Motherhood 101 - Do not put baby in a plastic bag

I finally went to a somewhat "organized" job today! I didn't have to be in until 5, so my plans for the afternoon were to run through Central Park for a couple of hours and have - finally - a nice sit down meal before heading to work. That was the plan.

Instead, I discovered that I had been assigned a prop list that included numerous things including a baby doll, a stroller and a Blackberry. Change of plans. I decided to - literally - do a "prop run." I ran to numerous thrift shops that I discovered while working on the apartment - no dolls. I stopped at no less than 10 cell phone stores, before some wonderful man gave me an obsolete Blackberry (with the battery lid missing). In the meantime, I had scored a pretty sweet flip cell as a backup. The doll continued to be a problem.

As I was running down 3rd Ave., I passed a preschool with 4 mothers, strollers and babies talking outside of it. I ran two more blocks before convincing myself of my own mantra..."All they can say is no." I ran back and asked where they would send me if I needed a doll for a play. All three of them offered to loan me a doll....I love New York. Lisa asked her daughter Sylvia if I could borrow one of her triplets for the week. Sylvia said absolutely not. I told her that her doll would not only have a wonderful adventure and be in a play, but I will bring her back in a new white outfit. It was a deal.

I got up to the Women's Project and worked on getting the packets and other materials ready for tomorrow's Board of Trustee Meeting and Membership Gala. After rehearsal tomorrow, I need to run home, get dressed up and go work at the festivities.

A baby stroller had been found and left for me at the office, so I needed to take that and the copies of the scripts home with me tonight. At first, I looked like a normal New Yorker; I am pushing a stroller without a baby...just 'cuz. Making little sense makes total sense in the city.

It was a beautiful night in nyc (and according to all my midwest reports, the rain is coming), so I decided to take advantage of it and walk over to East 43rd from West 68th to retrieve the baby doll from Lisa and Sylvia. On the way, I discovered a great deal on pumpkins, so I decided to splurge, especially since I would not have to carry it and could just put it in the stroller. The entire walk to grab the doll took me @ 1.5 hours. The doll lives in a BEAUTIFUL condo overlooking the United Nations to their east and the Chrysler Building to their west.

I headed back to Grand Central to grab a 6 Train to Astor Place (I need white spray paint, and K-mart is the only thing open until 10). On the walk back, this very sophisticated woman dressed in off-white from head to toe (the hat was a bit much, but she didn't ask me), was walking toward me on the sidewalk. All of a sudden, she started to scream. She thought that my pumpkin (which was wrapped in 3 grocery sacks and strapped into the stroller because I didn't want it to fall out and lose its stem) was a baby. She thought I had wrapped my baby in a grocery bag and was taking it out for a walk! She still didn't find the humor in it even after I proved that I was only the proud mother of a 13 pound pumpkin. She just stormed off in an off-white designer poof, and I laughed all the way home.

My day ends with a slice of spinach, onion, black olive and broccoli pizza, baseball on the tv and the cats cuddled around me. Can you hear the sigh?