Episode 540: Can We Make Everyone Happy? Spring Break 2026

No need to whine, it's whiny palooza. Have some wine and join us on the whiny palooza podcast with Rebecca Greene.

Welcome to the whiny palooza podcast. I'm your host, Rebecca Greene. I'm a wife, mother of 3, and licensed clinical social worker. I also have 3 fur babies at home too. My passion has always been to help children and their families. I always dreamed of being a wife and a mother. Parents are always learning through their struggles, failures, and successes and joys. I am no stranger to this wild ride of parenting, and I know behind every great parent lies a team of supportive friends and family. I want to be part of your support system. I want you to know that you are not alone. We are in this parenting world together. Join me every week for insightful discussions with experts on parenting and marriage, as well as other parents who have found the secret to successes in parenthood. You'll learn tips and tricks to make life with your family better than ever. I hope you will follow along with me while we dive into what it takes to achieve a happy family.

Hello everyone, happy whiny palooza Wednesday!

How is everybody doing? We had an endless, exhausting Wednesday, wouldn't you say? Yes, yes, kind of like our spring break trip.

Oh my, yeah, you don't mess around.

Ah, so the title of this week is Can We Make Everyone Happy? Spring Break 2026. And I want to start out by backing up and telling you that our power has been out tonight and I was concerned. I didn't know if this was even going to happen tonight.

And if it goes out and we disappear, we'll either be back or we'll finish it tomorrow.

Well, and the reason I say that is because my phone wasn't working. So if we're late or if something happens, there's usually a reason. So if we weren't here right now, it was because our power was out. If we disappear, it's because our power went back out. So just be prepared. Hopefully we can get through this.

Yes.

And I was all concerned about my fish. So if we have any fish experts, I need to talk to Ella's friend Ryan. What happens when the power goes off and the filter's off for a while? Like, I was all worried, so I'm appropriately wearing my goldfish necklace. I bought this necklace for myself, um, very into my goldfish, and I read that goldfish bring good luck. Awesome, awesome. So our goldfish is going to bring us good luck. And the power is going to stay on and his filter is going to stay on. But I do want to know what the heck happens when you have a fish filter and the power is— right? Okay, so that's a question to find out from some fish experts because we don't know anything about fish. This is, this is my first fish that I actually take care of. The fish that I had growing up, my mom took care of them, so I don't know anything. So can we make everyone happy? So for spring break, Lily and I wanted to go to Florida. Lily and I always want to go to Florida. If you ask me where I want to go, it's probably going to be the whole Orlando scene, the Disney World, the Universal, the sun. Yes, you know what I'm talking about. Well, Ella had other plans. Ella wanted to go on college tours. And I feel like we have to kind of take turns with whose turn is it to be happy right now. So, so we can't make— we can't like make everyone happy. We can't have me going to Florida. I guess we could have split up, whatever. We went on college tours. She wanted to tour Columbia and Barnard, so off we went. To, uh, make this happen. And we started our trip. So when your kids go to college, you're screwed with vacations. Like, good luck to you. The schedules don't align. Max's East— Max's spring break was the week before the girls. So I was like, so what a lot of people do is they take the younger kids out of school to go away during the college kids' break. That's what a lot of people do. But we, as a family, we decided not to do that.

Oh, I wouldn't have wanted to miss school for a week anyway.

No, not a week. I was going to work it out. I was going to do a couple of days, whatever. I was going to work it out with her. So, okay. So Max said, please don't go to Universal without me. Okay, so when your son tells you that he wants to go on a trip with you but not right now, and your daughter's telling you that she wants to go on college tours, that's what happened.

Yes.

So was everybody happy?

I think so. We did plenty of things in New York for Lily to give her something fun.

Okay, so we're going to talk about that, making everyone happy.

Yes.

Okay, so Max was happy we didn't go to Florida without him. Ella was happy that we were going for her college tours. Uh, Lily and I were happy because we were gonna get to pick fun things to do. And why were you happy?

I was just happy to get away.

