Moving Along

I am fine as long as I am moving. Getting up and showered, encouraging Maya to get dressed and helping her with breakfast and her hair and driving her to Starbucks for coffee and to Peabody for ballet camp, picking up her papers from the doctor's office (to be delivered to her new school so she can register), finally visiting my old office to pick up charts and catch up with Michelle, my former receptionist, meeting the new receptionist and calling Eric to help move charts to my new office, picking Maya up and deciding to drive to DC to visit the Air and Space Museum.

It was raining and miserable when making our decision about DC and Maya was not particularly enthusiastic about going. The original plan was to bring Belina and Marius with us and go by train, but the Benichous changed their plans, so the idea was less attractive to Maya. I was uncertain about driving because of the intense traffic on Friday nights, but in the end we decided to go for it. Maya read her book to me and time passed rapidly, and we were on the mall in no time. Parking was a challenge, but we found a metered spot and scrambling to put in as many quarters and dimes and nickels as possible. We headed for the National Gallery for gelato to start and then over to the Air and Space Museum, where we were entertained for the next few hours. We learned about flight and planets and the Apollo missions to the moon, visited the planetarium to hear Whoopi Goldberg tell us about the origins of our galaxy, and saw an Imax show about the Hubble telescope. Eric took the train down to join us for the latter part of our afternoon, and for dinner at Delhi Dhaba in Arlington, one of Tara's favourite Indian take-out restaurants (her Dad had introduced her and us to the place).

Driving home was easier than expected. It turned out to be a wonderful day, (it did not rain!), we saw exciting things, we learned new things. I am always fascinated by the moon landings, and fearful about the endlessness of space. Most of the time when in DC I visit the art museums and the Natural History Museum, so it was new and different this time. Maya was interested in everything she saw and expressed interest in being an astronaut.

I think I am fine if I keep moving and avoid thinking of where I am in the universe.