A DAY TO MYSELF

I had the most divinely luxurious day all to myself. There was no school for spring break and the idea of 5 straight days of unstructured time with Roan made me queasy, so I booked my mom to watch Roan on Friday (thank you mom).

I met my mom at Grand Central Terminal for the handover.  She took him to Nick Cave's horse exhibit there while I started my day of decadence by hitting Jo Malone up for some free samples.  Then I went uptown to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  It was a perfect, crisp spring day. The Met is my old stomping ground.  My elementary school was a block away and my best friend Cecelia and I used to go to the Met during lunch period and run around the exhibits until we got shooed out by the guards.

There was a Willian Eggleston exhibit that I was intrigued to see because he's not someone you would expect to be at the Met.  It was a nice show but I'd already seen most of the prints elsewhere. The piece I was really blown away by was Street by James Nares.  It was completely mesmerizing. Any description I give will not do it justice, so all I will say is that it is amazing how compelling ordinary life is when you slow it way way down.  I wandered through the insane medieval gates and into the meticulously recreated European palace rooms, where the tea sets are out on the gilded tables as if waiting for guests.

Grand Staircase at the Met

I needed a bit of an antidote to all the high art so I left and went to H & M (I am amazed at how much time I used to spend wandering through shops not even buying things, just perusing,  before I had kids.  Such a luxury!) and then to the famous Grey's Papaya on 86th and 3rd Ave for lunch.  I was inspired to take some photos in homage to Eggleston.

Next I went for the ultimate in Upper East Side indulgences - although on the UES they're not really a luxury, they're pretty much standard issue.  However, I made a pact with myself that I could only go for the mani/pedi if I did some reading I have been putting off - desperately overdue!

Lastly, to maximize my ultimate "me" day I went and saw a matinee movie by myself.  It was perfect- not an earth shattering movie but a decent psychological thriller.  I even got Reeses Pieces. 

After, in a daze of day darkness and refined sugar I went to pick up Roan at my moms.  He had blue hands from dying Easter eggs.  She let him have pancakes AND waffles for lunch.

Magnified

To all you busy moms and dads out there, I cannot recommend having a day like this enough.  Call in sick from work, blackmail the babysitter, anything you can do to get an entire day to yourself and just do it.  It helps you to remember that you are a person, an entirely separate entity from all of your beloved dependents.