So I asked, when you go on a trip, one of the first things I do is I say, okay, everyone's not gonna be happy every moment of the day, right? Let's find out what my family wants to do. And I take a poll and I'm like, if you could pick one thing to do on our vacation, what are you going to pick? And Mr. Green, I couldn't get anything out of Mr. Green.

I tried. I picked enough. I didn't need anything else, right?

But if you could have picked, what would you have picked?

It wouldn't have been anything that you would have wanted to do or the girls would have wanted to do.

Okay, so can you give us an example? See, now he talks. Do you know how many times— do you know how many times I asked him what he wanted us to do.

And he— okay, are you going to want to go to a magic store?

No, but I would.

I wouldn't have asked the three of you to do that.

Okay, well, we made you shop.

I'm okay with that. All of you had fun shopping.

Okay, so you would have wanted to go to a magic store. What else would you have wanted to do?

That was probably it. I've done most of the touristy things in New York.

Okay, so So I picked Chicago the Musical because, because Whitney and Mark from Dancing with the Stars were performing in the musical. If you know, you know. Do you watch Dancing with the Stars? Did you love Whitney and Mark like I did? So Whitney announced that she was in Chicago until April 5th, and we were arriving on April 5th. So I considered arriving and then going by myself, like just running to the show so that I could see her, okay? Then they announce that Mark is joining her on the 6th. We were arriving on the 5th, so I called Seth And I was like, listen, I know you're busy. They just announced that Mark is performing with Whitney for like one week. No, for— no, he— while we were there, right? I think he's there till May.

Oh, okay, I didn't know that part.

Okay, I was like, he's performing while we're there, we're going, and I will get reasonable tickets. I won't spend—

reasonable tickets. I won't— you need to let me buy these right now, they're going to sell out. Just say okay.

I called him at work and he was like, I'm in a meeting, what do you need? And I'm like, oh my God, like Mark is coming and you, you, I can't wait for you. What if it sells out? Like, they've just announced this. What if it sells out? I need to buy these tickets right now. Now mind you, the show that we were at was sold out.

She did get— I did say yes and she did get tickets.

Yes, he said yes, and I ran online and I got the cheapest tickets I could get. They were pretty, they were cheap based on the tickets that I wanted in front downstairs.

Floor seats first, close to the stage would have been astronomically more.

When you're taking 4 people, yeah, to a musical, yes, you don't need to spend $500 a ticket, right? Right, right. So anyway, so I picked Chicago, Ella picked Tours, Lily picked the Jelly Cat Diner and the Museum of Ice Cream and shopping and endless shopping. And I picked Chinatown. And Seth, I couldn't get Seth to pick anything. What was your favorite part?

I like Chicago. Um, they were very good. I, um, I liked watching you guys all had fun. Um, I liked being able to be a part of it. And I liked watching— can I throw you under the bus?

Oh no, what did I do?

I like watching my wife's lame attempt at negotiating with these street vendors for fake items and then letting me take over and get much better prices.

Oh my God, do you think that I thought I was good at it?

No, I know you didn't think you were good at it. I was just like, seriously, that's— you just basically just said they quoted a price and you're like, okay, I thought it was a good price. And did I get better prices?

Seth was much better at negotiating than I did. Okay, so day 1 was Columbia and Barnard.

$15. Yes. Okay, there was a Tiffany bracelet that a woman said, I can only— $35, I can't sell less than $35, I'm gonna go, I lose money. And I was like, I'll give you $15. And she's like, no, no, no, I lose money. And I was like, okay, sorry. And we walked out of the place and we got about half a block and she runs back, runs up to us, okay, okay, $15. See, gotta be willing to walk away, right?

But I couldn't believe that you negotiated $15. What did you negotiate down? How much down did you get them for your watch?

Um, I got them from $180 to $50. You did?

Yes. They started at 180. Yeah. And you said, I'll give you 50.

Yeah.

And they gave it to you?

Well, we went back. I didn't start at 50, but we went back and forth a few times and ended at 50. And it's funny, when we were in that store where we got the bracelet from that lady, the guy— you were asking me, like, why are we asking the guy questions about watches? Because he tried to sell me the exact same watch. And that I had just bought at a different vendor. He didn't— my wrist was covered, and he also started at $180.

