NYC Entertainment

I got my bugaboo. Not exactly in the color I wanted (bright green: JD is thrilled. He thinks it's a very masculine-looking color, although in truth I think he just liked the price), and with a large and rather distinctive stain on the seat, but, um, that's where the baby is supposed to sit so nobody but me will ever see it ... oh, and did I mention I paid $250 - accessories included? Sounds fabulous, right?

Except, of course, for the need to immediately pick up said find between the end of Yom Kippur and the beginning of shabbos about 1 hour and 15 minutes away from my current residence via the subway. And on a busy Friday. So I ran from my meeting and made great time on the way out there, only to be met with absurd NYC subway traffic and crowding on the way back to my apartment. All while racing to get home for shabbos and carrying a very heavy, and empty, stroller through Friday rush hour.

To say I got a lot of unwanted attention would be an understatement.

But most surprisingly I also had some very pleasant conversations. A woman with a big bouquet of flowers asked if she could rest them on the stroller (it was all folded up because of the crowding) and then asked if the baby to go with the stroller happened to be the one in my tummy. Not a great start, but she seemd friendly. We proceeded to talk quite a bit and it turned out that her daughter's bat-mitzvah is tomorrow, that she gave birth in the birthing center we plan to use (and was happy to talk about her experience 13 years ago there with a complete stranger on the subway) and she also talked about the financial crisis and her fears about her job and said something which I thought was really nice. She said that her daughter's bat-mitzvah and my bump were both 'Optimistic statements about the state of the world' in a way that made it clear that she was proud of my decision to have a baby. I really like the phrasing because one of JD's main objections to having a baby (and fertility treatments as a result) was a deep pessimism about the environment and a fear about bringing a child into such an uncertain world. I understand his point, but I think my religious faith that having children is a good thing, no matter what the state of the world, always overwhelmed those fears. But I really liked her phrasing.

My second long conversation was with a 20-something hipster-looking guy. Not exactly who I usually chat with on the subway but I was packed into the corner and trying desperately to keep people from elbowing the bump (5 pm rush hour leaving Times Square on Friday afternoon when Shabbos starts at 6:10 pm is never fun). And of course, he started out by asking me my due date which is one of my biggest pet peeves (I find that a bit personal to be asking, but I think it's just me. And I never, ever give out the exact date. I have thus far told only JD and my mother, at both of their insistence). But, we then proceeded to have a long conversation about baby names and this kid actually got off at my stop and carried the stroller up all the stairs and helped me reassemble it so I could walk home (while pushing my empty stroller to the endless comment of the people I passed. Ok, I get it. It's weird. But lots of daycares around me don't let you leave your stroller when you drop your child and so it's not all that unusual to see moms pushing empty strollers home. And yes, people buy strollers before they have babies to put in them and then take them home).

Oh, and JD couldn't go pick up the stroller for me because he's away for the weekend. And I miss him a lot and wish he would come home. And we're having guests for sukkot so it'll be crazy when he gets back.