Picking Up Where I Left Off

It’s been four years since last I wrote about our trip to New York City to see the Harry Potter play, The Cursed Child.

What the heck happened? Where’ve I been?

Well, coming up on five years ago now, I was rear-ended in a traffic accident, and after that my attorney asked that I not post any further travel stories until my case was resolved. I get it. He didn’t want the other insurance company using it against me.

Still they tried, with those few I wrote.

The thing of it is, even to this day, the way I travel has been altered as a result of that accident. I can still do it. But I hurt. And my wife and I have to make certain accommodations, like her doing the bulk of the driving on road trips or taking frequent rests when we’re walking. I also have to do yoga. A lot. It helps to stretch out while on trips so I don’t hurt near as much.

Thankfully, though, it wasn’t worse and I still can get around. It’s just different. But I’m improving each day. Will I ever be back to how I was before? I don’t know. Maybe. Maybe not. All I can do is keep working at getting better and living life.

And that includes writing.

So. As I was saying. New York City.

I traveled to the big city to attend the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators annual winter conference. It’s the first time it was held in-person since the before times. And I didn’t want to miss it, as I’m close to (finally!) finishing my novel.

The novel revision workshop I attended was fantastic, as was the whole weekend.

It wasn’t without travel fun, either.

A friend of mine and I had about a day and a half to flit around town before the conference started. We hit up some new spots – the NHL Store and the Harry Potter store – and some favorite spots of mine, in Central Park and The Met. A definite happy place.

Sadly, the NHL Store was underwhelming.

The Harry Potter store, on the other hand, was like the Universal Orlando park in miniature and without the rides. Not that I can go on any after the accident. Though, in truth, they were never my jam to begin with.

I loved all of the unique items in the store, and just the overall feeling of it. A lot of fun. And I spent way too much money.

In contrast, it cost nothing to walk through Central Park. And to do so on a 60 degree day in February was near priceless. Such a beautiful day to stroll by the lake to The Met, where we saw a ton of great art as we buzzed through to see the highlights. Sadly there wasn’t time for more. But, as I said, that just makes me want to go back.

And one day we will when our boys are a bit older. We have to. They won’t stop talking about riding trains, after all!

So where else have we been over all these years?

I’ll do my best to write about it in time, though time it’ll take as any that I spend writing here is time away from my novel. And finishing that is still my priority. That and all of the other ideas that are on the back burner right now.

But I’ll get there!