Trenches cont...

Thomas, Seth, and I ventured back into New York yesterday for his preschool "graduation". This past year I was a part of a group of women running a cooperative preschool for our children (NYC preschools being notoriously expensive and difficult to get into). I could go on and on, extolling the virtues of these lovely women who toiled weekly to create lessons, games, and art projects for the kids to do, but that would be a LOOOONG post. We had a lot of fun and Thomas made so many friends, he was genuinely heart-broken that we had to leave our group behind with the move. We left about two weeks in advance of the end of preschool, so fortunately, we got to venture back into the city for one last goodbye (and a little bit of pomp and circumstance).

We took the train to Penn Station, then rode the A up to 181st St. At 42nd St., a large, caucasian man with a bushy, white beard and what appeared to be an orange blanket tied around his head (it hung all the way down his back) got on our subway car carrying two garbage sacks. I noticed him, but didn't pay much attention. Once the car started moving, though, he pulled a small folding stool out of a bag and brought it over to sit by us. He was staring at Thomas. Now, I've lived in the city for about three years and I've had all kinds of experiences with people on the subway. Very few have made me genuinely nervous, but this guy was large, we were at the end of the car with hardly anyone else around and I had both boys, which makes it difficult to make a run for it. He was staring and smiling and I was waiting, hands curled into fists, for something to happen. He points at Thomas, then reaches into one of his garbage bags--and pulls out a balloon. He proceeds to fashion not one, not two, but three balloon animals for Thomas, all the while making silly faces, fooling with the balloons, and generally making Thomas laugh.

He rode with us to 168th St. at which point he got off. Thomas was sad to see "Santa" go, as he had been calling him the entire ride. I felt bad for the guy because I suspect he was hoping I would give him a little money, but the only thing I had with me was a twenty and as nice as the balloon animals were, they weren't worth my only large bill.

Again, wish I had had my camera. I haven't been able to find it since we moved. We have too much stuff--I need some kind of intervention or something.

Some preschool pics (Thomas is in the Superman shirt)