Thirtysomething

Hope

Friday was a great day. I had taken the day off from work and was off to visit Hope in Hoboken. It was a beautifully crisp, sunny morning and I boarded a train at 30th Street Station at 7am. I love 30th Street Station, it's beautiful. I spent the ride re-reading The Time Traveler's Wife for the book club, which I'm hosting next month. I love trains. Especially non-crowded trains, where I can read and no one is sitting the seat right next to me. I was a little worried that I'd hit a rush hour train, but it was relatively uncrowded, leaving me in peace to read and watch the scenery. Whenever I take a train into North Jersey, I'm always struck by the Manahattan skyline. It looks so beautiful, but so different now.

I got off at Penn Station in Manahattan with plans of taking the PATH back into New Jersey. Although it seems alittle backwards that I would take a train through North Jersey into Manahattan only to head back to North Jersey, it's actually easier than getting off at Newark. Getting off at Newark involves taking 3 different PATHs to Hoboken, and frankly the more trains you put me on, the more likely I get lost. I exited Penn station and walked the one block to the PATH station. With all of the underground tunnels in Manahattan you would think they would have gone for broke and drilled one more block and connected the PATH to Penn Station. But no, you have to go outside in the cold and walk that one, seemingly endless block.

On Friday, I enjoyed that block. It was windy as hell, but bright and sunny. New York has a great energy to it. It was about 9:30am and I felt great. The train I needed was waiting when I got down into the station and off to Hoboken I went. It only takes about 20 minutes. Hoboken is a great town, lots of cute mom-and-pop shops and not too many chains. What was great about my walk from the station to Hope's place, was that I wasn't in a rush. I'm usually always in a rush. Even if I don't have anywhere specific that I have to be, I still rush. Instead I just sort of meandered down Washington Avenue, which has sidewalks so wide, you don't feel cramped. I looked in store windows. I got a coffee and a doughnut. I bought Hope flowers. I walked pretty slowly.

Hope and Ryan greeted me at the door. Ryan's a lot more like a real baby now. He 12 pounds, smiles and likes to throw his head around. I spent alot of the morning carrying him around. At one point Hope commented on how weird it was to see me with a baby. I get that a lot. If I'm holding a baby, people think it's weird. Not because I myself don't have a baby, but the concept of me cuddling something, being cute with something is completely foreign to people. I just seem like the type of person that tortures babies and puppies for fun. Which is usually true. But I spare Hope's baby of this torture, except as it relates to hats. For some reason, I find baby hats that have bear ears attached to them too adorable for words. Ryan is bestowed with a new hat with ears each time I see him. I make him try it on. He usually cries.

He's only 2 months old and knows nothing about fashion.

posted by DJ Heavy D @ 6:02 AM