her know how much we enjoyed the performance, and now we’re FB friends.  How cool is that? J

After the play, we went back to Staten Island to have dinner at Bonefish Grill (Serena and I were with my parents, Journey, Bootsie and Gabby), and then we all went back and crashed, because Serena and I had to get up at around 4:30 the next morning to catch at 7 am train so we could get back home to spend part of MLK’s day watching the inauguration with Dishon and Cairo. 

We had a fabulous weekend, and I look forward to doing a Mommy-Son trip with Cairo soon, and making girls’ weekend a regular thing.  Now that the kids are getting so big . . . (after sharing a room since Cairo was born, they just got their own rooms a couple of weeks ago.  I WORKED Craig’s List, and after spending a weekend moving our room downstairs, and several days last week meeting up with folks and picking up furniture, their rooms are all set).  I LOVE being a mom, and I look forward weekends like these, getting to know the 2013 versions of Serena and Cairo ;).