Who they are: (From their website – www.glassmen.org) The GLASSMEN is an Ohio non-profit youth organization. Funding for the group comes from summer performances, special events, individual donors, and other projects headed up by the corps. (I took out a small piece about bingo...you'll see why later in the story.)
What they do: (Also from their website) There are 150 members in the drum corps, ranging in age from 16-22, and an average age of 19.5 years. They travel from all over the world to perform with the GLASSMEN - from as far away as Holland, Germany, England, and Japan, and as close to home as Detroit, Indianapolis, Cleveland and Toledo. About 60% of the corps is based out of the tri-state area: 11% from Indiana, 21% from Michigan and 28% from Ohio.
They experience more than just movement and performance, they learn about life. They experience winning and losing, fatigue and exhilaration, and growing as an individual, yet being a part of a larger whole. They learn about teamwork, striving for excellence, working towards goals, and going beyond their own perceived limits. The members of the GLASSMEN grow physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. The lessons and life skills they take with them continue to serve them and help to define their adult lives.
Why I care: (From me) Well, for starters, after only one and a half years of color guard experience in high school, this organization accepted me, not for my skills in talent (which I did not really possess), but because the Color Guard Caption Head, staff, and Executive Director saw something in me that I hadn’t even seen in myself. To make this more interesting, let’s go back a little further. I marched the Bass Clarinet in my high school marching band. My high school band instructor previously marched with Phantom Regiment, and his wife, the guard instructor marched with Star of Indiana. Because of their history with drum corps, they made sure we were all introduced by taking us to one of the shows in 1993. Knowing that I couldn’t play a woodwind instrument in drum corps, I made the decision to try out for the winter guard in my junior year, 1994, and actually made it. (I wasn’t very good, so I think I had some good friends vouching for me, and I think they needed numbers, so they were hoping I was trainable!) During my senior year 95/96, I marched with the color guard, and seemed to be getting a little bit better by that point.
It wasn’t until I got to the Glassmen try-outs in November of 1996 when I realized I was WAY out of my league. Between all of the other people there auditioning, some with 5 years or so of experience, and one girl had literally been marching and/or affiliated WITH the Glassmen color guard since she was 9 years old (Liz), I knew there was absolutely no way possible I was going to be selected to be a part of this guard. The other people were picking stuff up after being shown once. I had to ask 2 or 3 times, and then only got it if I had an extra 15 minutes to practice it before we moved on. Was I given that extra 15 minutes? Nope. They moved on to the next routine. Teach, now do it. Holy crap! I couldn’t figure out how everyone else was picking it up so quick when I just could not. Besides being overwhelmed by the experience, exhausted from the drive up, and the anxiety smacking me around that I was even there in the first place, I just couldn’t think straight. Fortunately, Friday and Saturday were the learning days, and Sunday would be the true test. So when the lights went out on Friday and everyone else went to sleep, I headed out to my car which was turned away from the building, turned on my headlights, and practiced for another 3-4 hours; not until I got the routine, but until I couldn’t forget the routine. This made for a very long Saturday, and perhaps further delayed my ability to catch on to the new or changed routines learned on Saturday, but after lights out on Saturday, I had to find the energy to do it again or else I knew I wouldn’t get another chance. So on Sunday, while I was tired, I apparently did something right, and they asked me back to the next camp.
December comes, and I find myself in the same predicament. So of course I put myself in the same place, and spend a great deal of time out by my car when everyone else is eating, drinking, socializing, or of course sleeping. I’m asked back to the January camp.
Now my memory is starting to fade a bit because I’m old, but I believe it was the January camp when I found out I was going to be an official member of the Glassmen Drum & Bugle Corps color guard. At this point, I was mesmerized and flooded with emotion but most of all, curiosity. There were some people who didn’t make it and I KNEW they were better than me. Why did I make it over them? I wasn’t about to ask, I was simply happy for me.
After a grueling move-in (3 weeks of practicing every day, day in and day out), then departing for the 3 month summer tour, I was on top of the world. While I can’t say I “enjoyed” doing push-ups every time I made a mistake, I can say that I enjoyed being incredibly buff from having to do a crap load of pushups. It helped me start to focus more on what I was doing and trying to avoid mistakes in the first place. While I can’t say that I enjoyed watching the rest of the guard do push-ups when I made a mistake, I can say that the dirty looks from my great friends helped inspire me to not drop anymore. While I can’t say I enjoyed running around the track constantly for dropping my flag (or for someone else dropping their flag or weapon), I can say that running helped me build my lung capacity and helped me keep my breath during the performances. While I can’t say that I enjoyed the phrase “do it again” or “one more time”, I can honestly say that the repetition made me better personally, and made all of us better as a whole. Once I faced the audience for the very first time (the audience which included my family since this was the “home show”), I knew I was beginning the Experience of a Lifetime.
I learned so much from my first summer. At one point, I was so homesick and frustrated, that when we went back to Toledo for a parade, I called my mom and asked her to meet me at G-west to pick me up, that I was exhausted, couldn’t take it anymore, and needed to quit and go home. Like a good mother, she made the trip to G-west, and to my surprise, had brought some clean clothes, some more money, and a few things from home to help with my homesickness in the hopes she could talk me out of quitting. To her surprise, however, I had already told Sal and Brian that it was my intent to go home. I’ll never forget Brian asking me “what was wrong” and me thinking “as if there’s anything you could do about it”. Then I have Sal on the other side VERY defensive, and letting me know that there is absolutely no way he’s letting me quit after all the convincing he had to do to get the staff to keep me in the first place. “What do you mean by that, Sal?”. And then I heard the story of all the nights that he, or he and Brian, or he and someone else, sat upstairs at G-west and watched that girl practicing flag routines in the headlights of her car while the others slept. Found out once and for all, that they had accepted that girl who wasn’t very good, because they knew what she was capable of, and needed the opportunity to show it. This was the moment that I realized what I had suspected all along. I had beat out many others, not because I was better, but because I had the desire to accomplish great things. No matter how bad I sucked, I strived to be better and wouldn’t accept anything less than the best. More discussions with Brian led to me being able to openly discuss some of the issues that he COULD help, and the very next day, those issues were dealt with immediately and resolved.
Finals night, I couldn’t get over how I felt when I walked on the field, during the entire performance, and the moment I walked off the field, knowing I had just had the best performance of my entire life. Summer was over. I couldn’t wait for winter to start it all over again.
I marched with the Glassmen flag-line from 1997 through 1999 and marched in the Winter Guard in 2000. Of all that I have already mentioned I got out of it, perhaps the most important to me were the friends I made. Most people can count their true friends on one hand. Seriously, how many people could you call if you were in a bind? How many people would bail you out if you needed it? I can honestly say, for a fact, that if my car broke down anywhere in the world, I have a friend I could call. If my plane was grounded in Los Angeles, there are 5 people I know, off the top of my head, that I could call. I would be willing to bet that the first person I called would come pick me up at the airport and take me out for a beer before offering me a place on their couch. If I were stranded in just about any state in the U.S., I guarantee there would be a place for me and my family to sleep if we needed it. That’s the kind of friends you make in drum corps. Friends for life. Friends I only see and hear on Facebook for the most part, but similarly, if any of them were stuck somewhere in Indiana, I’d drop everything, pick them up, and hook them up with a place to stay (after buying them a beer of course now that we’re all adults).
