Family weekend in the city

The whole fambo -- mom, pop, my bro + co, all showed up at our place last Friday. We had planned a weekend in the city and I was super thrilled it all came together.  Most arrived on the early side. 

My brother and Jack showed up at like 11pm on Friday night. 

On Saturday morning, our first group activity was to go make sure their car was still there. Sometimes parking signs around here are hard to decipher and tow trucks are a thing. Good news! The car remained, with no tickets even. We all admired how it was parked at like a 30 degree angle. Unsurprising, I guess. They were coming in hot.

We all walked over to Chelsea Market for lunch. Chelsea Market wouldn't be the first place on my list, but it holds family memories. 

out front Chelsea Market

I remember when the twins were babies and required constant entertainment. Like 24-35 hours a day, every day of the week entertainment. It was harrowing. When they'd visit, we'd wheel the strollers over to Chelsea Market and position them right in front of that fountain in there. The twins were fascinated by it. It was like a half an hour of reprieve for their exhausted parents. 

the fountain with less water
than it used to have in 
Chelsea Market

Jack said he remembered the fountain. He said he remembered it being a lot bigger. I said it was the same size, but it used to shoot out more water. We agreed to disagree. 

I didn't push it, but of course I'm correct. First, I saw the fountain way more than Jack, it's a block from our apartment for chrissakes. Also, but not inconsequentially, Jack was maybe 28 inches tall last time he was there.

After lunch, I took (dragged?) everybody into Pearl River Mart. Something for everyone in that place. I'm slightly in the market for a fan so I poked around in the rack.

It was one of those moments where I wonder if I just created a butterfly effect. Granted, probably a very minuscule butterfly effect. A gnat effect maybe. Ella was kind of hovering nearby so I asked if she wanted a fan too. 

Then I stopped and said, "Meh, you probably wouldn't carry a fan in the suburbs. Fans might be a city-only thing."

Anyway, Ella looked at me a little bit too long. I think her brain cells had, in that exact moment, absorbed that there are City and Not-City things. I think she realized that if you were wearing too many Not-City things, you might be identifiable as Not-City. 

For the whole rest of the weekend, she always hustled up to make sure she was walking next to me, Uncle Tom or her brother. Everybody else, I suppose, carried the trappings of Not City. 

She wanted to be on the City side of the equation. 

Give the kid a dub on this one for sure. She locked down the whole city walking-along-looking-completely-bored thing on the quick. Granted, she has had ample practice being a teenage girl and all. 

On the heels of this incident, because I am the kind of aunt who has a big mouth, I accidentally taught my nephew the term "jazz cigarettes." 

As in, "Aunt Stacey I think that guy is smoking pot!" 

"I believe it's called a jazz cigarette, Jack."

My nephew thought this was hilarious and probably said jazz cigarette 75 times in the next 6 hours. I wasn't sure how I felt about the whole thing. Back when he was really little, it must have been No-Filter Friday because I used the word drunk in a sentence while chatting with 4-year-old Jack. Of course, his sticky little brain keyed right onto it. And thus, I had to explain to my nephew what drunk meant. 

The whole disaster is here, for the curious: https://waitingtogetthere.blogspot.com/2013/01/drunk-druhngk-not-entirely-child.html. 

But seriously, how do you explain to a four year old what drunk means??? People prepare for years to give the drugs and alcohol talk to their kids. Meanwhile, put me on the contender list for the bad aunt trophy.

After that, we all went home and rested. I'll tell you another thing that separates City from Not City. We walk a lot in the city. We do not require interstitial naps.

PS: If you're looking for a nice day in Chelsea with teenagers, do this:

Grey Dog or Cafe Clune or Jack's Wife Freda for breakfast.
Chelsea Market for lunch. Poke around Pearl River Mart and Artists & Fleas.
Little Island
The Whitney
Chama Mama Georgian for dinner
The Museum of Illusion in the evening