Welcome to my first performance review post! Today’s review was sponsored by the great Milena Barrett of Be Your Best Mom Dot Com. Big thanks to Ms. Barrett for such an enjoyable opportunity! Last Saturday, November 5, S10 and I headed out to NYC to see Chotto Desh, a family-friendly dance performance by the Akram Khan Company. Hopefully this is just the first experience like this of many! The story begins here….. (start reading below, then follow the link to the Be Your Best Mom site for the rest!)
Hittin’ The Road
My show ticket
S10 had a make-up soccer game that morning from 9 am-10 am, which unfortunately meant that we weren’t going to have a lot of time in NYC before the show. We left straight from the game, which ended as a tie (S10 changed in the car on the way), and boarded the 10:58 Metro North express train to Grand Central Station, with an anticipated arrival time of 12:30 pm.
Waitin’ for the train at the station
Our train tickets were purchased with this cool app that generated e-tickets that could be checked via smartphone! I simply purchased the tickets that morning, and activated them 10 minutes before the train arrived. When the ticket-taker approached me, I showed him one of the tickets on my phone, swiped to show when it was activated, and voila, done! Twas pretty neat!
Train Leaves Here This Morning
Any excuse to throw some video of my absolute favorite band into a blog post, I’ll take. See that guy on bass? Love him. <3 Anyway, back to my trip….
How S10 spent the train ride to NYC.
So there was one downside of purchasing my tickets on my phone, which was that I had to make sure not to wear down my phone battery before our return trip. If I couldn’t power on my phone, I couldn’t get my tickets activated or checked, and would have to buy tickets twice, which would be no bueno on the ol’ wallet. Thus, to preserve battery, I tried my best not to use my phone for entertainment/social chat, and other than taking pictures or texting Mike to check on S2, I left it alone.
Since I didn’t bring a book or any other entertainment for the 90-minute train ride to NYC, I had nothing to occupy me for the whole trip. This concerned S10. So much so, in fact, that she kept asking if I wanted to share her headphones or needed paper or anything else she brought in her little trip bag o’ fun. She just couldn’t comprehend that I was fine just sitting quietly, watching either S10 color a picture, or the scenery outside the window pass by. Ha! Therein lies one of the biggest differences between my generation and hers; the ability to Not Do Anything For A Long Time Yet Not Be Bored. Yes, I have the power.
In The City
Ok, one more. There is an Eagles song for almost every life situation, I tell you. <3
The girl and me in GCT
We arrived at Grand Central Station on time, around 12:30 pm. S10 had been here before, as her grandparents have brought her to NYC for various reasons over the years. However, with Grandma and Grandpa, public transport consisted of taking taxis to wherever they needed to go. Ha! Mama Cheapskate here travels NYC quite differently. When I told S10 we were going to take the S subway shuttle over to Times Square, her eyes widened.
“The subway?” she asked. “The one that goes under the ground?”
Yes, dear. That one.
It had been years since I had ridden on the NYC subways. My lack of familiarity probably led me to appear quite the fool as I searched the station for the token counter. Apparently, those no longer exist. It’s all Metro card machines now. And the price of a 1-trip card….. is currently at an effing cray-cray $3.00. Damn!
“So that’s $48 for train tickets, and $12.00 for the subway rides,” S10 informed me. “We’ve spent $60 on traveling today.”
Some days I wish she wasn’t so good at math.
Times Square
Those chicken fingers with mac and cheese should have been coated with gold for what they cost me.
We survived the shuttle, and arrived at Times Square around 12:45. Since we were a little pressed for time, we had to decide on a lunch place rather quickly. S10 is quite a picky eater, so “trying a place that looks cool” would have been a time and financial gamble. Therefore, culinary familiarity would have to be a necessity for lunchtime today.
S10 and I ended up dining at the Times Square Applebees, located conveniently across the street from the theater. And for realz, when I received the $60 (with 20% tip) bill for two meals and two drinks, I almost choked. But rather than dwell on the insanely overpriced fast food, I instead put the culinary wallet-dent out of my mind, and focused on having a good time with my girl, who is worth the expense and then some. And with that notion, S10 and I headed over to the theater around 1:30 pm.
Read my review of the theater and the show along with show details by clicking on Be Your Best Mom Dot Com!
Thanks for reading!