Ok, not all day. But pretty much all afternoon. I like having no car. I love public transportation, but three and a half hours and seven transfers is a bit much, even for me. It was a fluke. A badly timed class for Briton that had me dropping him off in one corner of Manhattan, heading all the way up the the opposite corner to pick Evie up from school and then turning right around and going back to get him before coming all the way home again. It won't be repeated. There were too many tears from tired children to try to pull that off again. Somewhere in the third hour I realized why people allow their kids to ride the subway on their own. It's the same reason that I started carting my younger brother to soccer practice as soon as I had a drivers license. Schlepping one kid from activity to activity is hard work and when a second child's schedule gets added to the mix, well, the logistics can get a little hairy. I can't even imagine what would happen with, say, five kids. My grandmother is a saint to have lived through that (and she didn't even drive!)
On the plus side, I realized, right about the time when everyone was getting a little overemotional, that we were five short blocks away from our favorite ice cream store. And that saved the day. That and the giant sparkly unicorn painted on the wall of the store which Evelyn decided was there just for her. "I like this place. They like unicorns!" Indeed they do.Also, I saw a guy dressed EXACTLY like this.
Down to the trailing hair around the face. I kid you not. Yet another moment that I wished I had a camera inside my eyes. I would have taken a photo except, well, I was carrying two backpacks, a bag, three coats, and a five year old at the time, so, I couldn't quite get to my camera.The subway can be exhausting and crowded and frustrating, but at least it's always entertaining.