"Phil Good": It Can Be Done! ...American History Museum with Friends

I've been hesitant to ride the Metro without Andy and just the three kids, but I guess I was getting a little tired of the same old parks and library storytimes. So.... we ventured out. We scheduled a play date with our friends from South Pasadena who are also here now, and agreed to meet at the museum entrance. This a week after plans to metro to their house were cancelled because her kids were sick (I breathed a sigh of relief that I didn't have to metro with three on my own).

To practice, I did a mini run with just the kids to meet Andy after work for the cherry blossoms at Tidal Basin earlier in the week. It was okay.. not too bad, half of the struggle is to find an elevator to exit.

To start the morning off, I received a text from Nancy, a DC transport now native, with a snapshot of someone's tweet about a girl who had jumped in front of the train at Eastern Market, which is the exact train stop we were planning to take! In a frenzy of texts to Andy and some DC friends, I vacillated between walking all the way (estimated at 45 minutes) or going via another Metro station which would include one transfer. We finally decided to just go for it and brave the Metro and switch. When I used to work in downtown LA (once I became a portfolio manager and was no longer staffed at client sites), I took the Metro from Pasadena to downtown LA all the time, including one metro switch at Union Station. The first few times were intimidating because you have to watch the signs carefully to understand directions to the transfer, then once at the platform, you have to make sure you get on the right stop. Once on the train, you have to make sure you get off at the right stop or risk having to go back around. But on your own, with nothing more than a computer bag, it's pretty easy. With one baby on your chest, and about 80 lbs of stroller in the form of an almost 3 and almost 5 year old is a whole other ball game.

I don't consider myself a "brave" mom by any means. In fact, while some moms are out within weeks of their newborn babies, I find comfort in the confines of my home, not really needing to get any air or go for a walk. I am perfectly content at home and willingly comply with the traditional Chinese confinement for one month. But now that I have three kids at home, going out helps to break down the moments, whereas a sleeping baby never seemed to bother me when I could be watching TV, browsing the Internet, or talking on the phone. Those things don't seem to happen anymore without my kids asking me what I'm doing, plus I'm very overbearing when it comes to what shows I will watch while they're around, they're very easily influenced and pick up on everything. So by way of having no other feasible means, I found myself walking to the Metro with three kids.