I cannot begin to tell you how strong this organization has made me. The self-discipline instilled in us, the amount of respect, courage, devotion, dedication, loyalty, all of it. Every good quality I have, while I may have possessed it beforehand, was brought out because of this organization.
Now to show my selfish side…. I want my children to be a part of this organization, and want to make sure it stays around for them, as well as your children and your grandchildren, and anyone else who ever walks through those doors with the desire that I had. The once lucrative bingo operations have ceased. Due to the casinos being erected in Toledo and nearby, the bingo operations have failed, and the profit that was once generated by the operation is non-existent. The building was sold and the proceeds used to pay debts. Some debts have been paid, but it didn’t cover them all. Between membership fees, DCI Appearance fees, and fundraisers, they predict they will have about $550,000. Sounds like a lot, but the annual operating budget is over $850,000 per year. This $300,000 gap has to come from somewhere.
The economy is in a serious crisis, and people simply can’t give like they used to be able to give. I know I can’t, so I can’t ask anyone else to. But rather than asking 200 people to give $100 and generating $20,000 in donations for the corps I love, I’m asking 200 people to give $5.00. If you can give $5.00, and if you can ask 5 of your friends to give $5.00, there’s $6,000. If your 5 friends ask 5 of their own friends, that’s $31,000.
So for my final question…. Is $5.00 and 2 minutes of your time to repost this link to your wall along with a request for another $5.00 from your friends, too much to ask of my friends? I’m not asking for donations for my past. I’m asking for donations for our kids’ future!
Please make a donation today either through the official Glassmen site or through their official Paypal link!
Monday, November 19, 2012
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Friday, July 31, 2009
Still slacking
Ok, it’s been quite a while since I wrote, even though I promised to update daily. This week has been especially crazy, and I’m happy it’s finally over. Not that it was bad, but it was certainly more work than I bargained for. Having two boys in cub scouts now, I volunteered to work 4 out of the 5 days of camp. The camp was from 8-4 every day, except today, which was 10-3:30 at the splash house. I’ve always gotten frustrated when people comment on my “desk job” as if just because I have a desk, that means I sit and do nothing. I work hard every day at my job, and even though it isn’t “physical”, I still run quite a bit and feel as if I’m pretty much in shape due to the many trips I make up and down the steps every day. I’m here to tell you that those stairs are nothing compared to a big open field with 72 boys between the ages of 6 and 12. I am beat. I am sore. I am tired…more so than after giving birth to any of my kids. And thank god this camp only happens once a year!!!! But we all had a blast. And I have tomorrow to recover, recuperate, and get inebriated to enable myself to wake up with an incredible hangover on my birthday!
Other than that, not much else is going on. I have taken a new interest in someone. I can’t say whether it will go anywhere at this point. I always question myself whether I make good decisions when I’m lonely. I have not in the past, therefore I try to keep that in my mind for all future interests. The only problem is that the loneliness doesn’t go away just because I give up on the potential interests. So it’s a catch 22 of sorts. I won’t ever not be lonely if I don’t give it a shot once in a while. But I won’t suffer through the same bull shit either if I don’t try. I figured out I’m still allergic to cats, so the whole idea of growing old and acquiring a bunch of cats to keep me from being lonely is gone…. So it’s a catch 22. Movies suck alone. I love my kids to death, but you just can’t unwind from your day venting to them when all they really want you to do is hurry up and stop talking so they can play the freaking wii in silence. And yes, you thought I wouldn’t say it on here, but you were wrong…a girl’s gotta get a little passion once in a while. It’s just another one of those birthday things I guess. Every year on my birthday I get depressed because although my life is great, it isn’t exactly what I had planned of it. I see husbands and wives kissing each other goodbye on their way to work, I watch all the drama on television (on dvr of course…who has time to watch tv in real time anymore???). I still wonder if the happiness I seek exists or if I’ve run out of time. Another year older. Another year taken away from my chance to look forward to my 50th wedding anniversary. I’ve taken all the typical advice….stop looking. I’m not looking. But opportunities come and I talk myself out of them.
So again…I can’t say whether it will go anywhere at this point. But if nothing comes of it, I’ve gotten through all the rest…why not this one?
Other than that, not much else is going on. I have taken a new interest in someone. I can’t say whether it will go anywhere at this point. I always question myself whether I make good decisions when I’m lonely. I have not in the past, therefore I try to keep that in my mind for all future interests. The only problem is that the loneliness doesn’t go away just because I give up on the potential interests. So it’s a catch 22 of sorts. I won’t ever not be lonely if I don’t give it a shot once in a while. But I won’t suffer through the same bull shit either if I don’t try. I figured out I’m still allergic to cats, so the whole idea of growing old and acquiring a bunch of cats to keep me from being lonely is gone…. So it’s a catch 22. Movies suck alone. I love my kids to death, but you just can’t unwind from your day venting to them when all they really want you to do is hurry up and stop talking so they can play the freaking wii in silence. And yes, you thought I wouldn’t say it on here, but you were wrong…a girl’s gotta get a little passion once in a while. It’s just another one of those birthday things I guess. Every year on my birthday I get depressed because although my life is great, it isn’t exactly what I had planned of it. I see husbands and wives kissing each other goodbye on their way to work, I watch all the drama on television (on dvr of course…who has time to watch tv in real time anymore???). I still wonder if the happiness I seek exists or if I’ve run out of time. Another year older. Another year taken away from my chance to look forward to my 50th wedding anniversary. I’ve taken all the typical advice….stop looking. I’m not looking. But opportunities come and I talk myself out of them.
So again…I can’t say whether it will go anywhere at this point. But if nothing comes of it, I’ve gotten through all the rest…why not this one?
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Slacking on the daily thing
As expected, I am slacking on the daily blogs. There just wasn't enough time yesterday and the whole day was crazy. Went back to work after being off for a week...the secretary who works upstairs with me is out on vacation, so I have my backlog from last week, along with her work that she's missing this week. I can handle it, or so they think. Definitely a stresser, but not the biggest one. Had my ct scan yesterday. I intentionally took nothing to control the headache since prior to the NKOTB concert the night before...thinking that my typical 3 aleve twice a day would somehow reduce the ability to see if anything is actually wrong in there. The only thing I got was a huge freaking headache by the time I got home from work. The tech told me that I could call my doctors office sometime after noon today, and I was anxiously awaiting making that call when my phone rang early. My initial thought was fear, because I know sometimes if it comes back normal they don't bother to tell you at all. So when the phone was ringing, I immediately thought to myself "Oh no...it's bad news". It was one of those moments where time stops dead in its tracks and you wonder whether you want to answer the phone or not. I answered it, and I was much more emotional about the news she did deliver. "We got your results back, and the scan was fine. There was nothing abnormal". Again, this is good news for normal people, but for some reason, it hit me like a ton of bricks and I immediately became emotional. I don't want a brain tumor. I don't want anything to be wrong with me. I would hate to find out that I have an incurable disease and only have ______ days/months/years left to live. But oddly enough, I'd take any of those 3 over the news that I got. "There's nothing". It makes you feel as if it's literally, all in your head. He made mention at my last appointment when he offered the scan, that I very well may just be one of those people who have headaches all the time. I don't want to deal with that. I have a headache every day. If I don't have a headache, it's because I've taken 3 aleve in the morning and 3 in the afternoon. If you read the instructions, it clearly states that you should not take more than 4 a day. It won't last long. So far aleve works the best, but eventually I grow immune to it and have to start taking something else. And when I say "take", I mean "overdose" on something else, like I feel like I'm doing with aleve. I can take 4 tylenol and feel no relief. I can take 4 advil and feel no relief. When I started on the most recent prescription he gave me (Tramadol (sp*?)) it worked very well for the first two weeks or so. It said to take up to 4 per day, and one pill equaled the strenght of about 2.5 aleve (so they said, but I disagree, because it worked much better than aleve). I took 4 a day, sometimes only 3, and it was working great. But like everything else, it stopped working.
