NYC Trip Addendum: Keepin' It Real

I was talking with my friend and also with my mother about how sometimes I feel guilty for my good life. I also feel guilty for making my life seem so much better than it is, simply because I gloss over the bad parts.

Because let's be honest here: I do have a good life. Brandon and I have been blessed with many opportunities to travel and try new things. We have everything we've pretty much ever wanted, and more. I fear that people will see our life and think it's perfect, simply because we've been blessed with so many good things. My friend reminded me that I'm pretty good at showing the reality of my mental illness and that I don't act like my life is perfect. My mom agreed, too. But sometimes I think I am lying when I only show the great parts, simply because the hard parts of life is what makes the great parts so great.

So, in full disclosure today, I'm going to tell you about the not-so-great parts of our NYC trip. There weren't tons, but I'm going to tell you about them simply because, as my mother said, "those are the parts that make it all interesting!"

1. I was supposed to drop the kids off at our cousins' house in DE by 1:30PM, and thereby make it back up to PA to leave with Brandon by 2PM or so. We were a bit late, no problem, but as I was getting the kids situated, I realized #6 had a stinky diaper. Not wanting to make anyone have to change tons of his diapers, I figured I'd just change him before I left. It was one of the BIGGEST blow-outs, ever! Poop was everywhere! Luckily, I had brought an extra change of clothes, but holy cow (or crap? Ha!)! It made me very late and I didn't get back to our house until after 2:30PM. (Plus I just felt really bad, you know, "Hey, so I'm leaving you with this pooping boy and I cannot guarantee he won't poop like this again, but thanks a million and bye!" And the funny/not funny part? He had two more blow-out diapers while we were gone. Of course.)

2. This one is TMI!! Read at your own risk!! I bought some spanx. If you don't know what spanx are, just imagine some very firm and controlling control-top pantyhose. Sort of. Lovely, right? They actually are, because they hold me all in. Anyway, I didn't realize that because of the tightness of it, they don't expect you to take it off to use the bathroom. In fact, there is a way for you to use the bathroom without taking them off. Ahem. Well, I am an endowed member of the LDS church. This means that I wear garments and I don't take them off just to have a nice dinner (seriously, I made a covenant and all that, although I do believe in dressing for the sport, so I do take them off when it is appropriate like swimming and... well, you know), plus I didn't even know I didn't have to take the spanx off to use the bathroom! I didn't even think about it. Or notice. Or whatever. (Geeze, now I'm starting to embarrass myself). So, we're in Carnegie Hall and I have to use the restroom before the performance. I take everything down (like a normal girl) to do my business (like a normal girl), but when it's time for me to put everything back on? I'm not kidding, it took me at least 10-12 minutes to get the dang things back on again without stripping off everything right there in the stall! I was using arm muscles I didn't know I had! I was wriggling around like a fish and... okay, so you get the picture. Not pretty! But hey, at least they make me look less... bulgy? Sigh... (I never did get everything back on the right way, but luckily nobody could tell...)

3. Brandon was pretty good at finding us the right subway systems (although, I'm sorry, but NYC isn't all that great at public transportation. BART in San Francisco, the Tube in London, the train system in Shanghai --they are all so much better than the subway in NYC! You never know when trains will be shut down, there are five hundred different lines going all different directions, and seriously, you don't even know what platforms to be on to find the right trains, let alone have any idea where the subway stations are located! It's like New Yorkers don't want anyone to visit), but we got really lost on Saturday morning. And it was snowing. And we didn't have hats and forgot the umbrella in the hotel. By the time we finally screamed "uncle" and got the Taxi, we were absolutely drenched!

4. The line to get into the 9/11 Memorial was ridiculous. We got off the subway and walked all the way around the entire complex block to enter it, and had to exit the same place and walk all the way around back to the subway. Add to it the getting of tickets (they make you wait in line and beg you for donations, which is not a bad thing, per se, but really annoying and very cattle-like) and the security line (which wasn't nearly as bad as an airport one), and it ended up being an insane amount of time. Outside. In the cold. [Good thing it was worth it!]

5. Because of all the subway waiting and shifting and such, we didn't make it back to our car until almost 7PM. I had told our cousins we would be back to pick up the kids around 7PM. Needless to say, we didn't make it to DE until almost 9:30PM. We got home, dumped the kids in bed, and then at 4AM, Brandon had to leave to catch a flight for a business trip. It was definitely a fast turn-over, but whatteryagonnado?

So, there you go. The bad to go along with all of the insanely awesome good from my last post (because yes, the good outweighed the bad by a landslide).

Just keepin' it real, folks! Keepin' it real.