Let's Go Downtown- Downtown

Downtown, things'll be great when you're
Downtown, no finer place for sure
Downtown, everything's waiting for you(Downtown)
By: Tony Hatch

Yesterday I wanted to do something interesting. I told the children that we were going to do something for Mommy. So I tried to go see the Frontera 450+ exhibit. I thought the recording said that they were only closed through Christmas. They were closed on Tuesday too. So off we went down Alabama and I thought I'd go by the Menil. It was closed too. We found that the Rothko chapel was open so we stopped by there to see the sculptures on the grounds.

The children wanted to go inside but I knew they couldn't be quiet so I hesitated. My daughter insisted so I said OK we would go in for a minute. We went in and there in the middle there was a guy who looked just like Napoleon Dynamite sitting cross legged on a cushion.

My little girl took notice of this immediately and she leaned in and told me, "There's a guy sitting on a cushion."

I whispered back, "I know."

She then proceeded to go to the front of the chapel and I didn't know what she was doing. She had already spied the cushions at the front so she went there and sat on a cushion. By now the baby, who was sitting on my lap, was squirming and he couldn't keep whispering much longer. I got up to leave because I didn't want to be rude when there were people in there meditating. I motioned to my little girl that it was time to leave and she reluctantly joined me.

That is how we ended up Downtown. I didn't know what else to do with them since everything seemed to be closed so I asked them if they wanted to ride the train and they quickly exclaimed that they would. We drove down Alabama near downtown and I found a side street to park so we could catch the Metro Train Rail into downtown. It was an adventure. Something made me decide not to take the stroller. Bad decision and therein started the adventure.

I decided to stop at the Main Street Square close to Macy's, the old Foley's. Going downtown was such an experience. Even though I work downtown part of the time I don’t ever go shopping or sightseeing.

It was so neat to see everything through the eyes of the children. They were just in awe of everything. I was flooded with memories of going downtown with my mother as a child. I looked at a store across the street from Macy’s that used to be Sweeney’s Jewelry store. My mom’s friend used to work there when I was a little girl. The old store that used to be across the street from Foley's. I can't remember the name of that expensive store. I need to ask my sister. That store is a parking garage now! I couldn't believe it! It is such a beautiful architectural design and it's a GARAGE! Crazy!

I hadn’t gone to the Foley’s since it became Macy’s so I got the bright idea of going there. Bad decision again without the stroller. The kids wanted to play with toys and while I tried to find a coat for my daughter my little boy ran around like the wild child that he is. That's why I needed the stroller.

The other mistake was to take the escalator. I should have taken the elevator. Going down the escalator with a 2 1/2 year old was an adventure. Then as we are going down my daughter drops her sweater on the escalator and now I was worried that it's going to get caught up in the escalator at the bottom. The baby is squirming because he wants me to let him step on to the stroller and I know we were loud and disruptive because a little annoying man came around the corner and was trying to insist that I take the elevator. Well I had a sweater down at the bottom of the escalator now so I couldn't leave. It was crazy!!!

Back to the train and the kids looked sadly at the dead pigeon on the train track. At first the baby asked me if it was asleep and I told him that it was dead. He stared at it in awe and asked again, "It's dead?" "Yes," I answered solemnly.

When we got back to the car the baby fell asleep right away but my daughter wanted to go to dinner to Café Express. We went to Barnaby’s instead. Needless to say I was tired at the end of the day.

Wednesday the baby went to school and my daughter and I went to the Mad Potter with our friends from Spain. Then lunch, pick up the baby from school, and grocery shopping. After we got home our friends’ little girl came over to play with the kids for a while. I scrubbed our refrigerator clean before putting the new groceries inside. I was tired!

Today we went to lunch with some of my ex-co-workers and then to the Children's Museum with our Spanish friends again. A lot of activity every day and we're tired at the end of each day. But somehow I still manage to go to bed way too late.

I’ve made a lot of progress on my novel this holiday so far and I hope to make some more progress before I go back on Wednesday. I’m finished with the first draft and now I’m just revising. The time off has definitely been good for me!