So I don't know what to do next. I've done the eye doctor. I've done the regular doctor/prescriptions/ct scan...I don't know what's next. But he'll tell me July 8th I guess. Sometimes I feel like I have a lot of sinus pressure, so maybe I'll see an ENT. I don't know. I just know that I have to try everything, because "dealing with it" is not an option.
Not much else happened today. I had a whole lot more to do than I did the day before....got a good portion of it done while I was acquiring twice as much, but the rest of the week will be a little easier (*me knocking on wood*) as my boss is gone. Hopefully I can get 10 things done rather than 60 things started. It always makes you feel better when you can accomplish something.
Until tomorrow....
So I don't know what to do next. I've done the eye doctor. I've done the regular doctor/prescriptions/ct scan...I don't know what's next. But he'll tell me July 8th I guess. Sometimes I feel like I have a lot of sinus pressure, so maybe I'll see an ENT. I don't know. I just know that I have to try everything, because "dealing with it" is not an option.
Not much else happened today. I had a whole lot more to do than I did the day before....got a good portion of it done while I was acquiring twice as much, but the rest of the week will be a little easier (*me knocking on wood*) as my boss is gone. Hopefully I can get 10 things done rather than 60 things started. It always makes you feel better when you can accomplish something.
Until tomorrow....
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Update on things that go bump
After the long trip home (doesn't it always seem twice as long coming home?), once we got everything unloaded and partially unpacked, we decided to sit down and enjoy some much missed Tu Your Door pizza and watch the recordings. I used the camcorder which only recorded half an hour and my camera which recorded 80 minutes. The only thing we figured out, was that watching a box of leftover food with a piece of bbq chicken from Texas Road House on top of it, for 110 minutes was boring as hell! No activity on camera at all. The other two adults were able to listen to all the noises though, and could better understand why I slept like crap the whole time. Each time the air kicked off, the rat race began. They were saying "what was that....omg....that was loud....how did you sleep through that?" as I responded "exactly". I was annoyed. What kind of animal/rodent chews through a bag of chex mix and leaves the shreds of the bag laying around, but won't take a piece of chicken out in the open or chew through the doggie bag with cheeseburgers and french fries? So we got no confirmation. I go back and forth on whether I'm upset that I didn't find out, or happy that I didn't find out. The funny thing about the whole mess though was that I obviously paid for the rental and what not, I would assume which payment covered the cleaning lady expenses...but when we walked in, there was an empty envelope sitting up by the paper towel with writing on the outside of it. It read "Maid's Tip! Thank you". I have always wondered what type of services require a tip. Obviously waitresses...they make crap money and depend on tips, but even so, I'm one of those people who always tip, but the amount I give depends on the quality of service. If she ignored us the whole time, I tip 10%. If she took very good care of us, I have been known to leave a good 25-30%. Other tipping services I think of are valets, baggage carriers, things like that. I never tip the cleaning lady who cleans my hotel room. She gets paid for that. I'm sure this company that goes around and cleans the rentals gets paid as well. But I pondered all week as to what I was going to do with that envelope. (A) I had no intent on having money left over by the end of the week, if I did have money left over, we'd have done something else; (B) She didn't do a very good job of cleaning the place before we got there, otherwise we wouldn't have had the forewarning of something lurking about because the feces would have been cleaned up; (C) We kept the place clean and/or cleaned up after ourselves. The only towels we left were the ones that didn't have time to run through the washer and dryer...a process which took about 6 hours since the dryer failed to dry clothes. So since I was already convinced I would not be leaving a tip, I had a choice to make. I could simply "misplace" the envelope and pretend I hadn't seen it...or I could simply leave it alone hoping that the point was well taken on the other end that we weren't very happy with the cleanliness upon our arrival. I took option (c). I scooped up some of the feces from the kitchen counter ensuring the envelope was covered with them, and laid the envelope back down on the counter. Rude? Probably. In retrospect, it was probably mean. But more could be done to take care of a rodent problem. There are products out there that work, and work really well. They aren't that expensive, I buy them for my house. "JUST ONE BITE" is the best one in my opinion, but Tomcat works well also. So my "tip" would be to invest in something that works so that renters can truly enjoy their stay.
If it is customary to tip the cleaning people for rentals, then perhaps the owner should ensure the guests are happy and comfortable. It really isn't the cleaning company's responsibility to purchase such products, but if I worked for that cleaning company, I'd selectively choose which owners I clean for.
If it is customary to tip the cleaning people for rentals, then perhaps the owner should ensure the guests are happy and comfortable. It really isn't the cleaning company's responsibility to purchase such products, but if I worked for that cleaning company, I'd selectively choose which owners I clean for.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Tennessee Trip
Since I can’t blog in real time, I’ll post one huge blog about the whole trip all at once.
DAY 1:
The trip itself was pretty uneventful. It all went smooth until we got around Knoxville to Sevierville. That town sucks. The traffic was so freaking slow. We went about 1 mile an hour through the whole town. Before we knew it, we were in Pigeon Forge driving at about the same speed. Rounded the bend to Gatlinburg and the GPS system went mountain crazy on me. I need to note here that mom had a gps system in the van ahead of me, and mine said something completely different. Since we were nowhere close to each other, she went a different route (the way her gps told her to) and we started up the mountain only to find out we were supposed to turn right somewhere where there was no road. Of course the locals behind me were getting quite pissed. It was obvious I was from Indiana hence the Indiana license plate…”give me a break moron”. So I kept going until I found a place to turn around. Little did I know, it wasn’t a place I was supposed to turn around (well it was, but I went past the turnaround and turned into the exit). Whatever. Again….not from here, give me a break. He did. He honked his horn just incase it was unclear that I was clueless. So we get turned around, called my mom to find out she was in downtown Gatlinburg. Now my gps was taking me to downtown Gatlinburg, so that was cool. I called her when we got down there because the traffic was similarly slow and I wanted an idea of how long it would be til we got through, and asked if she was still downtown. She said “oh no…I’m going up, WAY UP!! So we finally decided to pass the suburban in front of us who we figured out was slowing down the whole crowd (I think he was driving along side someone who was walking just to keep them company). Once we got around him, the real fun began. Up a mountain down a mountain, up a mountain, down a mountain. Go around this curve. Where’s our turn??? Oh, there it was. Ok, where can we turn around? Ummmmmm…there’s no place to turn around. There’s a street, but it’s not big enough to turn around on. Oh, there’s a place. Ok, turn around….now, how far have we gone since were supposed to turn? Oh, there it is. Oh my god. That’s a street? It looks like a freaking 70 degree climb. Holy crap! I hope nobody’s coming down this hill, cuz I’m coming up and there’s only room for one of us. So we do this like 10 times, pass the road we were supposed to turn on, get ourselves turned around, etc. So finally, I pull off at some other rental just to be a smart aleck, tell my mom we’re lost and we’ll be a while, but if they could have the van unloaded and dinner started by the time we figure out where the hell we are, that’d be great…only to find out she’s lost somewhere else on the mountain. She says she is stopped somewhere near the top, can’t figure out where she’s supposed to go, but decided to stop and let the van cool down for a little bit before she tries to figure it out. The gps systems are just sitting there thinking “this wasn’t what I was paid to do” so they just kinda gave up on us. We start driving again and finally get close to the road we’re supposed to be on, and then realize it’s like a 150 degree left turn…there’s no way to do it. So we go down a ways to find a turnaround (again) and head back to the straight climb up to the top of the mountain where our cabin is. Once I get there, I find my mother has already found it. She’s awaiting our arrival, and seems very excited that we, too, survived the trek!
