Tag: Macy’s

Sometimes the simple things take me so long, like logging onto the internet using the hotel’s wifi connection that by the time I have my Clownmommy dashboard on the screen I forgot what I had intended to write about.

I don’t know how much of my “writing time” I wasted hitting buttons and guessing at the procedure for logging in from a different connection.  I ended up calling The Husband on the phone and having him walk me through the simple procedure that I ought to have down by now.  But, I don’t.  Story of my life–and that’s why I am a clown.  The movements are too small though, getting frustrated in front of a laptop, it would have to be so subtle, so underplayed.  Maybe it could work on film, certainly not on stage.  In either case it would be a pretty boring piece to watch.  (I do have a performance date in the fall…will I do something completely new or rework something I’ve already tried…)

While I am trying to remember what brilliant mommy thoughts I had that are now lost I am overhearing parts of the conversation of the two men at the set of couches next to my own seating arrangement here in the lobby of the Westin.  One of the men seems to be ordering custom made shirts and possibly other clothing from the other man.  It seems to be a regular event as the salesman type in a suit said to the other man in shirtsleeves “See you in September.”  And they both made references to “last time.”  I think that’s how Obama gets his clothes.  Fascinating.  Most of my clothes come from the sale racks at discount stores. 

Speaking of clothes, I have been looking at the clothes of the people on the street her in Seattle.  So much khaki, such baggy clothes.  It was a difference I noticed right away when we moved to New York and there was so much black and the clothes were so much tighter, even on people who weren’t athlete thin.  There is also more bright  color in New York.  Seattle people wear muted earth tones.  When we come back each summer I start to feel dressed wrong in Seattle, but by the time I am in Missoula I start out feeling so uncomfortable I inevitably buy items like Tevas or shorts that I proceed to wear nearly every day of my visit home and never wear again back in New York.  But I did notice a Gucci and Louis Vitton stores right across the street from each other near the 5th Avenue theatre in Downtown Seattle.  That was a bit disorienting.

 I see the thin young people riding their bikes and am then startled to see myself, a middle-aged mom type, reflected in a window, not at all the person I was when I lived her as an aspiring actress riding a bike while wearing Dock Martin boots with black leggings under a skirt, oversized T and flannel shirts.  Yeah that.  I also learned from another out of work actor that if you got a very large Starbucks coffee off the day you could doctor it up with vanilla and cinnamon and milk and it tasted like a latte and with enough milk it was a fine stand in for a meal all for less than $2.  

That period of my life came completely to an end when The Husband, Baby and I flew back to Seattle from NYC where we had lived for only a couple of months for the final Annex party in the theatre space at 1916 Fourth Avenue.  We stayed at the Kings Inn under the Monorail tracks on 5th Avenue.  In preparation for the trip I pushed my stroller around Macy’s in Fulton Mall and Marshall’s at Atlantic center struggling to find something “presentable. .  Presentable was a disappointing goal for such an emotionally charged special event.    I was still nursing so I ended up with a easy access stretchy polyester  top and skirt outfit for the party, a far cry from the slip-like or corset containing Betsy Johnson dresses I had worn to previous Annex-related events that were part of the courtship that led to our wedding here in Seattle over 10 years ago.

And my alone time has once again come to an end, The Husband, My Kid and The Mother-In-Law will be here in a few moments and we’re going to drive to a mall.

Mommy Camp went off with a bang and I am exhausted

Thank goodness today’s scheduled group Mommy Camp was cancelled because I am exhausted and I have to work the Macy’s Fireworks VIP audience tonight.

We decided on the way home from Coney Island yesterday afternoon that we did not need to get up early today and rush to the Painted Pot to decorate knickknacks in yet another fun-filled activity during our Mommy Camp Summer-Kick-Off Week.

On Monday we met at noon to see the 12:30 showing of Wall*E at Cobble Hill Cinema, afterwards we had pizza in a restaurant and spent the rest of the afternoon with water balloons (some of us until after 6pm) at Peirrepont Playground on the Promenade in Brooklyn Heights.  On Tuesday we Met at Melody Lanes Bowling Alley at 10am (I ducked out to meet the cleaning lady at my apartment–she never showed–so I made phone calls about clown stuff and paid bills–she is here now with her mother–how embarrassing for me) and returned to meet the group again at Pierrepont Playground where we stayed until after 6pm.  Then I brought My Kid and her friend home for a sleepover.  We walked to Ft. Green from Brooklyn Heights through Fulton Mall, stopping at Cookies to buy cheap plastic walkie talkies CUZ WE NEEEEEED THEM FOR OUR SLEEPOVER!.  At home we made tacos.  The girls had fun cutting up tomatoes and lettuce with plastic knives.  Then at 9:30 we went outside and walked to Fort Greene Park looking for fireflies.  Two were captured.  Many never made it into the jar, then one of the two prisoners escaped.  The other was granted clemency and freed. The girls desperately needed a bath and so they had one.  They were asleep by 11:30.  But we had to get up early because I had a 9am appointment in Brooklyn Heights.  I was late.  The kids played Ninetendo in the waiting room.  Then we met up with the others and took the train and a bus to Chelsea Piers to go ice skating.  But, none of us had checked in advanced and the rink was closed to the public.  So we went, as scheduled to the water playground next to Chelsea Piers and then (as a quick Plan B) to Dave and Busters in Times Square where everyone ate greasy food and the adults drank overpriced tropical drinks and spent too much on games for the kids.  Afterwards we returned My Kid’s friend to her apartment where her mom had been home all day with a sick 4-year-old, a baby, and less than 24 hours to pack camping gear and clothes for a family of 5 before a flight to Colorado the next day.  My Kid and I again walked home from Brooklyn Heights through Fulton Mall. (Meanwhile Enthusiastic Mom took her son to a baseball game at Yankee Stadium and they got home at midnight)  I think we ate Chinese take-out.  I think we watched “So You Think You Can Dance” on TV.  I was beginning to wonder if the week of fun would ever end.  Nope not yet.  Next on the schedule–Thursday morning we met on the Q train for a trip to Coney Island; Astroland unlimited ride bracelets, Nathan’s cheese fries.  Sand and Sea.  And the inevitable melt-down.  My Kid was too short to ride the pirate ship but her friend was tall enough.  So My Kid got to play some games and win some MORE stuffed animals to add to the clutter in our apartment.

 Enthusiastic Mom had e-mailed us a spread-sheet schedule of the week’s planned activities. The kids were all supposed to wear the same colored shirt each day (so they would look like a group just like real day camp kids) which they took seriously.  Monday was white, Tuesday was red, Wednesday was blue, Thursday was yellow.  We discussed changing plans, but unfortunately our kids are old enough to read and in fact had been studying the schedule.  The children would not allow us to deviate much from what had been printed. (Thank goodness they were also exhausted by Thursday night so we could cancel today–which isn’t really a day of nothing since it is the 4th of July and that involves at the very least schlepping out somewhere to stand with a crowd to watch the fireworks and then schlepping home in the dark and possibly rain.)  That’s why we still had to go to Astroland at Coney Island even though we had spent the previous afternoon at Dave and Busters in Times Square.  They are effectively the same thing from a spending money for nothing point of view. 

All in all it was a good week.  But, I will be glad to get back to My Kid’s version of Mommy Camp which is much more like homeschooling with reading and writing, math and science, and art (what can I do that’s what My Kid said she wanted…)  But, we’ll be going to Montana for two weeks and accompanying My Husband on a business trip to Toronto in August so I don’t know how many days of this brand of low-key educational mommy camp she will actually get.