On some level, getting to shows in Madison Square Garden is quite easy. The arena is right above Penn Station/Moynihan Train Hall. I now know that we can be off a train and up by our seats in approximately 12 minutes, and that’s going through security and the ticket scanning! So probably I should consider more such shows in the future. We drove into Philly to get the train, but the Keystone train stops at Ardmore on the way to NYC, and Ardmore is 5 minutes from my house.

Of course, the problem is getting home. It was hanging over my head for most of the concert that we really needed to be on the 10:05 regional back to Philly, as the next train doesn’t go until close to 11:30. The 10:05 is bad enough, getting back to PHL at around 11:45, and then it’s a 20-minute drive home (no traffic). There’s no train back to Ardmore, so if we left our car there we’d have to Uber there to get it. We wound up leaving the show about 3 songs early due to my paranoia. We walked in the door at 12:10 a.m.

But! It was a good show. I enjoyed seeing what sounds the human voice can make and they sang their well-known pieces (Mary Did You Know? and Hallelujah, for instance). I am now feeling quite in the Christmas spirit, if tired after getting up to get kids out the door this morning. I am also realizing that I need to figure out my playbook for tomorrow, what ingredients we still need and what needs to go into the oven when. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

I had been somewhat nervous about the travel logistics, as Amtrak was warning about track delays due to excessive heat. But I’d had my agent book me on the Keystone service, which is my little east coast train travel hack. The Keystone runs from Harrisburg, PA to NYC, meaning it only shares the main Amtrak northeast corridor line between Philadelphia and NYC. So delays elsewhere on the northeast corridor line (anywhere between Boston and Washington DC) don’t affect the service quite so much. The Keystone can get delayed, but it’s less likely to get delayed because it’s behind another delayed train, if that makes sense.

Anyway, for all the warnings the trip in was pretty charmed. We got in early — pulling into NY at least 10 minutes before our scheduled arrival time.

I have to say, after years of arriving and departing from rather dismal Penn Station, the new Moynihan Train Hall is amazing. The main hall is light and open! The food court offerings are excellent! (I tried a ramen shop on the way home). The existence of the hall also means you can now easily enter to catch a train from 9th Avenue, which runs southbound, so if you are coming from points north in Manhattan, your taxi/car doesn’t necessarily have to deal with Times Square/etc. I am a big fan.

While this is not officially on my summer fun list this year, today I think I will attempt a “tri” day (run, bike, and swim in one day). I ran this morning, so that’s crossed off the list. I’m bringing a kid to an activity that is fairly near a bike trail, so I plan to try a short ride later in the day. As it is only one kid, and he’s old enough to sit in the front, I can fold down the back seat to get my bike in there without dealing with the bike rack rigamarole. Then, going in the pool has become a fairly standard evening activity around here. I won’t really be swimming laps while life guarding, but I can do a little bit.

Not too much else to report but I guess that’s the fun of a blog…I’m trying to make the weekend schedule but needing to pivot since it looks like it will be rainy. We definitely need the rain, but I probably would prefer the rain on a Tuesday vs. a Saturday!

On Friday, he and I drove into NYC. Despite living in NYC for 9 years, I basically never drove there. I didn’t own a car and when we rented one for weekend excursions, my husband would drive. But, having driven in NYC a few weeks ago for my TBT In Real Life filming, I decided it wasn’t that bad. And thus I drove through the Lincoln tunnel, and parked in a garage near our mid-town hotel.

We walked around Times Square, got Starbucks (of course!), and ate at a burger place. Then I got myself mentally ready for 3.5 hours of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

For anyone familiar with this play, apparently it originally ran something like 6 hours over two nights. To make this more doable in an American theater context, it was shortened to 3.5 hours and one night. A few parts still dragged a bit, but I appreciated that whenever something was getting too sappy or dramatic, they’d throw a funny line in there. That made the length less noticeable. And the special effects were pretty good! Not to spoil anything, but my son really enjoyed the Dementors.

In the morning, we walked to Central Park (after getting Starbucks again!). We circled the pond, taking in the sights. Then we checked out of the hotel, stored our luggage, and headed (via cab) downtown to the World Trade Center.