So, we get everything inside finally, start pulling our crap out of the bags, and start to notice that there are mouse droppings (only much bigger…what the hell it really is, I’m not sure yet…perhaps that will come later), all over the house. Mostly in the sinks and stuff, but definitely a lot. Again, to this moment (9:00 p.m. Saturday night) we haven’t seen any physical signs of anything….but it’s scary nonetheless.
So Jennie and I decided since the ober tram was only supposed to be 0.9 miles away, we’d take a walk to see how far it is, and if we can just walk there and avoid having to get back into the cars until we are ready to leave. We’re both physically fit. We work out at the gym together. Surely we can walk 0.9 miles. Lol. (go back to the part where I said we’re on the top of the mountain). So we get about 0.1 miles away (if that far) and we’ve already walked straight down the whole time!!!! So we decide it isn’t happening and start walking back. We get back about 10 minutes later…and decide to drive to ober to see how far it is and whether we were weanies and could actually make it with the kids. Down the mountain, up another one, down the mountain, and up a huge one….and we’re finally there. So we have our answer. Not no, but hell no. It’s only actually 0.8 miles. But it’s still a hell no.
So we get up to the ober tram, and Jennie freaks out. She’s afraid of heights, my mom is scared to death of heights…she’s saying at this point, there’s no way we’re gonna get her on that. If that’s true, there’s no way we’re getting my mom on it either. The only problem is, if we don’t take that down…that means we gotta drive down, which of course also means….we have to drive back up again. I’m not interested in that!
So we’re back home, planning out what we might and might not do tomorrow. Strategizing what we’re gonna use to hit these big whatever the hell they are dropping these cat-like feces….and just plain worn out and ready for bed.
I’ll let you know how tomorrow goes when we get back from our day full of events.
DAY 2:
Day 2 started way too early. Besides not being able to go to sleep due to the pitter patter of the little rodents going through something we apparently left out in the kitchen, trying to figure out what makes all those little sounds that go bump in the night and set off the motion activated light right outside my bedroom door, having to kill a spider that I saw crawling up the window shades (yes, I killed it myself) and just generally not being comfortable in a place that makes me nervous…the thunderstorm hit around 2:30 or so and woke us all up. Actually, the thundering and lightning bothered me. It wasn’t until the others woke up when I found out that apparently, when you are sleeping in one of the upstairs bedrooms, the “metal roof” that is supposed to be awesome on rainy nights, isn’t so awesome when the wind hits and it sounds like the roof is going to be blown off if another gust of wind comes through. (Upon learning of this story, I quickly offered to switch rooms with anyone…unfortunately, they would rather deal with the possibility of the roof flying off than the pitter patter outside the kitchen! I woke up again around 5, and then was up for the day around 7:30. It sucked because the storm was still overhead, we could sit on the porch and watch the rain come down….but there was no way we were going to go anywhere to do anything, because my happy ass is scared enough driving down the mountain when it’s dry! I’m not about to drive down it in the pouring rain where my brakes would most assuredly test me when sliding on some rocks at the bottom of the road and sending us to the bottom of the mountain on a much quicker and more painful route. I’m sure it most likely wouldn’t happen that way, but it’s my fear, and I’ve shown on this trip that I am conquering my fears. But I’ll continue to do so on dry land.
While we are on the subject of conquering fears however, once the rain stopped, and the roads started to dry up, we hit the road for a little adventure. We all went up to ober and took the tram downtown. My mother is more scared of heights than anyone I know. Jennie claims to be pretty scared of heights, and we got my mom on the tram by telling her that her and Jennie are facing their fears together, but it’s quite obvious my mom is much more scared than she is. So we get on the tram and mom did really well. I got a lot of good pictures, and even a video. (There’s a house up here in the mountains that was built to be a replica of the Barbie dream house…I got it on the video today not even knowing it, but I’ll make sure I take an actual picture of it next time we go down now that I know what it is). We weren’t sure if we could take the strollers on the tram, so we left them behind and headed downtown. I would eventually regret that decision. We got almost all the way down the mountain when it started pouring. I know that I exaggerate sometimes, but this time, when I say pouring, I’m not really just meaning it started raining. I mean a torrential down-pour. So we hang out at the downtown ober terminal waiting for it to clear up a bit. When it did, we hit the streets. We walked for a little bit, and then it started pouring again so we stopped at a little drug store to wait it out. While there, I got a screwdriver for our little home project that I forgot to mention. Prior to leaving, Nate locked one of the bathroom doors (we have 3). And then shut the door. Odd? Not really. Only he wasn’t in there. So we have to find a skeleton key of some sort. Nowhere in the house was a skeleton key. So we’re trying all sorts of stuff. Hangers, incense sticks, whatever we can fit in there….no luck. Call the property manager, can’t get through. Call the owner, she’s clueless. She calls her husband, he calls me back, gives me a couple more ideas, and so we try them. No luck. So finally we decide I need to take off another door handle so I can see how it works, and then I can figure out what to do to get that one open. Only I don’t have any tools at all. So now back to downtown. Stops raining again, so we start walking. We’re just taking it all in trying to figure out where we are gonna go first. Most of us are hungry, so we decide we’re gonna start looking for food. It starts pouring again, so we go into the first place we see, which just happens to be burger king. It stopped while we were in there, so we decided we needed to make a plan, so we did. We decided today would be aquarium day. Burger King was at about light 8 (ober, where we started, was at light 9) so we had to go down to between lights 5 and 6 to get to the aquarium. The lights are a heck of a lot further apart than I thought, and it made it much further having to carry Alex because home boy was either too incredibly slow, or simply did not feel like walking. So we get there, and it was absolutely awesome. I had to carry Alex all the way through it because he was a little scared with all the people, the sounds, all the big stuff. But I’d carried him the whole way just about, what’s another hour or so? We saw a lot of stuff, took a decent amount of pictures, and went down to the tube that goes right through the middle of the aquarium. It seemed like a long tube, but we found that they actually have a moving floor that you step on and it takes you all the way through the tube. The kids were all pretty amazed going through the middle of an aquarium. You’d see a shark come at you, then go over your head. Looking up, it was as if they really were just over your head. It felt like you could reach up and touch it. A stingray came up to us, and went over us, and Alex ducked (as if that would save him or something). But it was really cool. I know I didn’t write as much about it as I did the crappy stuff, but there isn’t much to say, other than I think we may wish we’d have saved it for last, because I have a feeling it may be the highlight of the trip. So we got smart and went to the visitor center to figure out the trolley system. We didn’t want to walk all the way back down there (I certainly didn’t because I knew I’d have to carry Alex). So we took the trolley back to ober, hit the snack shop for an ice cream treat, and then took the tram back up to our getaway cars. We didn’t spend much time down there, but it was nice while it lasted. We went back to our rental, and decided to cook out on the grill. We had hotdogs, hamburgers, and corn on the cob. I’m quite sure a bear will come try to knock over the grill to get to the aluminum foil that assuredly reeks of hamburger grease, but it was a great dinner nonetheless. I drew a bath for Alex in the Jacuzzi. We didn’t turn on the bubbles, but it was quite obvious he was incredibly excited to have a bath. Sat back and watched some television and just relaxed. Before we knew it, Army Wives was on, bed time drawing near, and another day down in the books.