Oh good God, the lessons. So we stayed in Times Square.

Yes.

Uh, we don't necessarily suggest that. So here's what I'm going to say: it's a ton of fun staying in Times Square. What I did read is that people suggest not doing that because it's so loud.

Yeah, so the endless honking of the horns, sirens, and the ambulances.

I was woken up every morning. Were you? Yes, every morning I was woken up.

There were nights that I couldn't fall asleep because it was too loud, and it took a while. And then we were certainly woken up earlier than we would have wanted to sleep because the horns and the honk— the honking and the siren started.

I would— I won't—

it's also overpriced.

Is it cheaper to not stay in Times Square?

Yes, a lot. We've stayed in Times Square twice. We stayed there last time.

We've stayed 3 times in Times Square.

3 times, sorry. Yes, it is much cheaper to stay other places.

Hmm, interesting.

Price you pay for being in the heart of the action.

I mean, it's cool to stay there.

It is. Okay, it's funny, the noise didn't bother me last— I didn't remember— I don't remember the noise being an issue last time. Maybe the other hotel was better sound insulation or something.

Isn't that interesting?

I mean, and that was near New Year's, like you would have— it would have been would have been louder.

We also were closer into like the real meat heart of it last time.

Like, we were like—

we were like to the outside of it. I felt like we were like right like around the corner, right? I don't know. Anyway, okay, back to it. Um, 24,000 steps my child made me do.

That was one day.

Okay. So that was one day. We went on the tours. We go back to the hotel. Seth is— Ella's like, I'm good. Ella's like, I'm gonna study for my exams. You're gonna study on spring break for your exams? Yeah, I'm done for the day. I'm gonna relax and study. I don't want to go back out. And Seth was like, all right, I'm off the hook. Were you happy about that?

Yeah, because you weren't gonna let her stay by herself, most likely.

I was not gonna let her stay by herself. So Lily was like— so I lay down on the bed, the heavenly bed that I slept so well in. So I lay down and Lily starts pacing and she's like, come on, come on, get up, get up, don't you go to sleep, get up, we're going out.

It was not that late, it wasn't bedtime, we were just—

I would have— I could have napped. I could have napped. I could have put on a movie. And put my feet up and relax, but someone was like, let's go that way. Oh, I'm trying to point to Lily, not him. He was laying down. Lily was like, get up, come on, someone's got to— so Seth— so can everyone be happy?

I'll, I'll tell you, I was happy. I got downtime, the only time during the trip.

So Seth is happy, Ella's happy. Lily's happy.

Yeah, Lily was happy. She's like, "I'm ready to go do more stuff." Oh my God.

So anyways, yeah, moving on. The next day, Miss Lily wanted to go shopping and to the Museum of Ice Cream.

I would say we don't suggest the Museum of Ice Cream unless you've got little kids. If your kids are like 5 to 8, it's probably fun for them. Maybe not for you, but it's fun for them. And you could kill a couple hours if you wanted to in New York doing the Museum of Ice Cream with little kids. Our kids are too old.

Well, yeah, but I think Lily liked it. Lily, did you like the ice cream museum? Yeah. Lily liked it.

All right, so it's just Ella, me, and you.

So can everyone be happy? Can you answer that question? So what I didn't like about— so what I liked about it was it was new. It was adorable. It was festive. Lots of cool pictures. And like, I liked seeing the girls have fun. What I did not like about it was, first of all, they needed more ice cream stations and there were lines. We waited in.

It was very slow.

I mean, they have too many people at one time.

Yeah.

And the lines—

and they broke themselves.

The lines were too long.

Yeah.

And they sell out. Like, they only let a certain number of people.

They should let even less people because they're sold out. It's too busy.

So I give it— I give the Museum of Ice Cream a thumbs down, but I'm happy that Lily's reporting that she liked it because it was very expensive. I thought it was way overpriced. So we go back to shopping on SoHo, in SoHo, and Miss Thing in there wants to go into every single store. Huh? Can everyone be happy? Answer the question.

