Jeff
Near the beginning of August my husband, Jeff, got called to play a huge concert in Central Park. He was immediately jazzed about it, guessing the accommodations would be nice enough (read: large enough) for our whole family to stay with him. Once the fancy Hollywood people booked the hotel --which, sure enough, was a suite at the Conrad Hilton in Midtown-- Jeff booked plane tickets for the rest of us to join him for an entire week in Manhattan!
Then he started receiving emails with details of the very lengthy rehearsal days to come. Live TV musical specials are notorious for extensive rehearsing. The directors and producers are always nervous; the rock stars are always ridiculous; and for the people in charge the best way to calm everyone down is to rehearse a lot. After all, it’s live TV and you never know what will happen!
Darla
(actual transcript) “Ohmygosh! I was literally just looking at the calendar and thinking about going to New York! (How was she planning to go?) Are you serious? Are we really going to New York, Dad? Ohmygosh, I can’t even believe this! Are we really going to New York CITY!? Like, for REAL?!”
Shannon
(my actual thought process) Oh sh*t. Are we really going to New York for an entire week?! Do I want to go on another vacation with my teenagers? No. I do not. I thought we agreed we would not do this again until they are through puberty. I have to go. Jeff will be working all day and they (my kids) can’t go alone into the big city. But Darla could explore the city on her own! She’s 17. No, that is crazytown. We will have fun sight seeing together. Right? I can do this for her. She is so excited. Of course I can. Oh. No I cannot. Sightseeing and teenagers do not mix. They are so ungrateful and I can’t do “adventure” without Jeff! I’m not The Fun Parent. It’s going to be humid and hot as hell. We are going to be sleeping on a cot and sharing a bathroom. That sounds a lot like an RV! OH DEAR LORD WHAT ARE WE DOING?
Jeff
On Monday night we started our week all together getting pizza and seeing Times Square in all of its neon glory. Jeff got the first of 237 covid tests administered all week, and we marveled at the hotel room which was lovely and had 2 beds (yes!) Jeff was feeling very pleased.
Tuesday morning he went with Darla and I to Pick-a-Bagel which Darla had heard about from chefs she watches on YouTube. (Claire Saffitz is her favorite.) We walked around Central Park and then Jeff went to work at noon. That was the last time we saw him in the daylight for 4 days.
At the first rehearsal, it was revealed one of the back-up singers tested positive for covid. She was vaccinated, but the keyboard player who had been hanging out with her the day before was not. You know how this story goes from the olympics! Sigh. Both of them were sent to quarantine, unable to participate for the rest of the week.
For the remaining days of rehearsals the vibe was harried, to say the least. Endless covid tests, masks mandates, separate vans to and from the hotel according to vaccination status. What would happen if they lost anyone else in the band? What if they got Carlos Santana sick? That guy is really old!
Zane
Although he was very jet-lagged, Zane joined Darla and I on Tuesday for a little sight-seeing of some important NYC landmarks from our favorite Christmas movie “Elf” and then headed back to the hotel room in a huff because we kept getting distracted by shopping. And if there’s one thing he hates more than walking, it’s shopping.
Darla
Her trip highlight was eating lunch at Balthazar, a french bistro in SoHo. She also led us to the apartment facade from “Friends” and the Chelsea Market. Darla made it a point to be generous with me when I wanted to do touristy things --like an international tour of bakeries. But every night, when her dad came home and she recounted her discoveries to him, she included her impromptu account of “All the things mom said and did today that were stupid.”
Shannon
I didn’t even need to keep a journal on the trip because Darla remembered everything I said and did! So handy.
The days went on like that. Darla and I (and sometimes Zane came along for the non-shopping parts) walked for hours, ate delicious foods, and saw the sights. Then Jeff would come home late, ready to walk some more and eat out all together. So much walking and eating! So much together time. Oh my!
I felt like the kids and I were in an emotional boxing ring and it was slowly wearing me out. Darla would dance around all day, landing little jabs in the form of sarcastic comments and eye rolls. But I’m an adult and I don’t really care what teenagers think of me, right? Because I HAVE ALL THE MONEY AND POWER! Right?
Exactly.
Zane
By Friday evening’s dinner together I requested to stay back at the hotel by myself. Jeff, who had been cooped up inside all day, was adamant that he needed me to join them. So I did.
Zane hadn’t eaten much all day mostly because he is not an adventurous eater (which is what annoying parents say about spoiled children. Yes, I know.) and was not happy when we had to wait 45 minutes for a table. By the time our first, delicious szechuan dish came out I should’ve known to keep my mouth shut.
But did I keep my mouth shut?