So tomorrow I am told is supposed to consist of thunderstorms. As of right now, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are supposed to be nice, so perhaps we will spend tomorrow figuring out what we want to do on those days. I think we figured out where one of the three pools are that we have access to. We will go swimming one of those three days but haven’t figure out which one yet. My immediate goal is to get myself to sleep while the air Is kicked on before I can hear the pitter patter. My chances of sleeping peacefully depend on my ability to block that out while falling, and of course, once the air kicks off and all is quite on the mountain front, there is just no blocking it out! So more tomorrow. Hopefully it doesn’t pour all day and it won’t suck completely.
DAY 3:
This post is being written on Day 4. Sorry. Day 3 sucked big time. We took the kids downtown again on the tram. I acquired a headache pretty early on and the rest of the day seemed to go straight down hill for me. I’ve been having headaches for a long time. Over the last few months, I’ve started getting nauseous with them but never really bad. This one got progressively worse, to the point where I truly felt there were only two things that could make me feel better…vomiting, or putting a bullet in my head. We talked about it, and figured out it was a combination of several things. The elevation, not eating breakfast, the heat, the kids screaming, not sleeping well…just all around not good things combined making for a really bad day. I felt like I was going to pass out most of the time and frequently had to stop and sit down, but closing my eyes made me really feel like I was going to blow. We were out probably 5 hours or so and I had finally had enough. I had to come back home because I couldn’t make it any longer. I actually tried to hide it for the most part, pretending to be ok, pretending only to stay behind because Alex was asleep and not because I couldn’t walk any further…but the kids seemed to still have a pretty good time. When we got back to the house, I tried to lay up in my mom’s room away from civilization but still couldn’t get comfortable. Came back downstairs, took 3 aleve, crawled up in my bed, and when it finally started to subside, I was down for the count. I woke up at midnight and freaked out thinking “holy crap…where is everyone”. I really wasn’t tired so I didn’t plan to sleep. It just happened. So I went back to sleep realizing everyone else was there, and got up with everyone else in the morning to start day 4.
DAY 4:
Today was an exciting day. No headache. No problems. We decided to drive down the mountain this time so we could fill up our gas tanks. Went to Pigeon Forge without really having a plan. We went through a bunch of brochures here at the cabin and found really one place that we thought would be interesting (3 bears general store) and decided we’d take the kids there. So we did. Only to find out it wasn’t open yet. Don’t know if it was just being remodeled or what, but we found it, parked, and then realized the sign said “opening soon”. So we walked around for a bit and couldn’t find anything else to do. Then we remembered WonderWorks. It was the big upside down motel that was supposed to be full of adventures, but we had seen a youtube video that didn’t look all that interesting. So we decided to go ahead and give it a shot. Boy were we glad. We LOVED it, and they talked us into getting the dinner show combo at Hoot & Holler with it (making the total bill $217). The kids and adults loved everything at WonderWorks, and when it was time for dinner, we had an absolute blast. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed that hard in my life. Poor Alex was tired as hell from all the fun at WonderWorks, so he crawled up in the booth and went to sleep after having a little bit of salad, prior to the main course, and of course missed most of the show. He woke up for desert but we had enough dinner left over that he would eat some later. So the show ended and we went back to the grocery store (where my car was parked) for a few more items to get us through the week. I sent my mom on back to the cabin as we didn’t plan on being there too long, and after we picked up some salad dressing, snacks, and of course more beer, we were off to the cabin. We took the bypass hoping to avoid the downtown Gatlinburg traffic and ended up getting lost and going up the wrong mountain, but we only drove about 5 minutes out of the way before figuring it out, so I would consider that an accomplishment. While lost, we found the 3rd of the 3 pools we have access to up here, not that we have actually been to the 1st or 2nd….but we know where they all are now if we should decide we want to swim. Tomorrow is sure to be just as action packed as today was since it isn’t supposed to rain tomorrow either, but the kids (and us) are all tuckered out and ready to get some shut eye. So more info tomorrow!
DAY 5:
Today was another good day. Started out the day with three aleve hoping to alleviate any headache that might come along. We all jumped in the van (1 person too many, which left me sitting on imagination which was fine for all the further we were traveling). I have this thing though about being a passenger while riding up or down the mountain. I can drive it and be scared shitless, but the fact that I’m in control of my own destiny gives me a little bit of a comfort. Knowing that I may go plummeting to my death at the hands of someone else at the wheel is perhaps a much bigger fear of mine. But this trip is all about overcoming fears, right? Anyway, we went back up to ober, caught the tram to downtown where I videotaped the entire tram ride this time. Went shopping pretty much, wanted to hit some of the shops we had seen in the days prior but didn’t want to stop so as to avoid boring the kids to death. We got a lot of cool souvenir type stuff for ourselves, but I always dread picking out souvenir stuff for friends. I know they expect nothing and would not be offended if that is exactly what I brought back, but I still toss and turn over whether a shot glass is okay, or a keychain is too cheesy, or whatever. So I didn’t end up finding any “take home souvenirs” yet, but I still have a few days. Jennie finally found her purse and a purse for her friend that asked her to get one while here, so the shopping trip wasn’t a complete wash. We had lunch at Quizzno’s, hit a few more shops on the way back up the hill, then hit the tram again for the ride back up. (We did get some awesome fudge…3.5 pounds of it actually, but I don’t expect to be bringing any of that back home as I’ll probably sit up and eat a pound tonight). So then we took the kids down to one of the clubhouse pools (we have access to 3 of them). No more did we get there, get our clothes off, get sunscreened up, and some kid apparently decided he didn’t want to go to the bathroom, so he simply took a dump in the pool. Immediately, the person overseeing the pool area closed it down and told everyone they would reopen in about an hour. We didn’t know (at that point), what had happened. When she first announced “everyone out of the pool”, I assumed it was one of those 15 minute break type things where the staff could go get something to eat, or whatever. Once we overheard them directing everyone to another pool, we began questioning the shutdown, at which time we decided whether they were able to successfully clean it out in an hour or not, we would voluntarily go elsewhere. Not sure exactly what the process is of cleaning feces from a pool, but I didn’t really care because the thought was enough to direct me elsewhere. So the kids didn’t understand (especially Alex being so little and excited to get into the big bathtub as he considers it), but we got them dressed and went to the upper alpine clubhouse which I actually think is closer to our cabin anyway. We got there, were ensured that nobody had crapped in their pool, and began the preparation process of actually swimming for real this time. Alex refused to get in his little flotation device because he was quite certain if he didn’t have his arms and legs wrapped around me, he would sink straight to the bottom, so I set it aside and we hung out in the kiddie section first, and made our way to the big kids pool never crossing the rope leaving the 4 foot section. Everyone seemed to have a really good time, but we had to cut the trip short as Alex’s poor face was turning bright red and I was quite certain he was going to have an incredible sunburn to deal with in the morning. We got back to the cabin and had dinner (eggs, bacon, biscuits and gravy) and retired to the hot tub for some relaxation and miller light. Well, we didn’t let the kids drink any, but Jennie and I had a couple and since the boys had actually gotten their swimming time in, they were more susceptible to simply enjoying the 104 degree hot tub rather than trying to swim in it.