Well, I had a chair, a seat everywhere we went, so I did not mind.

Seth, okay, so am I— are we going to talk about what you brought with?

Yeah.

Would you like to tell them what you brought with?

Sure. So since my 3rd degree black belt test a year ago, I have had knee issues. Um, it's painful, um, and I don't walk very much because of it. And so my solution to getting around in New York City was I bought a motorized scooter, uh, that has a chair, a seat on it, which we were worried, is it going to work in New York? Is it going to be too crowded on the sidewalks? Are we able to pull it off? Am I going to be sitting in a hotel room the whole time? Um, thankfully it worked perfectly. Um, I mastered the art of driving the scooter at like 2 miles an hour, very slowly, so that I wasn't running people over on the sidewalks. And it worked great because every store they went in, I already had a seat. So a lot of stores don't have place— tiny stores in New York don't have places for you, the guys, to sit. So I just sat on my scooter everywhere we went, and I had a built-in front row seat everywhere we went. And it worked. I didn't have to walk at all.

When we were going in and out of the stores and you were sitting waiting for us, were you happy?

Yeah, I had my— I went through like 4 days of a conference listening to it the whole time. Like, yeah, I was—

were you upset about that?

No, I was— I would have done the same thing in the hotel.

So you were happily entertained and you had a seat and you were okay with it?

Yes.

I mean, this man—

best trip investment ever.

I am taking this thing everywhere, but even when I get better I mean, this man wins such a medal for putting up with his 3 women shopping a lot. I mean, that was so much shopping. We packed way too much in. There's something called downtime that we need to teach my daughter. I will say that I did better in Florida.

Well, you also— yeah, well, that's a whole interesting— there were more— it was more enjoyable for you to go non-stop in Florida.

Yes, that was good. That was a good assessment.

Different viewpoint on it.

Okay, so I was not happy in SoHo. I was actually bored. I was like, this is boring, let's do something else. And Lily was having the time of her life, and Ella was like, okay, I'm done, I went in a few stores. And Lily was like, let's go in another store. We went. I did drag them to the Kendra Scott store. I wish we had one here. We don't have one. Um, the Louis Vuitton store and Tiffany. And we went in the Louis Vuitton store, and for those of you who don't know, I'm turning 50 in 2 and a half months.

Yep.

And I was like, oh, maybe he'll buy me like something from Tiffany or Louis Vuitton.

Like, I would love a really cool $15 Tiffany bracelet.

I, I would like a real— well, I'm gonna tell them about that. So I would like a really cool purse, like, let's go check it out. And I find a pink purse that I love, and the woman takes it out, and I'm like, yeah, my birthday is coming, maybe he'll get this for me, it's really nice. And she goes, $7,800. And I was like, I can't do that. And Seth is like, no, that's college tuition. I gotta pay for college, people. But it was a gorgeous purse. And, um, I actually did not see anything in Tiffany that I even wanted to ask you for.

It's my lucky day.

Like, what is that about?

You needed to go in the Fifth Avenue Tiffany.

I needed to go to Fifth Avenue. We were in SoHo, so it wasn't as big. Okay, so it's time for— so we go back to the hotel and it's time for Chicago, and I am so off the wall excited. And we're watching the show and Seth is like, oh my God, Marcus! Like, Marcus So Whitney did fantastic, but like Mark is like so talented.

I didn't know he could sing. Yeah.

I knew he could sing.

That was news for me.

It was amazing. You know, Derek and Julianne would be awesome on Broadway too.

I'm sure they'll do it at some point.

Okay, so we're leaving and Ella's like, "I am so over Chicago." The kid has seen Chicago so many times. She's like, "Can you stop dragging me to Chicago?" And Lily is like, I don't like musicals. And Seth and I were like, that was so good. And then I wanted to stay at the stage door to see them, and the girls were freezing.

Well, we lasted, we lasted about 15, 20 minutes at the stage door before they gave up.