I did not. I offered some helpful advice to my hungry son. And of course, he growled fiercely back at me. Evidently I wasn’t as unaffected by the kids’ teasing and testing and I thought, because the rest of our memorable dinner played out like this: I told him never to speak to me like that again, got choked up, and tried not to cry through the remainder of the meal. I was like a prize fighter who has lost an amazing fight. She knows she’s beaten and is starting to feel the pain. A pretty prize fighter in the cutest sundress wearing a new Jo Malone fragrance from Saks!
Darla
Saturday was our last full day in the city and Darla knew her way around, mostly. I decided to spend the day on my own and, no big surprise, she agreed it was a great idea! She bought some souvenirs and ice cream; she took as much time as she wanted to try on clothes.
When she and I were both in the lobby that morning we saw a large gaggle of rappers checking into their rooms. Jeff had told us most of the rappers didn’t come to rehearsals. They were just arriving the day of the concert.
I loved this part of our trip. Now our 5-star hotel which had seemed empty was filled with large men wearing bright colors. Now all of the elevators smelled like weed.
Darla was familiar with some of their music, but she didn’t know what any of them looked like. She would find out by watching the concert that night!
Jeff
Of all the acts, Jeff was most excited to play with Elvis Costello whose music Jeff had loved since high school. As the band waited for the 22k audience members to fill into Central Park, Jeff smoked a cigar backstage and took in the moment. He took a photo and texted me this was the largest concert he’d ever played. What a rock star, my husband is!
The NY Phil played first, then an eclectic group of other acts; 2.5 hours worth of music. It started raining after LL Cool J (my favorite performer of the night, pictured above) and once Barry Manilow started singing through his Medley o’ Schmaltz things took a bad turn.
Jeff was looking out from the stage to the wet crowd when he saw a cloud-to-ground lightning strike and thought, “Oh. We are done here.”
Shannon
After having a mai tai at the Rum House (on my friend Nancy’s recommendation) I returned to the hotel room before the rain started to watch the concert live on CNN. On my walk back I checked my phone and saw an email saying our flight out on Sunday was cancelled! I suspect the cancellation was due to Tropical Storm Henri, but I never found out for sure. What I did know was our patience for each other was worn too thin to weather another literal storm together without someone getting hurt!
Back at the room with Darla and Zane, I watched the storm break and looked online for plane tickets. It was hard to stay too upset watching Jeff play “September” with Earth, Wind, and Fire! (Looking at the stage, Jeff is on the R side, playing sax.)
And by the time god said “NO. Not even! one! more! Barry Manilow song!” I had purchased 3 plane tickets and was feeling much better about the whole trip in general. There was Jeff, bringing joy to so many people, having a bucket-list experience. We were all having bucket-list experiences! I got to show my kids one of the greatest cities on earth, showing them ONCE AGAIN FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK that when life hands you lemons, you buy an RV. And when life sends your dad to New York City, you suffer through the family torture and take the ride to the top of the Empire State Building where you can explain to your mom how you already know where everything is. Duh!
After the concert was cancelled we braved another delicious family dinner, this time Italian. Darla, Zane and I all got absolutely soaked walking home. Jeff never made it out with us because he was in a tent waiting for the rain to pass. The rain did not pass. In fact, the rain set a record for the most to ever fall in Central Park in one hour --ever. Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, and many others never got to perform. But you know, the band was ready! They were covid-free, and definitely well-rehearsed.
Shaky footage of Jon Batiste’s performance, but great sound. Jeff is high in the mix.
Thanks for reading about our trip! I was so happy to have something fun to report on.
-Nonni
PS- I updated a blog post for work about finding time to do things you are longing to do. This may feel impossible as life gets back to being moe hectic. Please go read the post! Maybe it will give you some new ideas:
This was a very fun read, I felt you and felt like I was right there with you. To THIS DAY my parents routinely bring up my delightful presence on a trip to Turkey and Greece in my teens. Apparently I fully broke down at dinner when I was told we were being served stuffed grape leaves and tearfully cried out "Leaves?? You're making me eat leaves??" (They usually cue this one up when we go out for Mediterranean something and I order this very same thing, which I really like now) This outburst by my parents has continued to annoy me to this very day many, many years later. But really, I was annoying and was not appreciating what an amazing experience I got to have and ruining their dinner too. So, yeah, it's a cycle!
So cool that Jeff got to have that experience! My husband, too, very much loves Elvis Costello and his version of "the very thought of you" was our wedding song.
Thanks for sharing.
Oh, girl! This was the truest blog post about spending time with teens while traveling. I've had it with my ungrateful brood. When I want to go somewhere - and they say they don't want to go - I don't even fight them anymore. FINE! Stay home! I'll have more fun without you anyway!! Surely, we weren't ever this unpleasant to our parents...were we? :-/
Love that Jeff keeps on rockin' in the free world! Hugs - from Oklahoma.