I read another couple chapters of my book and relaxed with the television on before Alex crawled up in my lap ready to call it a night, and now I’m here with him in the bed beside me writing my day 5 portion of the blog before retiring myself. Oh….I almost forgot. My mother brought her camcorder which records about 2 hours of footage, so we decided we were going to set some food out Friday night and let it run for a couple hours so that we can see exactly what animal hangs out in our kitchen each night. Based on the size of the feces (and I’m quite sure I’ve already relayed this in an earlier portion) we have a hard time believing that it is simply mice, or even rats. So we’ll record it for a couple hours, and then watch on Saturday on the way home to find out the actual culprit. Obviously we could do this any night, but perhaps it is safest for us and will allow us to continue to get decent sleep NOT knowing until after we have left. So Friday night it is. (Oh…some of the ramblings of Alex are starting to sound like real words now. There were a couple times today that he would say something, I thought I knew what he said so I’d repeat it, and he would look at me with the most excitement in the world and nod his head saying yes…so enthusiastic about the fact that I understood him. I think he’s starting to figure out that I am much too old to learn his language, so he’s giving mine a shot! The more he figures out he’ll get what he wants if he asks for it by name, the more he’s gonna do it….so it’s a start!)
DAY 6:
Today was the ultimate eventful day. After waking up at 2:30 in the morning to some sort of rat race, or other type of event they had, unfortunately it took quite a while to get back to sleep. I may have explained this in an earlier post, but rather than going back and reading the first 6 pages to determine if I had, I’ll simply explain again. When the air kicks on, all is sound on the western front. The air is loud enough that I can hear nothing. Fortunately, that is the time to fall asleep. If the air kicks off and the house is silent, the things that go bump in the night come to life. I awoke at 2:30 to the sound of somethingS in the ceiling running back and forth, sliding into walls, making a horrible ruckus. I kept my eyes on the clock hoping like hell the air would kick on once again and I could fall asleep and ignore the obvious sounds above me. So at about 3:15, the air finally kicked on. I rolled over, got myself comfortable, and the air kicked back off again. The air up here was apparently cool enough that the central air had a smaller job to do maintaining the temperature, and I was left to lie awake and listen to the race for yet another half an hour or so. When I finally made it back to sleep, I awoke around 8:30 feeling not so refreshed, but awake and ready to hit the day. Much to my surprise, nobody else in the house heard the race, so I once again agonized over the fact that I was chosen for the downstairs room to allow me some seclusion for my vacation (I’d rather have slept in a twin bed with all 3 of my damn kids but the beds upstairs were bigger, so I stayed by my own choosing). We had a nice breakfast and then charted out our day. We decided we wanted to hit 3 places today…a magic show, a cavern, and mel’s diner. Called the magic show place and found out they had 2 shows, one at 3 and one at 8. We decided on the 3:00 show as nobody ever wants to drive up the mountain in the dark, hell, I’m not sure I like driving it in the daytime. It was close to noon when we all got ready, so we decided we’d hit Mel’s Diner for lunch, and then hit the magic show (Magic Beyond Belief) and then hit the cavern. We got out of the show shortly after 5, and figured out that the cavern closed at 6 and was in Sevierville so if we could make it, we would not have much time to enjoy the beauty. So we called it a day. Jennie and I had some things we wanted to pick up in town, so we all headed back to our cabin, and mom volunteered to watch the kids while her and I took the tram down to town to pick them up. We desperately needed sugar if I was to have coffee in the morning (and they don’t want to be around me if I don’t have coffee in the morning), and she needed some cough medicine for Ariah as she is started to get sick, and she is miserable when she is sick. So we went down on our own, walked around a little bit to find some last minute souvenirs for the people back home, and headed back up. When arriving back at the cabin, I really just wanted to snuggle up on the couch and watch a little bit of television while everyone else was eating dinner. They all sat down to eat, and I glanced out the window to see a bear outside walking up to our cars. I yelled at them so that they could all get up to see it, and we were all amazed that he walked right up to our cabin and was searching around for food. I’m not experienced with bears, but I could tell it obviously wasn’t a big one. We determined it was a baby bear, and malnourished at that, desperately searching for something to eat. I snapped a couple shots from my camera trying to keep the kids back, but the glare from the window and my flash made it nearly impossible to capture a good shot. So with the littlest ones in the hands of an adult, I opened the door and attempted to get a couple better shots. IT didn’t work out all that well because it was venturing to the other side of the house, but looking at the pictures, a couple of them show that it was certainly a bear for the viewing pleasure of the people back home once I get all the pictures posted on the computer. We all know for sure it was, and as much as we are glad to have had the experience of a bear actually walking up to our cabin, it makes for a terrible smoking experience as we are not incredibly guarded. Jennie on one end of the porch while I’m on the other keeping a watchful eye out for our newfound friend. It is a good thing we are leaving on Saturday, as I’m not sure how comfortable I would have been had we seen the bear say Monday! The porch has come to be our comfortable spot, usually away from the majority of the kids, where we can either plan our day, or discuss our day, while relaxing on the rocking chairs and enjoying the solitude the mountain has to offer. It was originally in our plans to be in the hot tub this evening, and a frightening thought knowing that 24 hours earlier, we were in the hot tub, with all the kids, and the bear could have just as easily come a day earlier and by this time, would not have looked as malnourished. My children are not knowledgeable of bears never having seen any roaming around the streets of Marion, and do not know to play dead. We, on the other hand, know to do so, but unfortunately would not be able to, as we are a couple of chicken shit women who literally scream when we see spiders and freak out until we manage to find someone brave enough to kill them for us. I’ve heard stories of bears being up here, but considering the fact we couldn’t even walk a tenth of a mile down the mountain, I was confident we wouldn’t be seeing any because there’s no way they could make it up and down this road!
So now it’s off to bed for another night. We decided to go ahead and record the noises that go bump in the night tonight, so that we don’t have to worry about it tomorrow, on our last night here. My mother advised that although her video camera battery keeps its charge for up to 3 hours, the discs only hold half an hour. Once we hit record though, I’m hitting the bed and not intending to go out an switch the tapes. So hopefully we get what we don’t want to see in the first half hour! I still can’t wait to find out what it is…ok, I can, until we leave, but I’m going to make Jennie watch it on the way home so I can see as soon as we are out of here.
