RD had to go to work in the city and now that the school year started we no longer have his aunt coming by in the afternoons. So I decided to go up to NYC with him and wander around the city with Bitmap. Seemed like a nice alternative to sitting around the house / walking the canal path for the 8000th time.
![nycsleepy](http://home.kellbot.com/files/nycsleepy1-300x300.jpg)
Our day started bright and early at 6:30am. Of course the one time we had to get up early, Bitmap finally decided to sleep past 6. Babies, amiright?
![nycskyline](http://home.kellbot.com/files/nycskyline-300x300.jpg)
With all three of us going up driving is the cheapest option. We drove to Jersey City (our old neighborhood), parked the car, and took the PATH train to midtown. I stopped by RD’s office to show off the baby, and all productivity ground to a halt from 10 to 10:30, at which point I made a beeline for the nearest Starbucks. And before you get all judgmental about going to a Starbucks in a city with real coffee shops, I used to work in midtown and all the coffee there is terrible. Plus Starbucks has bathrooms.
From there we walked to Washington Square Park, which is a little over two miles. I was carrying Bitmap in the Ergo on my front and a backpack full of laptop and diapers on my back, so I was ready to sit down by the time we got there. The Ergo is a lifesaver though, I can’t imagine trying to navigate NYC with a bulky stroller. While we were there, Bitmap brandished her butt to the world for a park bench diaper change.
![nycskiff](http://home.kellbot.com/files/nycskiff-224x300.jpg)
We visited my friend Skiff at QLabs. They have a nice office, with a pool table, rock wall, and some giant beanbag chairs with an extremely unfortunate name. Skiff fawned over Bitmap and recounted the following conversation:
Raphael: You know there’s a tech bubble right now, right?
Skiff: Well, yeah but it’s different this time, it’s not like the ’90s bubble.
Raphael: Does your office have a pool table in it?
Skiff: Damn.
From there we headed to Brooklyn to visit friends, and I went through Fulton Mall where I used to spend a fair amount of time thanks to working at Etsy and hacking at NYC Resistor. Both of those have since moved out of the Fulton Mall area, and it was a little weird to be back in the neighborhood.
One thing I’ve noticed is that the people on the train who are most likely to offer you a seat are those who might need it themselves. On the PATH home, a man on crutches saw me standing with the baby and offered me a seat. I declined, Bitmap demands that I stand and bounce her, and then I noticed that the man was missing a leg. Similar things happened when I was pregnant: it’s never the able-bodied guy in a business suit who offers a pregnant lady a seat, it’s the 80something woman who remembers what it was like to stand all day on swollen feet.
After taking care of some things at the condo it was 10:45 when we got home. All three of us were beat (though Bitmap still found the energy to wake up at 3am…). But it was a successful trip and a nice change of pace.
RE: able-bodied people not giving up their seat
It is strange.It seems like a 50/50 chance a person will give up their seat for a pregnant person.
I have noticed there is a method that works, and one that doesn’t. As a guy, if I see a pregnant woman coming on the train/bus, and as she gets closer I stand up and offer her the seat, she almost always refuses. I used to try this approach because I didn’t want someone else to snag the seat as they were coming in. Now, If I just get up as the train/bus is boarding and don’t say anything, then she’ll sit there.
I think often guys attempt method #1 a couple times, and get embarrassed as it is rejected.