I was fine. I had my big fur coat. I was all cuddled up. Ella was in a skirt with no pants and a tank top. No, she had a jacket over a tank top.

It's a light jacket. That's not a real— that's not a winter coat. Okay, leather jacket. So moms, they were not prepared to stand outside for an hour.

They were not, but I was, right?

Well, I mean, they weren't dressed for it.

I wasn't about to send you back with them and stay by myself.

What I could have done is I could have taken them back and then come back for you.

I suppose I didn't think of that.

I didn't either.

So moms, we're going to talk about the next day because the next day I was like, I am not asking the girls what they want to do. I'm gonna ask myself what I want to do.

Good for you.

Okay, so I'm— I want to teach us all that we don't always have to do what our kids want to do. I wasn't even gonna ask them. I was like, hey, they each got to pick already. Oh, is that when we went to this? Okay, we went to the Stardust Diner first. So I— for those of you who don't know, we went to Ellen's Stardust Diner, second time there. They sing Broadway music while you eat. The servers do. Yes, they are fantastic. It is amazing. Go there. Loved it. And as we're in line, a tour at NYU opens up. Now mind you, I had been trying to book this tour for over a month and they were all booked up. And the guy was like, the guy from NYU was like, just keep trying because we get so many cancellations. So we're in line and it opens up and I was like, Ella, if we leave right now, we can go, I'll take you. And she's like, no, I wanna go to the diner. So we did the diner, which was my pick, and Ella loved it. And you loved it.

Yeah, I always loved it. Amazing.

And Lily loved it.

Yes, and a highlight for me was when they sang your song.

Really?

That was the best. When they started singing and you were like, "Oh my God!" Like, the Broadway stuff is for me and Ella, but when they started Backstreet Boys, man, I was like, you were— I wish I had videoed your face. Like, you were in heaven. You're like, "Oh my God!" I saw you at 16. Like, that was awesome.

I was so happy. I was so happy. That was so good, and I recorded it. So if you follow me on TikTok, it's on my TikTok account. You can go see them singing the Backstreet Boys. I was so happy. So then I took them to Chinatown because I wanted to get— okay, so I couldn't get this.

We chose—

we chose— it's not that we can't, we chose not to get the $7,800 purse.

Higher priority than a purse that you will wear for like a season or two and then go, "I'm bored." Honey, if you bought me— Nope, nope. No, because I've bought you what we thought were expensive bags before. It might have been, let's say, a few hundred dollars. I'll see you wearing them now because you got bored. I have the same wallet I have had that you bought me like 5 or 10 years ago. I will not change it until it falls apart, and you probably paid less than $30.

Okay, so point being, I didn't get the $7,800 purse, but I did want— yes, a Louis Vuitton purse. Is that what you would say?

Yes.

Um, so, so we go to Chinatown and we get sunglasses. I want— I want— really wanted new sunglasses. And we got— Lily and I got a purse.

Yes.

And I got a wallet.

Yes.

And Seth got a watch.

Yes.

And Seth did an excellent job negotiating.

Yes.

And we had the best time.

Yes.

I had the best time. Did you have the best time?

It was fun.

Other than some really pushy women.

Salespeople.

Yes.

That were very aggressive.

Yes.

And the, the fight that was breaking out as we were leaving.

There was a fight breaking out and we were leaving and we did go.

Rebecca was like, what's going on? I'm like, go, let's go. Let's just get outta here before the cops show up. Not that we did anything wrong, but before this gets outta hand and they start swinging. I mean, they were yelling. Yelling and throwing things at each other.

It was scary. We did go to— we had never been to Chinatown. We had never been to Little Italy. We did go to Little Italy. Everybody was trying to get us to eat at the restaurant. It was adorable.

Oh, I thought it— I was like, this is just as bad as the street vendors. I was like, they're all— they got barkers standing out in front of every restaurant trying to literally rope you and grab you in. I'm like, dude, chill out. I'll come in if I want. Like, this is a little— I thought they were a little aggressive too. I'm like, you It's ridiculous.

No, they were. So I felt bad because they all really wanted us to eat their homemade pasta, and we were still full from the diner. There was no way.

