about what to do

Besides a quick bagel run this morning and a trip to the basement to do laundry, I was inside my messy house all day. By 5pm, I had to get out and leave it all behind. But I didn't know what to do. That's been one of the biggest challenges I have with this city. There's always that annoying feeling that what I'm doing isn't the best/most authentic/most unique NYC experience I could be having.
Tonight out of all the thing NYC has to offer, we went bowling in Harlem, about a block away from the Apollo Theatre. As soon as we walked off the subway, Ella ran up the stairs, turned around with her arms outstretched and said, "So this is Harlem!"
I'm almost certain that there was probably something amazing going on tonight somewhere in the city, but I wouldn't have known otherwise. It was fun to meet up with our cousins and go shopping while a lane opened up. When one finally did, the boys mostly played with the video race car game on automatic mode and took breaks to throw the bowling bowl over hand down the alley. Things really got crazy when the black lights lit up at 9pm and we polished off two pitchers of fruit punch. The night ended with Ella and Henrietta insisting on a sleep over.
So despite all my insecurities that somewhere, maybe even a subway stop away, we could have done something a little more NYCish, it doesn't matter. Bowling in Harlem was where the party was attttttt.


Here's a mild version of my messy house. It's the only picture I took today. I'm posting it to fool myself into thinking that this is the worse it ever gets around here.