i didn't see ina. or martha

I had fabulous plans to play Where's Waldo with you all last week and make you guess where I went on my trip.

I was going to post pictures like this....


....and give a prize to the first person who could name the location of this lovely lighthouse.

Doesn't that sound like fun?

I think it sounds like lots of fun.

But like many of my great ideas, follow through was its downfall, and before I knew it, I was right back at home. It seems a little anti-climactic to make you guess where I was a week ago, when I am currently sitting in my cozy house in my sweatpants, drinking my coffee just like every other day of the year.

But this time last week, I was visiting my oldest son and his lovely wife and cruising around The Hamptons and pretending I knew how to say words like Quogue and Ponquogue and Cutchogue.

I was also repeatedly enjoying amazing pizza and bagels, and eating my body weight in cheesecake and ice cream. I was under direct orders from my sister to eat a Friendly's Reese's Peanut Butter Cup sundae, and between that and the coffee caramel ice cream shake that is my daughter-in-law's current favorite breakfast, let's just say I'm glad I brought my fat jeans and leave it at that.


I love that I can now picture my people in their habitat. I love that I know what their house looks like, and where they go for their morning coffee.

I don't love that I will forever be extra jealous when they tell me they're going out for New York style pizza pie while I'm eating my Papa Murphy's take and bake and crying just a little.


We finished out the visit with a trip to the city.

I got to ride the subway.

I got to ride in a taxi.

We visited Ground Zero and even though we couldn't really see much of anything, I'm glad I went.

We ate dinner in a cute little Italian restaurant with Laura Dern. She was behind a curtain that the waiters neglected to close all the way, but as a result of the experience, I feel the need to watch Jurassic Park again.

I went to Radio City Music Hall and saw Cirque Du Soliel's Zarkana.

I stepped in various and assorted questionable substances in the city streets and slept in a fancy city hotel.

I made three different trips through Penn Station, and if it weren't for the fact that my son was my knowledgeable escort all three times, I would absolutely, positively still be there wandering the dark caverns of the New York City underground, with absolutely no clue how to get where I was going.

I know my trip touched only the tiniest tip of the New York iceberg, but it was just the perfect sized bite for my first visit to The Big Apple.

Dear New York Son and Daughter-In-Law,
I miss you!
I'll be back, and that's a promise.
Love,
Ma