A Purposeful Day

It's funny, we can't remember our last day in India.  There was our logistical last day, which consisted of flying back to Delhi from Myanmar, taking a cab back to South Ex, picking up our luggage, and heading straight back to the airport for our flight to JFK.  But we can't remember our real last day, the one where we took everything in and said our goodbyes.  We do remember spending our last weekend in Bombay, where we feasted on garlic butter crab in Trishna and saw lots of friends and former Hyderabadites who moved up to better pastures.  But for the life of us, we can't remember our last day at home in Delhi.  Likely, we were just packing like madmen.

Tyler and I talk a lot about living a purposeful life -- what that means in terms of careers, raising kids, and becoming our best selves.  But we (at least I) tend to be much more reactive and harried day-to-day.  It's a funny dichotomy -- being so thoughtful for the big picture, yet reactive in the little things (answering emails, checking off to do lists)... when it's the little things that make up the big picture.  

So with that, we resolve to be more thoughtful about how we spend our days in Korea... starting with our last day together in NYC.

We had no business going on a picnic the morning before Tyler left for Seoul.  Our apartment was a wreck -- items strewn everywhere and still unsure whether our three big suitcases could fit everything we wanted to bring.  We had great plans to wake up at 6am, but thanks to our amazing new black-out blinds (which we only installed for our new tenant and enjoyed ourselves for only three nights!), we wake up right before we need to leave.  While I try to make it a surprise, the bottles clinking give it all away.  We find a beautiful spot surrounded by wildflowers in Central Park, lay out a picnic blanket, and enjoy blackberries, cheese, blueberry port, and our last everything bagel sandwich -- toasting to our new adventure.

We spend much of the day with family, seeing my cousins at Church, followed by a Turkish feast for lunch with my parents, Elizabeth, John, Joseph, Jeanne, Tita Mel, and Tito Tony.

After a failed attempt to buy dress shoes for Tyler and yet more packing, Wendy and Terence come over to help us drink all of our champagne that we had been saving up "for a special occasion."  Tough job, but as some of our closest friends in NYC, Wendy and Terence are up for the challenge.  (Happiness tip #1: pretend you're moving every few years.  Break out the good stuff and everything you've been saving.  Life's too short!)  We do a blind taste test, ranking each champagne on looks/bubbles, taste, feel, and overall... all great fun, especially when we start digging in on buffalo wings -- who knew that champagne and wings went so well together?! (yup, that's extra buffalo sauce you see in the background).

  

Amidst all of this, we manage to get everything packed and into storage before Tyler leaves for the airport at 2:30am (of course, we're working until essentially right up to that, but still...)

Could we have spent our last day more efficiently?  Clearly.  But there's no doubt we'll remember this day for a long time to come.