Mini-TR: New York, New York! Day 0: Prepwork (Friday, August 2nd)
I can’t believe how fast this summer has flown by! DH and I just got back from our annual vacation, which we usually take at the beginning of August. This year we decided to visit my family in New York, which with the baby coming, might become an annual thing separate from a vacation somewhere else if we can afford both.
No pictures from this particular day, since it's all packing related. So you'll just have to endure my witty words instead.
Our flight to New York was at 9 am the following day, so we had to make sure we were all set the night before. I try to get my packing started super far in advance, but my husband has an infuriating habit of not packing until he gets home from work. And he works nights. Yeah.
Luckily, this time he had a nice break in the middle of his workday, so he was able to come home and get most of the packing done. For the first time ever, we’d also have a house sitter while we were away, so I took some time to make sure the house was neat and clean and important things were labeled (we have smart lights everywhere, so I went around and labeled what the different light names were. Turns out our sitter decided it was all too confusing, so he just used the regular switches, which my husband was NOT happy about).
I had been cat sitting for my friends G and T all week, but they wouldn’t be back until Sunday so our friend E would be taking over on Saturday. She lives close by so when I went out to pick up some last-minute stuff at CVS, I stopped by to see if she was home so I could give her the key. She was, and that ended up derailing me for awhile while we chatted. Always nice to hang out with a friend, but definitely took some time away that I should have spent getting ready. Oh well!
DH got home around 10:30 and finished packing. At some point, probably around 11, I went into the bedroom to try to get some sleep, but of course he had to mill about in the bedroom. So I mostly just sat in bed wide awake while he worked. But then, dear reader, then he did something egregious.
I had laid out my outfit for the next morning on my dresser so that I could minimize my getting ready time. A nice sundress and my walking sandals. DH comes into the bedroom, sees the sandals and holds them up. Then he says the words that will surely be quoted in our divorce proceedings.
“I’m gonna throw these out, k?”
He had me in a bind.
Yes, they were old sandals and what one MIGHT describe as more than a little “past their prime.” But they were comfortable and they were mine and they were the only non-dress shoes I had that would go with the dress and allow me to walk around NYC without discomfort. My only other options were sneakers (with a dress???) or my Toms, which I knew would not serve me well after a few blocks of walking.
If I said yes, throw them out, I would no longer have the shoes and would have to re-configure my whole outfit for the next day. If I said no, then he would know that I was a disgusting, old shoe-wearing hag, and he’d probably need to have me committed to a psych ward.
Reader, I grit my teeth and told him to throw out the shoes.
He assured me that New York, both city and upstate, were positively filled with stores that would sell me new, not gross sandals that I could purchase, or that he would even purchase for me if I wanted. I wasn’t sure if I believed him. I wasn’t sure I could find a pair that satisfied me the way those had for so many years. They had gotten me through so many walks around the Disney parks and other locations that required comfortable shoes that weren’t sneakers.
I felt lost. Adrift.
But I pressed on.
Eventually, around midnight, he came to bed, and I was kept awake by horrible thoughts. Would I really have time to get new sandals during this trip? Was I married to a heartless monster? WHAT WAS I GOING TO WEAR TOMORROW???
Stay tuned…