Despite being my first day back in Austin, it feels like I’m still in New York. I realize it’s because I have plans. In NYC there was always a birthday party, a new restaurant opening, or a bar where we’d meet for drinks. Here in Austin I don’t make as many plans because they involve planning. In Manhattan plans seemed to come upon me last minute, via a twitter or taxi-ride phone text. Here, though, plans usually involve going to the country club bar (because they have free babysitting, and we like the regulars), or meeting at someone’s house for dinner, where inevitably, I’m in constant terror of my children being eaten by their dog, or falling down their concrete steps, or french kissing their electrical sockets.
This coming weekend a postponed birthday party celebration is now on–for the woman who saw my ass while fitting me for a dress and still wanted to be my friend. And tonight, I’m excited to say, I have big-girl plans to celebrate Lacey’s birthday at the new wine bar and restaurant Mulberry. I’m planning on rolling out old school with my SLR slung across my bod, and I might just post the after-pics and highlights later tonight… um, or tomorrow. Or, okay, not at all.
After a healthy and much loved girl dose while in LA with friends Colleen and Leigha, I have to say I’m a little spoiled. I want more girl time. More drink time. More brainstorming. More talks. And at the same time, while being in New York for my step-sister’s wedding (which was hardcore beautiful in so many ways), I was able to spend so much time with the taters, that I’m a little spoiled there, too. I have no doubt that while at dinner tonight, I’ll accidentally start to sign my sentences as I say them. By far it’s one of the cutest things these little roast beef sandwiches do: when they sign the word PLEASE. We all just stand around watching them, elbowing one another. "Did you see that? Abigail just signed MILK and said CK." I’ve totally become that mom, the one who kinda melts when she sees her kid go down the big slide all by himself. It’s a little bit amazing to me that we can be all these things, that we can be enchanted by things that are so disparate. It fascinates me the way we’re able to squeeze into our Spanx, make time for Fringe on TV, derive pleasure from passion fruit coulis, prep a watercolors station for our toddlers, teach a friend how to swaddle, and another how to break-up and mean it. On some level, it’s almost like realizing that your mother is just a person, that she’s human and shaves her legs. She’s mortal and has her own interests beyond you. In a way I think I’m just now learning how to make room for it all. Because what I’ve realized most in traveling recently is how much I value friendship and the stories of others, and also how much I value my family and the stories we’re just now creating.
