Just Like We Thought It Would Be

Actually, that title should read, “It’s just like I thought it would be,” as said by Jim. It was Saturday night and we were having dinner at a restaurant on Mott Street, in Chinatown in New York. We’d avoided the whole Black Friday business/madness and decided also to avoid the crowds going to see the Christmas tree on Rockefeller Plaza near Radio City Music Hall. We’d spent the day around home, with a late breakfast and midday nap for Charlie, and then a bike ride. And then, we drove to Jersey City and took the PATH train into the World Trade Center site—there’s construction going on all the time and you can see some of it—-and then walked past City Hall and into Chinatown.

Charlie had said no to any snacks, even after an hour-long bike ride, so intent was he for “Chinese food” and “white rice.” I ordered him shrimp chow fun—wide and soft rice noodles—and he sat on the edge of his seat, head turned back towards the kitchen where waiters kept emerging with bowls of steaming this or that. An order of gai lan came first, and dumplings, and shrimp sautéed with vegetables. Jim and I picked up our chopsticks and I put a shrimp and some carrots on Charlie’s plate, which he ignored.

He kept looking, and looking, and the waiters kept bringing out more steaming bowls destined for other tables. Two bowls of rice appeared and Charlie said “no” to them, and went back to looking for his chow fun. It finally appeared, though only briefly, as Charlie ate it quickly and efficiently, and topped it off with two fortune cookies (I gave him mine), and a total of six fortunes (because each cookie had three).

We walked home fast back to the PATH station and then  to the black car. Once home, Charlie said “school bus!”—-his internal clock that says that it’s two days off (i.e., Thanksgiving and the day after) and then back to school was fully in operation. He was expectantly crestfallen when I told him he had two more days—the actual weekend—and maybe that disturbance in the usual way of things was what kept him up till 1am.

We all slept in on Saturday, which was not the best thing to do as Jim was planning for him and Charlie to take to see a basketball game (Seton Hall vs. University of Delaware) with Charlie’s godfather at the Prudential Center in Newark. They had to catch a train at 11:54 AM and Charlie was just stirring at 11:20. We coaxed, we set out his clothes, we mentioned getting to see Uncle Mike, we mentioned the train……..I dropped Jim and Charlie off at 11:53 and saw them running up onto the train platform just as the train pulled in.

Charlie wanted to bring his two Leapsters but Jim suspected that no electronics might be allowed in the Prudential Center. We’d explained this to Charlie, and he left them on the black car’s back seat and sat through more than half of the game (the Hall eeked out a win), much of it with Uncle Mike while Jim went to the concessions stands (Charlie made some requests for extra ketchup). They took the train home and Jim called me (working on my book and much appreciating the “time to myself”) to get out the bikes. As soon as Charlie saw them, he came inside and requested his helmet.

As the weather’s gotten colder, Jim has added some cold weather gear in the form of gloves and spandex skull caps that go over their ears (he got two of each in the same size, one for him and one for Charlie). Charlie pulled on his cap and gloves and then the helmet, and they were off on what turned out to be a really long ride, as requested by Charlie.

“Sometimes he goes so fast, it’s not so easy to keep up with him!” Jim said after he and Charlie came back. And then, “It’s great. I just try to keep up.”

Me too, for sure.