We had just eaten.

Um, we did go into a cafe and get some treats, and it did feel— we've never been to Italy, but we like that it was kind of like what it's probably supposed to—

decorated. The ambiance, I assume, is somewhat correct.

Yeah, so that was amazing. So Chinatown and Little Italy, and then we got to take the girls to the Jelly Cat Diner in FAO Schwarz. And what I want to tell you, I want to teach you guys some stuff that I didn't know. I learned all about the Jelly Cat Diner because last time we went to New York City, our girls wanted to do— so So in FAO Schwarz is a Jellycat Diner. Jellycat is a brand of stuffed animals that my girls are obsessed with.

They had a whole huge display of Jellycats, and you could just go buy one. However, the diner is this whole experience, and when we tried to do it last time and we went to the velvet rope line and they were like, do you have a reservation? We're like, no. They're like, you can't get in without a reservation. And we go look online and it's like booked for months out.

So I knew, so I was prepared. So I knew from experience from last time that yes, we did buy them.

Oh, Clara says, love hearing about your awesome trip and your answer to your question. No, everyone cannot be happy, especially on vacation.

Oh, what happened to your comment?

It disappeared.

Claire, your comment went away. Bring it back.

How do I do that?

Maybe she deleted it. Maybe she spelled something wrong.

I do not know. Okay, we'll see if we We'll see if it comes.

Okay, Claire, bring the comment back so we can see what you said. So I did get to see Claire this morning, which was lovely. So, okay, Jelly Cat Diner. You learn from last time we went. The girls did get a stuffed animal, but they couldn't do the Jelly Cat experience. And the experience, if you go online, you can, you can look at my TikTok and see what am I, Whiny Poo's a Mom on TikTok? I recorded the experience so you can go see what it is. Or you can just look it up online. I'm sure they show it.

Probably a million YouTube videos.

So they actually like cook, pretend they have a little show, little show. They have diner stuffed animals that you can only get at the diner. They're special stuffed animals and they pretend that they're cooking them. So it's like a cheesecake.

Yeah, it's food. Okay, so you always want a stuffed animal to be food, so makes no sense.

If you ask Lily what she wants to do, if she goes to New York, that's what she wants to do. So I did some research and figured out when they were— the reservations were gonna go live.

It's like a lottery for VIP Justin Timberlake tickets. Yes, disappearing. Yes, like a thousandth in line once, and then I was in line and got it, right?

But it, it went— I thought it went live at 3 o'clock, so I'm like, okay, I'm gonna be home at 3 o'clock. I'm gonna get on and I'm gonna get them because I'm gonna be right there. But it was like a window of 3 to something at some point that day they will go live. So call in reinforcements if your kids want to go to the Jellycat Diner. Have your mother, your friend, your husband— have people ready to jump on with you so that someone can get it. Because I called Seth and I was like, I have to go get Ella. I'm getting in the car, you have to get on your computer and you have to be ready, it's gonna go live any second. And of course it did while I was driving. And I'm in line waiting for Ella, in the queue trying to get Lily tickets, and he's on his computer at work trying to get Lily tickets, it's kicking me out, you got, you got.

I got it.

So then I'm like, oh crap, we don't have one for Ella. Well, what I want to teach you, what I didn't know, what I learned is that reservation, one reservation is good for up to 6 people, I believe. So in our family, family, right? It's for a family. So there's only 4 of us in our party and they would let all 4 of us get a stuffed animal. So I was like, do I do it? And I was like, I'm not gonna spend the money, but I could have done it.

So Ella was thrilled that she got to do it because I thought I only got it for one person. So I was like, Ella, you can just watch her do it and vicariously live through her and buy one that isn't cooked.

Um, but, and Ella said she didn't care. She was like, listen, this is for Lily. Let Lily do it. And if I get to do it, great. And if I don't, I'll watch and I'll get a stuffed animal.

She was super cute doing it.

She, I think she liked it. I wonder if she liked it more than Lily.

She did like it. I was surprised.

