?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?On our way to Cape Cod this year we made a fun pitstop - New York City to see my brother Grant and his girlfriend Kelly! Grant has been in New York for 3 years and I have never had a chance to visit since, normally he heads home to see the lot of us. On Saturday AM we decided to rectify that by meeting Grant and Kelly for brunch and to scope out their soon to be new place come September!
When first planning this pitstop I thought it was perfect - we can see Grant, it can make the trip a little more fun and that is one less public bathroom I have to use (#OCDproblems). As the day approached reality started to hit - New York is not really a pop in pop out sorta deal, Danny is driving and that is extra stress, Cape Cod travel is serious business with my hubby who barely likes to stop and THE DOG! Thoughts were flying through my head! This time I told my A-type OCD self to shut it and just went with the flow. Danny and I used to have SO MUCH FUN with the unexpected, unplanned, jaunting way of life…..and the whole being early 20s thing….but maybe this was the perfect way to start vacation! Plus my dog is a dog - I love him like a child (sorry for all the pictures) and I would do anything for him - but he is a dog and I need to help him adjust to us, not the other way around. So onto NYC we went!
The next step was how to visit. Grant and Kelly don’t live together yet so that means roommates, arriving anytime after 10AM - which for young 20 somethings in NYC a Shiba bark may not be their ideal for a wake up call- and we had the dog so where the heck could we go? My brother said no worries, my husband said no worries, so again I shut myself up and went with the flow…..the flow lead us to brunch!
I LOVE ME SOME BRUNCH!!! Like LOVE! I love a good eggs Benedict and mimosa, pancakes and potatoes…..yummmmm - but I had never done brunch with vegetarians (my brother) or with my dog outside the confines of my home. My hopes for an early vacation adventure was definitely coming true - how the world would this work??? However brunch ended up being the best thing! It felt like we were neighbors of Kelly and Grant, just meeting up like all the young fun folks do (yes I felt old, boring and very unfashionable in yoga pants)! We peeked into Kelly’s current apartment which will be theirs in a few weeks, we walked around the neighborhood - even saw my brother’s first place ever living in the city- it was the perfect quick visit pitstop!
Brunch itself was delicious! We ordered delicious eats, we were able to dine outside with a cool breeze and let the city pass us by, and they even gave Quinlan a big bowl of water. We ate most of our meal pretty peacefully - but I have to give Danny HUGE applause for handling the Shiba! When dogs walked by and he lost it Dan removed him from the table. When he needed a distraction of food -Dan had it at the ready! And when he was quiet for a second Dan was back in the convo without a missed step….it was impressive.
I of course had a few moments (queue the a lab coming in to sit at the table next to us, Danny trying to corral Quinlan, my jumping out of my seat to help - and my seat hit the floor sending my purse sprawling and basically my chair blocking the other nice puppy mom from siting down!) where I understand what it must be like to try and meet up with your friends that don’t have kids for brunch telling them "nothing has changed” since you had kids and they can just join! YIKES! But those people I appreciate and I hope my brother and Kelly did not mind too much with us! Plus it was a good reality check for me - I have recently come to terms with not caring what strangers think - which is huge. I apologized to the table next us about my little pound puppy who had never been to NYC (or brunch for that matter) and he was still learning to get along with other pups, then just moved on! I did not dwell or apologize or explain over and over - that is life, stuff happens!
Of course my family and any of the general public we passed or who witnessed Quinlan’s massive dump on the sidewalk my disagree, but Danny and I were thrilled with how well Q did in the city! He was totally enamored with the sights and smells and seemed to stare at all the people (mostly) kindly waiting for an admiring of his cuteness! The train freaked him out and as it passed above our heads in Williamsburg, Quinlan had to army crawl for a few blocks, but he survived. And he seemed to really love that everyone was out walking and being part of the crowd. My feelings of how perfect this little visit was were cemented as it felt like we were just part of the everyday Saturday crowd and Danny and I got to enjoy Grant’s corner of the city.
Throughout my blog you will hear all about my siblings and why they may drive me crazy and vice versa, but mostly how they are the best - as my family is a huge part of my world. And one of the most amazing things to experience is how during various parts of our lives, we each connect or become closer to a different sibling. In my college years and Grant’s teen years we were pretty close and just “got each other”. Grant was always a bit rebellious and walked to the beat of his own drum. I was always pretty straight-laced and concerned with being perfect, so I appreciated (maybe envied) his approach to life and liked to support it, most of the time. Grant’s life in his 20s has brought some big changes and a new location which has changed our dynamic some. Growing pains are inevitable and we both have our own lives, which can fill your days….but no matter what I am so proud of him. He has worked really hard for the dream of being in NYC and has worked even harder at identifying his own value system. Although starkly different than my own, I am in awe of his dedication to his beliefs and his commitment to becoming the person he dreams of being - a hard feat (he become vegan for his health and lost 70 pounds!!!). I am so proud of him for his convictions and honored to call him my brother. It was such a good visit to see a day in his life and enjoy his world for a moment! Both Danny and I vowed this will not be the last visit in 2014 (here is hoping!!)!
Hope everyone is enjoying a great week - and for me…I am back to the Cape living!!
PS-Kelly said the visit was really good, it will really help them seriously consider if they are ready for a dog…..oooo Quinlan!
