If you commute in and
out of the city like we do, you may have noticed that the traffic seems to have
gotten worse over time. I don’t mean to
be one of those “it always gets worse people” (the equivalent of, “kids these
days!”), but really – empirically – it seems to take f-o-r-e-v-e-r to get home
from NYC over the past several months. I
used to figure on a good five hours for a typical go-see or audition, and when I
say it’s been taking seven plus hours sometimes, I am not kidding. (And please feel free to shake your head and
tsk-tsk me on this one; I get it, it sounds insane. Sometimes it is. Did you read my last post? Maybe it’s all connected.)
Yesterday all the stars
aligned and I was able to take my daughter to two go-sees. I had no doctors’ appointments (first weekday
in forever), her kindergarten end-of-year assembly was in the morning (in a
combined 23 end-of-school-years for my children, I had been to exactly one
other one when I was on maternity leave, so BIG MOMENT FOR ME)…and I had the
afternoon “free.” Don’t let that fool
you – it’s not like I don’t have a million things piled up from my Spring O’
Paralysis – but I actually sort of thought, hey…I can do this.
Now, being a little
short on the cash (co-pays, HSA, etc…feeling kind of broke right now), I wanted
to be semi-fiscally conscious. I used my
Best Parking app to check out garages, but these two go-sees were in the
fashion district, and parking in that part of town is outrageous during the
day. I was getting amounts like $48 for
over an hour. Let’s throw in some time
concerns. I wanted my daughter to stay
in school as long as possible but had to be mindful of two go-sees, one of
which was quickly getting the reputation of a million kids with a zillion hour
wait. And it was raining. Dry day?
Walkable distance between the two.
Pouring rain with a kid who needed to look presentable? No walking.
So, I’m thinking about the matrix of money, time, transportation, and
weather. This is a true model-mom’s
matrix. And probably the reason why we
drink wine immediately upon returning home.
Rain means slow driving. We learned that in drivers’ ed, right? Well, rain on a 100 mile commute could mean
three circles of hell in Dante’s world.
But…but…there was no traffic. My
WAZE app took me my most direct and favorite route. I hardly tapped the brakes. When I got close to the city, I decided to
aim for…wait for it…street parking near a subway. And where better to do that than my old
neighborhood?!? I got off the West Side
Highway at 125th Street, zoomed my way up Broadway, and parked smack
in front of the Barnard College gates. I
maxed out the Muni-Park (six whole dollars) in case we had to wait two hours at
the go-see and then wanted dinner. Add
the ultra-convenient bathroom in Barnard Hall (I had a big iced-tea along the
way) and we were on the downtown #1 train by 2:15. Frame of reference: I left my daughter’s
school at 12:15. I made it to the city,
IN THE RAIN, parked and went to the
bathroom in TWO HOURS.
Smooth sailing on the
subway…and my indelible memory of the layout of the Times Square station had me
exit the subway exactly one block from the address of go-see #1. A little rain but not pouring rain fell on
the way…and we wound our way through one of the big fashion district showroom
buildings, which are filled with designers’ workspaces and showrooms where
buyers can come to place orders. These
buildings are very cool. The hallways
snake around seemingly endlessly, and you can peek in the glass “storefronts”
at the different designers’ stuff. It’s
not like you can shop, because these are appointment-only businesses, but it’s
a cool insider view of the fashion industry.
We were headed to a
designer who makes gorgeous stuff – including bathing suits for children. I won’t name her here, but for those of us in
my age range, we may remember her as the teenager who dated Jerry Seinfeld way
back when. Anyway, we waited just a few
minutes for another little girl to finish trying on the samples, and then it
was my daughter’s turn. Cute suits! Nice people.
Good go-see. And…done, on to the
next. And…of course, by the time we got
downstairs, it seemed like the rain had picked up. We put on our jackets (despite the steamy
80-ish temp) and I had to decide what to do next.
We needed to go
downtown 12 blocks and across town an avenue block and a half. That’s about a mile. Probably not a problem on a dry day…but
rain? Sacrifice good hair? No.
The Subway wouldn’t be too bad, but it would still be about a third of a
mile walk. A battery powered hair dryer
might be a good model-mom tool, now that I think about it. So, executive decision: we would take a
cab. Ok, New Yorkers, what are the odds
of getting a cab on 39th and Seventh Avenue at 3:00 on a rainy
day? I scoped out the street corners
(four options) and made sure no one else was hailing a cab…and we waited. And waited.
And got one! after about only 3 or 4 minutes. NICE!
The ride was relatively short to the next go-see, and I started to get a
little worried about what we would find.
The model-mom grapevine
had been all lit up all day about this one…I was hearing about long waits. But whatever!
I wasn’t freaking out about getting home for baseball or worried about a
meter running out or my garage fee going into the three-figure range. Upon entering the building, a good sign:
there were no other kids waiting by the elevator. No other kids actually in the elevator. And immediately off the elevator: no other
kids. I saw the name of the product on
the directory and saw the studio number where they were casting, but then I saw…like,
one kid. There was no sign in sheet so I
waited outside the studio and found out that there was a separate studio being
used as a waiting room…which didn’t sound good.
So I went over to that studio and…and…there were two kids and moms in
there. And one mom/kid combo was a
friend I was hoping to meet up with since I knew we’d be there around the same
time. SCORE!
So…all told, between
the waiting room and the casting studio, there were maybe two or three kids
waiting along with my friend’s daughter.
They were taking their time with each kid, so it wasn’t a snap-and-done
go-see, but the wait was really minimal.
How did this happen? So far this
trip was going supremely well (save a little rain) but – truly impressive at
this point. I could only imagine what
hell would await me on the ride home.
We took the subway back
uptown, and started getting excited about having some scallion pancakes at
Ollie’s on 116th Street. I
hadn’t had lunch and was saving my pig-out for some fried Chinese
deliciousness. Another nice train ride,
which included my daughter chatting up the other kids on the train, and we were
back on Broadway and 116th…and…Ollie’s was all boarded up. WHAT THE HECK? I have been eating scallion pancakes at this
place for 25 years! So…we drove
home. (Reminds me that I need to find
out – is it CLOSED or being renovated?
Anyone?) And when I say we drove
home – I mean, we drove. We didn’t sit
in traffic. We actually moved. And we left the city at 4:15, which is like,
totally in the zone of rush hour. And
there was still some rain. But there was
no traffic! A tiny bit of volume here
and there, but no traffic jams! We
stopped in Danbury for a bite to eat (take out) on the way, and made it back to
our house at 6:35. It was really
remarkable.
So here’s my tally:
Drive in: 1:45
Parking: $6
Subway: $5.50
Taxi: about $9 with tip
Waiting at two go-sees:
about 15 minutes total
Calories of scallion
pancakes: 0
Drive home: 2:20
Savings from NOT paying
$48 plus tax (that’s like, 18.75%, no joke) to park: About $30
Traffic time saved by parking
uptown: lots.
According to the matrix, that all adds up very well.
Now we’ll wait to see
if anything comes of the go-sees.
Statistically, probably nothing.
But, I had a nice time with my kiddo.
We didn’t get too wet…but we were bummed about the scallion pancakes.
 |
| My daughter and her buddy at the second go-see...shout out to my friend! |
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