The FIrst Parental Check-In

I spent last night scrubbing down my apartment and desperately trying to think of places to hide things I don't want my mother to see. She's coming today for the weekend, for the first time since I've moved up here. It will be the first time she's seen my apartment, really been in my neighborhood and the first time she's been to New York at Christmas time. I'm expecting her to be on her best behavior and hoping that we can live in my room without killing each other, but fearing the worst. As with the TWU/MTA strikes, you hope it won't happen, but must have a back-up plan. So I've developed various itineraries to avoid being in my apartment for long periods of time (besides sleeping) and will let her choose from any of the options. Personally I don't care what we do. I did suggest we NOT go up-town after last weekend's disaster area of Fifth Ave. (I still shudder to think of it) but wonder if she can really handle eating in Chinatown. I won't point out that I practically grew up on Chinese take-out from the place on Andrews Ave.

There are all kinds of things that have changed about me. I walk faster, appear more serious, and take the subway everywhere I can. My mother took the subway the first time we came to New York, but when it randomly expressed to the Bronx freaked out and said never again. she's going to have to suck it up again, however, because we can't spend an hour in a cab going uptown during Friday afternoon rush hour.

We're planning on shopping in SoHo tomorrow, eating in Astoria tonight, and having brunch with pancakes on Sunday morning at Sullivan Diner or Waverly Place Restaurant (She, of course, doesn't know this yet) Then she'll leave Monday morning, only to have me following close behind on Wednesday for the next week and a half. I'll have to drive everywhere, make sure to go to the gym everyday to work on getting rid of those holiday calories and to stay sane. The further I move into my twenties the more rooted my belief system becomes, and I've convinced that moving to New YOrk is one of hte best decisions I could have made regarding my family relationships. We've always been on and off tense and now that tension is, for the most part, alleviated. Because I'm more than 400 miles away. It's a very exciting change.

I wonder what people really want to see of New York. Of course there's traditional stuff galore, but do they ever want to be like a New Yorker and go to the neighborhood coffee shop that secretly serves great bagels or to the newstand where, if you go enough, occasionally you'll get free papers? It's ahard to say. i know that when I was just visiting up here I was intrigued by mid-town but fell in love with the Village, a good reason for living down there. And I still love it. I like walking to work through pre-schoolers, and the same dogs I see everyday and couples running. The question is, will my parents? Their greatest fear is that I love it up here so much I never come back. And it may be true.