It was adorable. It was absolutely—

so I recommend booking a Jellycat Diner experience if you have kids who are into it.

If you have kids who are into Jellycat, it was cute. It's not cheap, but it was adorable. We packed so much into a short trip, so much driving. This wonderful man— so this is what I tell him. I will drive as many hours as you want me to drive. I will not drive in the city. So I knew it! I knew it!

Claire said, I'm sorry, I saw a typo. She deleted it.

I knew you saw a typo, Claire!

I said, I loved hearing about your awesome trip and love even more hearing about how you and Seth work so well together. It's interesting to hear your description of the vacation as well as Seth's. I will definitely need to take a little trip to New York very soon. Jelly Cat Diner for sure.

Does Casey— one for you, Casey. Does Claire— does Casey like Jellycat?

If not, do it for yourself.

Well, yeah, but I don't know that I wanted to spend that money on a stuffed animal for myself. I considered it.

People, you probably have a couple thousand dollars in Build-A-Bears you bought for our girls over the years. Like, you could get one for yourself if you want.

Well, so I was like, you're gonna put it on your desk, it's gonna sit there, you're not actually gonna do it, right? But I thought— and then I thought about getting myself the The coffee cup was so cute. Why didn't I do that?

I don't know. I didn't even know everything about it.

Okay, well, I should have gotten the coffee. Get yourself a stuffed animal, ladies. It's not all about the kids. Casey does like Jelly Cat. She's a collector. So you have to take her. You have to take her.

You have to take her.

Okay, I say you have to take her. It would be lovely if you decide to take her.

You could consider it.

So it was super busy, and our main goal was to take Ella on 2 to 3 college tours, which we accomplished. We brought our son back to school. We went to New York from, from school.

Yeah.

Uh, Seth is wonderful, and yes, you would drive as much as I wanted.

You just didn't want to drive anywhere near the city. Um, we— I did drive the first shift to Cornell, and then I did drive. Yes, I drove this section. I think as soon as we got like the Pennsylvania turnpike, wherever we were, um, I said the next thing is going to be heading towards New York. So I drove with all the crazy people in Times Square and in Manhattan, and then I drove us out.

What did you think of driving in with all the crazy people?

You know, fine, used to it. Okay, crazy New York drivers.

So the closer— so I'm driving I— we leave Max and I'm driving.

It was about 4 hours from Cornell to NYC.

The closer that we got to New York City, the crazier the driving was.

Yes.

Like, people, how fast do you want me to go? Like, come on. And so aggressive.

Yes. Someone was signaling, driving up the side to get— I'm like, dude, she's going like 75. Like You gotta fly by on the right using the shoulder because you're going like 90. Like, is there a fire somewhere?

I was going so fast. Okay, so driving around here, my friend was complaining about the crappy drivers around me.

I'm like, wonderful.

I just got back from New York City. Like, this is lovely here.

Yes.

So I will drive as far as Seth wants to Boston, as far as Seth wants me to drive to New York City. I just don't want to actually be the one driving in the city or the highways that lead right up to the city.

Well, yeah, because that Jersey part before we even got to like the tunnel and stuff, that was, that was crazy.

Yeah, that was all you. Yes. So he gets a medal for dealing with all the shopping, he gets a medal for dealing with all the money spending, and he gets a medal for doing the driving and putting up with his ladies.

Um, nothing to put up with.

Well, I will say, um, all in all, you all know that I would have rather been in warm weather, but we always have fun when we go there. It's never, it's never a long trip, and I don't think that that's a bad thing because it's so freaking exhausting. You need vacations from these kinds of vacations.

When we were driving back, I'm like, I don't need a vacation from that. Like, That wasn't a vacation. That was— even though I got to be on sitting on a scooter for most of it, I was like, that was non-stop all day, every day.

And here I thought we're gonna come back from our trip and we're gonna get some relaxation time over the weekend, and Seth is like, uh, Lily has a tournament all day. Yeah, and I'm not going. And I'm like, oh my God, I'm totally exhausted from our trip. And now I have to take her to Canada for an all-day tournament. I'm like, this is endless.