When my son and I visited NYC a few years ago together we had gone to the top of the Empire State Building. So this time, it was to the top of One World Trade Center. After paying our respects at the footprints of the old towers, we got in the elevator and rode (fast!) up to the top. The observatory was lovely on a clear day, and we could see the building where we lived until 2011. We had lunch in the cafe, then headed back uptown to collect our luggage, and our car, and I drove back out the Lincoln Tunnel without incident.

It was fun seeing NYC through my son’s eyes. He loved the theater district and the bustle of Times Square at night. He’s now decided he wants to do a summer program in NYC next summer. I remember going to see Phantom of the Opera when I was 18 and feeling just as enamored with the city…which is why I wound up moving there in 2002.

Now I just need to figure out one more Mommy Day for the 7-year-old. He has requested Chuck E. Cheese. Something of a different vibe! But hey, it’s about what the kid wants…

He is a wonderful young man whose interests can be whimsical and deep. He has a math project going on now about the changes in box office sales data, a long-running passion. He’s also recently become interested in tree identification and asked for the Sibley Guide to Trees for his birthday. He figures in my TBT scorecard this week, as you’ll see below.

The Tranquility by Tuesday scorecard is how I rate myself on following the nine time management rules in my next book. In advance of the book’s publication on October 11, I post this scorecard on occasion, usually on Mondays looking back at the week before.

Rule #1 is to give yourself a bedtime. I was in or near my bed around 11 p.m. every night this week, according to my time log. However, we had a couple rough nights with the 2-year-old that meant I didn’t get the same amount of sleep each night. And then last night I had some ridiculous stomach issue that meant I could barely sleep. Hopefully this week will be better.

Rule #2 is to plan on Fridays. I do this every Friday, although I tend to plan the kids’ activity schedule for the week on Sunday nights. I might start moving this to Friday since I generally know most things that will be required by then.

Rule #3 is to move by 3 p.m. I walked or ran outside every day by mid-afternoon. I have not necessarily been running as much as I want (I ran three times this week — per the next rule) but I’ve realized this is partly because we have construction going on on our street which makes it hard to run or even drive past during the day. Plus once you run past the construction you’re on a busy road before getting anywhere else. I did get myself motivated to get in the car and go run elsewhere, so maybe I just need to think about doing that more. There is a parking lot 3 minutes away where I can avoid the busy streets so it wouldn’t really eat up much time.

Rule #4 is “Three times a week is a habit.” If you want something to be part of your identity, make time for it three times during the week. I had a few wins here. I ran three times (even though I’d like that to be more, three times is the minimum). I practiced the piano four times during the week. An unexpected win? My husband and I ate lunch together (with no kids around) three times this week. We haven’t done a date night in forever but if we’re both working from home, we often stop to eat together at noon. We managed to do this even with him being in Seattle part of the week.

Rule #5 is to create a back-up slot. I leave Friday mostly open so it can absorb what it needs to. This week the afternoon was booked up but the morning stayed open and fit some spillover from earlier.

Rule #6 is “One big adventure, one little adventure.” The existence of this rule changed how I spent my time this week! I realized, as I was doing last week’s scorecard, that I had no “big adventures” planned. But I heard in choir rehearsal that there was going to be a production of La Boheme (with professional singers and a full orchestra and such) staged nearby on Tuesday night. My now 15-year-old expressed interest in going, so he and I got tickets. And just like that we became the sort of people who go to opera on a Tuesday night. We did leave a little early because it was a school night but that was a big adventure. As for little adventures, I ran on a trail I don’t often run on during the week, and on Saturday I took my oldest and the 7-year-old on a short hike. Over at Instagram you can see the reel I made of the 7-year-old crossing a creek on a log several feet up in the air.

Rule #7 is “Take one night for you.” I went to choir practice on Thursday.

Rule #8 is to “Batch the little things,” and I tackled my Friday punch list as usual, doing such things as paperwork and making appointments. Knowing I had a time specified for making those appointments made me feel less guilty about not doing it at other points.

Rule #9 is “Effortful before effortless.” This has not been so successful the last few weeks, but I did make some progress here this week. On Sunday, I had 20 minutes between when I came back from dropping one kid off and had to go pick another up. Instead of losing that time to nothing, I turned it into one of my piano practice sessions. I also read the book The Last Days of the Dinosaurs over the weekend. I know this consumed several hours, and those were hours that might have been spent on Twitter. Now I just need to come up with another book to read…

Photo: Squirrel statue guarding the trail I ran on…