making the most of the metrocard

An MTA MetroCard is our ticket out of our neighborhood. Because Blake commutes on a daily basis up into Manhattan, he purchases a monthly unlimited card pre-tax through his job. I, on the other hand, don't travel longer distances often enough to warrant the price tag of an unlimited use card so I instead use a pay-per-ride MetroCard. A one-way subway or bus ride (including any transfers within the required parameters) costs $2, which can add up quickly. If I plan to take a week-day trip around the city with an itinerary that is longer than simply "there and back," Blake and I will switch cards so that I can make good use of his unlimited pass while he sits at his desk all day. Since Blake's MetroCard wouldn't do him a lick of good during his business trip to Seattle, he kindly left it with me, and over the past few days I've been putting it to excellent use. Here is where the MetroCard has taken Garrett and I:

So Long, Farewell. On Thursday we donned our rain gear and trekked to our pre-determined meeting spot at Union Square to spend Blake's lunch hour with him before he left for the airport. The drizzle prevented us from doing much outside, so we wandered through nearby Babies R Us. Neither of us usually takes much pleasure in a trip to this store, but Thursday's visit was surprisingly relaxing. We let Garrett stretch his legs outside of the stroller and he did an excellent job of keeping us on our feet as we chased him in and out of the aisles.

Need a Trim? The lunch hour over, and the rain still coming down, we kissed Blake goodbye and headed back underground. This time our destination was M&J Trimming, a specialty shop on 6th Avenue near Herald Square. Even if you're not nimble with a needle and thread, the sight of miles of ribbons, lace, and other fabic trimmings for sale in this shop is something to behold. Selections are stacked from floor to ceiling and range in price from reasonable to outlandish. And the buttons -- oh the buttons. I don't know what I'd do with them all, but that didn't keep me from wanting buy up a supply. I did make a small purchase, however, and if all goes according to plan, a few people on our Christmas list will be getting homemade gifts with the M&J Trimming label.

Quintessence. On Friday morning we went back into the city, this time on a photographic errand for my sister-in-law's mother at Quintessentials, a fun little kitchen and bathroom design store on the Upper West Side. Because a trip to this part of Manhattan takes a good hour to reach from our home in Brooklyn, I don't find myself up there too often. But let me tell you, if all of my trips to the Upper West Side went as smoothly as they did for me yesterday, I'd go there everyday. With trains waiting for me at the platform for every transfer, and a little boy who slept the whole way there and happily ate his lunch the whole way back, I couldn't have asked for a better ride.

In Good Company. We didn't go straight home after our morning on the Upper West Side, but we did go back to Brooklyn. Our next stop was the home of my friend, Emily, who needed some post-partum companionship. I can't profess to know much about nursing, which her newborn daughter, Elizabeth, has been struggling a little to fully master, but I do have two extra hands, which seemed to make Emily's day go a little better. Added benefit for me was that I got to spend a potentially lonely day with a friend. Win-win all around.

Out-of-the-Housework. Today dawned wet and rainy (again), but that didn't keep me from putting that MetroCard to work to take care of a bit of business. Garrett and I boarded the subway and headed to Atlantic Terminal to pick up a few things at Target and Office Max. We got caught in a downpour as we came above ground, but with raincoats and a stroller cover, we were prepared. Next stop was to Three Guys for next week's supply of produce (mostly apples, since Garrett has decided that chunks of peeled apples are the greatest things since sliced bread and, as such, as been eating his way through our supply). And then, a few heavy trips up and down subway stairs later, we were home again, a little worn out and wet, but no worse for the wear.

Tomorrow we'll take that trusty MetroCard on the bus to get to church, and a few hours after we wrap up our worship there, Blake will arrive back home. I'll have to give him back his unlimited MetroCard and return to using my pay-per-ride one, but you know? I don't mind. After all the traveling around Garrett and I have done these last few days, I'm ready (and deserve) to put my feet up.