DAY 7:
The last real day of fun! Forecast called for a 40% chance of rain. We didn’t get any thankfully. We’d have been stuck up here all day. My mom and I won’t drive down the mountain wet, and Jennie won’t drive down the mountain at all. Set up the video camera last night hoping to catch a glimpse of what has been keeping me up at night. Got up this morning, and the camera apparently didn’t work. So we’ll try again tonight, with two cameras instead, and maybe we’ll get some info on the drive home. So we took our time getting up and out this morning. Had to share two pots of coffee between the 3 of us. We decided we’d head to Sevierville to check out the forbidden caverns. Thankfully we all wore tennis shoes because it was an hour walk through the caverns. We reached a depth of 200 feet below the ground. We managed to get a lot of really good pictures there as well. It was a nice place. It sucked having to carry Alex all the way through it, but we found out there is some sort of Tennessee law prohibiting anyone from touching the rocks and stuff under there, because the oil from our skin will ruin t he growth, blah blah blah, don’t let us go down there then! Duh. Sounds uncomplicated to me. Make a video of it, and post it on youtube so we can all see. It works for everything else! Anyway, we decided to head back to Gatlinburg and have one more nice dinner out. We went to Texas Road House down at the bottom of ski mountain, and then headed back up for the cleaning, packing, loading job. Jennie decided she wanted to have one last go around with the hot tub. After last night’s bear sighting outside of our place, I decided I had no interest in getting in the hot tub. She fretted over it for a while, not knowing whether it was a good or bad idea, and then finally came around to the idea when I agreed to take “bear watch duty”. I sat at one end of the porch and watched up the mountain, my mother sat at the other end of the porch watching the other direction, and Jennie and the kids sat in the hot tub watching up the mountain behind the cabin. I explained the phrase that pays….if they heard me say “GET OUT NOW”, they knew a spotting had been made, and I would do my best to throw the hot dogs at them somewhat downward on the road in an effort to give them more time….but I explained that there would be no trial runs…if I say the words GET OUT NOW, they were obviously to do just that! Didn’t see any bears. They didn’t stay long….not so relaxing sitting in a nice hot tub at the end of the day if you’re on the edge of your seat the whole time. So we’ll have to go back home and have a hot tub installed in one of our back yards where we don’t have to worry about bears. Not much else going on now. We’re packing up the rest of our stuff, washing up that which is dirty, getting our clothes out and ready for morning, loading what we can, getting the video equipment set up for tonight’s attempted recording, and hitting the sack for one last night. I hate to say that I’ll be glad as hell when I get to sleep in my own bed again. It’s time to start thinking about what beach we want to go to next year. Can’t go to Florida. The Disney World trip is still in the plans for 2013. But maybe myrtle beach, or if I’m not able to put back enough, then maybe Indiana Beach. Hopefully not!
DAY 8: Pack em up and move em out! Drive time. No blog today!
DAY 1:
The trip itself was pretty uneventful. It all went smooth until we got around Knoxville to Sevierville. That town sucks. The traffic was so freaking slow. We went about 1 mile an hour through the whole town. Before we knew it, we were in Pigeon Forge driving at about the same speed. Rounded the bend to Gatlinburg and the GPS system went mountain crazy on me. I need to note here that mom had a gps system in the van ahead of me, and mine said something completely different. Since we were nowhere close to each other, she went a different route (the way her gps told her to) and we started up the mountain only to find out we were supposed to turn right somewhere where there was no road. Of course the locals behind me were getting quite pissed. It was obvious I was from Indiana hence the Indiana license plate…”give me a break moron”. So I kept going until I found a place to turn around. Little did I know, it wasn’t a place I was supposed to turn around (well it was, but I went past the turnaround and turned into the exit). Whatever. Again….not from here, give me a break. He did. He honked his horn just incase it was unclear that I was clueless. So we get turned around, called my mom to find out she was in downtown Gatlinburg. Now my gps was taking me to downtown Gatlinburg, so that was cool. I called her when we got down there because the traffic was similarly slow and I wanted an idea of how long it would be til we got through, and asked if she was still downtown. She said “oh no…I’m going up, WAY UP!! So we finally decided to pass the suburban in front of us who we figured out was slowing down the whole crowd (I think he was driving along side someone who was walking just to keep them company). Once we got around him, the real fun began. Up a mountain down a mountain, up a mountain, down a mountain. Go around this curve. Where’s our turn??? Oh, there it was. Ok, where can we turn around? Ummmmmm…there’s no place to turn around. There’s a street, but it’s not big enough to turn around on. Oh, there’s a place. Ok, turn around….now, how far have we gone since were supposed to turn? Oh, there it is. Oh my god. That’s a street? It looks like a freaking 70 degree climb. Holy crap! I hope nobody’s coming down this hill, cuz I’m coming up and there’s only room for one of us. So we do this like 10 times, pass the road we were supposed to turn on, get ourselves turned around, etc. So finally, I pull off at some other rental just to be a smart aleck, tell my mom we’re lost and we’ll be a while, but if they could have the van unloaded and dinner started by the time we figure out where the hell we are, that’d be great…only to find out she’s lost somewhere else on the mountain. She says she is stopped somewhere near the top, can’t figure out where she’s supposed to go, but decided to stop and let the van cool down for a little bit before she tries to figure it out. The gps systems are just sitting there thinking “this wasn’t what I was paid to do” so they just kinda gave up on us. We start driving again and finally get close to the road we’re supposed to be on, and then realize it’s like a 150 degree left turn…there’s no way to do it. So we go down a ways to find a turnaround (again) and head back to the straight climb up to the top of the mountain where our cabin is. Once I get there, I find my mother has already found it. She’s awaiting our arrival, and seems very excited that we, too, survived the trek!
So, we get everything inside finally, start pulling our crap out of the bags, and start to notice that there are mouse droppings (only much bigger…what the hell it really is, I’m not sure yet…perhaps that will come later), all over the house. Mostly in the sinks and stuff, but definitely a lot. Again, to this moment (9:00 p.m. Saturday night) we haven’t seen any physical signs of anything….but it’s scary nonetheless.
So Jennie and I decided since the ober tram was only supposed to be 0.9 miles away, we’d take a walk to see how far it is, and if we can just walk there and avoid having to get back into the cars until we are ready to leave. We’re both physically fit. We work out at the gym together. Surely we can walk 0.9 miles. Lol. (go back to the part where I said we’re on the top of the mountain). So we get about 0.1 miles away (if that far) and we’ve already walked straight down the whole time!!!! So we decide it isn’t happening and start walking back. We get back about 10 minutes later…and decide to drive to ober to see how far it is and whether we were weanies and could actually make it with the kids. Down the mountain, up another one, down the mountain, and up a huge one….and we’re finally there. So we have our answer. Not no, but hell no. It’s only actually 0.8 miles. But it’s still a hell no.
So we get up to the ober tram, and Jennie freaks out. She’s afraid of heights, my mom is scared to death of heights…she’s saying at this point, there’s no way we’re gonna get her on that. If that’s true, there’s no way we’re getting my mom on it either. The only problem is, if we don’t take that down…that means we gotta drive down, which of course also means….we have to drive back up again. I’m not interested in that!
So we’re back home, planning out what we might and might not do tomorrow. Strategizing what we’re gonna use to hit these big whatever the hell they are dropping these cat-like feces….and just plain worn out and ready for bed.