It was outside.

Outside, yes. Um, I will tell you that it has been very cold in Buffalo, New York, so we are not prepared for the sun, and we were not prepared to get burned, even though it was—

it was cold. It was cold.

So it's time to get sunscreen out. And it's time to plan a Florida vacation for me.

Yep.

Everybody cannot be happy. We can take turns being happy. We can make sure that it's not always Lily being happy. Like, we, you know, if you have a kid like Ella, for example, she may not say, I want to I don't know, whatever. I mean, I think she does a pretty good job speaking up for herself, but just pay attention.

I was surprised when the NYU tour opened up, she said, no, I'd rather I'll skip it and, and, and stay here for lunch and wait in this line for lunch. I was like, I did not expect her to say that. I figured we were immediately gonna go grab an Uber and head to NYU.

How did you feel about that?

I was pleasantly surprised.

No, no, no, how would you have felt about running to NYU?

I would have done it, but I much happier sitting and watching amazing performers serve us food.

It was really a hard decision. I let Ella make the decision, but for me personally, as much as I wanted to go to the diner, I wanted to check out the school that she's been talking about. Like, I want to actually go on it. I want to actually go on a tour.

I want— right, but I think she's way more likely to go to one of the other two than she is to go to NYU.

Yeah, well, we didn't go on a tour. Right. But we accomplished—

we had a good trip and everybody was happy at different points. And I think overall everybody had a good trip and is glad they went.

Yeah. And it's nice.

We're not all gonna be happy every second.

It's nice to just get away.

Yes.

So I just, I appreciate— I think it's really healthy for me in particular, um, well, and Seth too, because Seth works so hard. But I think it's really good for me in particular to get away from the everyday routine the laundry, the dishes, the cooking, the shopping, the fitting in all of my work stuff around the kids and driving the kids around. And, you know, like, this was a 6 to 10 o'clock— I got up at 5:50. Seth woke me up at 5. I was up at 5:50. It's gonna be 10 o'clock. I'm gonna go finish my work prep for tomorrow morning that I have to do. I've been going nonstop all day. I haven't stopped. So I'm gonna tell you that it's not always like that every day, but taking breaks like that from the hard routine is so good for us. So even if, if you can go away for a couple days, you know, one of the things that I notice about people, a lot of my friends plan really long trips, you know, like 10 days, a week, and 8 days. We don't do that. I don't even like being gone that long. That's just not my personality. Even 4 days just to get away is perfect.

Yeah.

And you don't like to be away from work that long, right? But I appreciate the time you did take off, and I appreciate you taking us. Yes, good trip. We're gonna take turns making everybody happy, so just make sure that you take turns and that you get everyone's opinion because some people in your family are going to be much better at sharing their opinions than others, so just make sure that everybody's speaking up. This Friday on the podcast is Kelly Sparta, and she talks about why moms ignore their gut. Moms are really good with gut and intuition type of stuff, and she's an amazing lady. She's like a coach and a spiritual— she's a spirituality coach and like, uh, um, she does all— I should have gotten the list, I don't have her bio with me, but she was amazing to talk to. She's so intuitive and she's going to help you, and she helped me. So listen to the podcast, share it with someone that you think would enjoy it, share this with someone who might want to go to New York City or learn about something that we shared. And anything else, honey?

Go to winyepalooza.com, sign up for the free email newsletter, and check out all of Rebecca's amazing content on her Linktree, which is also on the website.

I feel really bad. My trip has thrown me off of a few things, one of which is— Claire, I apologize if you're listening— you brought me this gorgeous prize that I was supposed to drop off before my trip. That you brought to me, and I haven't picked a winner and I haven't dropped it off. And she made this beautiful basket to give to a winner. So on my list for tomorrow, I will pick a winner and I will drop off the gift. So I apologize for my lateness, but it's coming. And thank you if you took part. There's a Winey Plus a Mom group on Facebook. It's free, supportive. You can join you can win prizes, you can get advice. So come find us and thank you for joining us. And we will be back next week.

Happy Winey Palooza Wednesday.

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