Winter Break Wind Up

Breaking Out

We made it out of NYC on Monday evening after a pretty useless weekend watching the start of Winter Break roll in. Since Nacho was working until a red eye landing on Sunday morning, I was home alone wondering where in the world we would be going when we finally made a decision. It was such a mess of options and filled flights that I wasn't exactly feeling optimistic. Part of me desperately wanted to go some place new and yet the the cost of hotels and rental cars adds up even when the flights are free. So there was a lot to consider and nothing was jumping at me. I checked all the major European capitals and the only one that looked great was Frankfurt from Sun-Sun. In the States, our vision of hitting San Juan or Seattle quickly started to fade as the flights looked iffy. And the weather in Seattle wasn't exactly enchanting me. Of all the places I wasn't expecting, St. Louis looked really pretty decent with temps in the mid 70s all week and lots of kid-friendly outings to appease our travelers. But then, well, it just wasn't clinching the deal. Nacho returned from his trip and we spent the better part of Sunday morning trying to solidify our plan. He needed to rest that day, so it kind of ruled out Frankfurt for me since I really wanted to get a jump start if we were going to Europe. Of course, that was the ideal. But then he kept mentioning Madrid and it was clear he was itching to go home. So why not? Of course I wanted to see the family too and the girls would get over their initial disappointment that we weren't going to see the arch in St. Louis and swim at a hotel all week (Reminder: Next time don't mention ALL the options! Oops). Carolina frowned and said she didn't want to go to Spain because she didn't like the way it smelled. Of cigarettes, diesel exhaust and too much jamon, I wondered? Oh but I digress...we went and it was all fine. Getting the last row in the mid-section with a seat between me and Elisa worked fine and Nacho took Carolina in the row ahead of us. We made it in time to get dinner in the terminal and relax just a bit before boarding....

It's Official: Snow Day!

If this week has been anything, it's been a yin and yang. We were almost sweating sitting in the sun at Washington Square Park on Wednesday. With temps near 60F I really had to try hard to remember it wasn't the first day of spring. And then, just like that our fortunes reversed.  Last night by about 7pm we had the official notification about Thursday from the NYC public schools: SNOW DAY! And why not? It was already supposed to be a storm packing high winds and a possible 8-12 inches of snow throughout the day. I for one appreciated the earlier than usual school closure. But of course I realize that I'm not exactly in a position to care. It's true that most of my work happens seasonally and part time at that. So I'm fortunate that it's mostly contained when it comes to interfering with school closures and sick outs. I did brush up against that once in January when Elisa was home sick the morning of a photo shoot, but I found a sitter at the last minute and it all went off without a hitch. But this day off would be nothing but a slight change of pace and hopefully a relaxing one I thought. And it sort of was. The girls woke early per their normal day-off tendencies. God forbid they get out of bed by 7am on a fucking school morning. But no, by 7am on a day off they are springing to life. So we let them destroy the living room with pillows and cushion forts watching too much TV and make their own yogurt-heavy breakfast. But by 9:30am I was willing to get up. Then it was pancakes and sausage, eggs and tea--all the things I needed to get out the door on this chilly day. We didn't actually leave for a few more hours mostly because Elisa was seriously dragging her feet, but even so, we still managed to make it to the gardens for a little stomping around in the snow. Birdie's backyard offered a small staircase to sled down and the girls were happy enough with that and a brief visit to see friends. Making it home with Thai food later was the best end to the day I could have asked for...well until I made us Manhattans with the new Luxardo liquer our elderly neighbor brought by. Not a bad snow day after all. 

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