I’ll let you know how tomorrow goes when we get back from our day full of events.
DAY 2:
Day 2 started way too early. Besides not being able to go to sleep due to the pitter patter of the little rodents going through something we apparently left out in the kitchen, trying to figure out what makes all those little sounds that go bump in the night and set off the motion activated light right outside my bedroom door, having to kill a spider that I saw crawling up the window shades (yes, I killed it myself) and just generally not being comfortable in a place that makes me nervous…the thunderstorm hit around 2:30 or so and woke us all up. Actually, the thundering and lightning bothered me. It wasn’t until the others woke up when I found out that apparently, when you are sleeping in one of the upstairs bedrooms, the “metal roof” that is supposed to be awesome on rainy nights, isn’t so awesome when the wind hits and it sounds like the roof is going to be blown off if another gust of wind comes through. (Upon learning of this story, I quickly offered to switch rooms with anyone…unfortunately, they would rather deal with the possibility of the roof flying off than the pitter patter outside the kitchen! I woke up again around 5, and then was up for the day around 7:30. It sucked because the storm was still overhead, we could sit on the porch and watch the rain come down….but there was no way we were going to go anywhere to do anything, because my happy ass is scared enough driving down the mountain when it’s dry! I’m not about to drive down it in the pouring rain where my brakes would most assuredly test me when sliding on some rocks at the bottom of the road and sending us to the bottom of the mountain on a much quicker and more painful route. I’m sure it most likely wouldn’t happen that way, but it’s my fear, and I’ve shown on this trip that I am conquering my fears. But I’ll continue to do so on dry land.
While we are on the subject of conquering fears however, once the rain stopped, and the roads started to dry up, we hit the road for a little adventure. We all went up to ober and took the tram downtown. My mother is more scared of heights than anyone I know. Jennie claims to be pretty scared of heights, and we got my mom on the tram by telling her that her and Jennie are facing their fears together, but it’s quite obvious my mom is much more scared than she is. So we get on the tram and mom did really well. I got a lot of good pictures, and even a video. (There’s a house up here in the mountains that was built to be a replica of the Barbie dream house…I got it on the video today not even knowing it, but I’ll make sure I take an actual picture of it next time we go down now that I know what it is). We weren’t sure if we could take the strollers on the tram, so we left them behind and headed downtown. I would eventually regret that decision. We got almost all the way down the mountain when it started pouring. I know that I exaggerate sometimes, but this time, when I say pouring, I’m not really just meaning it started raining. I mean a torrential down-pour. So we hang out at the downtown ober terminal waiting for it to clear up a bit. When it did, we hit the streets. We walked for a little bit, and then it started pouring again so we stopped at a little drug store to wait it out. While there, I got a screwdriver for our little home project that I forgot to mention. Prior to leaving, Nate locked one of the bathroom doors (we have 3). And then shut the door. Odd? Not really. Only he wasn’t in there. So we have to find a skeleton key of some sort. Nowhere in the house was a skeleton key. So we’re trying all sorts of stuff. Hangers, incense sticks, whatever we can fit in there….no luck. Call the property manager, can’t get through. Call the owner, she’s clueless. She calls her husband, he calls me back, gives me a couple more ideas, and so we try them. No luck. So finally we decide I need to take off another door handle so I can see how it works, and then I can figure out what to do to get that one open. Only I don’t have any tools at all. So now back to downtown. Stops raining again, so we start walking. We’re just taking it all in trying to figure out where we are gonna go first. Most of us are hungry, so we decide we’re gonna start looking for food. It starts pouring again, so we go into the first place we see, which just happens to be burger king. It stopped while we were in there, so we decided we needed to make a plan, so we did. We decided today would be aquarium day. Burger King was at about light 8 (ober, where we started, was at light 9) so we had to go down to between lights 5 and 6 to get to the aquarium. The lights are a heck of a lot further apart than I thought, and it made it much further having to carry Alex because home boy was either too incredibly slow, or simply did not feel like walking. So we get there, and it was absolutely awesome. I had to carry Alex all the way through it because he was a little scared with all the people, the sounds, all the big stuff. But I’d carried him the whole way just about, what’s another hour or so? We saw a lot of stuff, took a decent amount of pictures, and went down to the tube that goes right through the middle of the aquarium. It seemed like a long tube, but we found that they actually have a moving floor that you step on and it takes you all the way through the tube. The kids were all pretty amazed going through the middle of an aquarium. You’d see a shark come at you, then go over your head. Looking up, it was as if they really were just over your head. It felt like you could reach up and touch it. A stingray came up to us, and went over us, and Alex ducked (as if that would save him or something). But it was really cool. I know I didn’t write as much about it as I did the crappy stuff, but there isn’t much to say, other than I think we may wish we’d have saved it for last, because I have a feeling it may be the highlight of the trip. So we got smart and went to the visitor center to figure out the trolley system. We didn’t want to walk all the way back down there (I certainly didn’t because I knew I’d have to carry Alex). So we took the trolley back to ober, hit the snack shop for an ice cream treat, and then took the tram back up to our getaway cars. We didn’t spend much time down there, but it was nice while it lasted. We went back to our rental, and decided to cook out on the grill. We had hotdogs, hamburgers, and corn on the cob. I’m quite sure a bear will come try to knock over the grill to get to the aluminum foil that assuredly reeks of hamburger grease, but it was a great dinner nonetheless. I drew a bath for Alex in the Jacuzzi. We didn’t turn on the bubbles, but it was quite obvious he was incredibly excited to have a bath. Sat back and watched some television and just relaxed. Before we knew it, Army Wives was on, bed time drawing near, and another day down in the books.
So tomorrow I am told is supposed to consist of thunderstorms. As of right now, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are supposed to be nice, so perhaps we will spend tomorrow figuring out what we want to do on those days. I think we figured out where one of the three pools are that we have access to. We will go swimming one of those three days but haven’t figure out which one yet. My immediate goal is to get myself to sleep while the air Is kicked on before I can hear the pitter patter. My chances of sleeping peacefully depend on my ability to block that out while falling, and of course, once the air kicks off and all is quite on the mountain front, there is just no blocking it out! So more tomorrow. Hopefully it doesn’t pour all day and it won’t suck completely.
DAY 3:
This post is being written on Day 4. Sorry. Day 3 sucked big time. We took the kids downtown again on the tram. I acquired a headache pretty early on and the rest of the day seemed to go straight down hill for me. I’ve been having headaches for a long time. Over the last few months, I’ve started getting nauseous with them but never really bad. This one got progressively worse, to the point where I truly felt there were only two things that could make me feel better…vomiting, or putting a bullet in my head. We talked about it, and figured out it was a combination of several things. The elevation, not eating breakfast, the heat, the kids screaming, not sleeping well…just all around not good things combined making for a really bad day. I felt like I was going to pass out most of the time and frequently had to stop and sit down, but closing my eyes made me really feel like I was going to blow. We were out probably 5 hours or so and I had finally had enough. I had to come back home because I couldn’t make it any longer. I actually tried to hide it for the most part, pretending to be ok, pretending only to stay behind because Alex was asleep and not because I couldn’t walk any further…but the kids seemed to still have a pretty good time. When we got back to the house, I tried to lay up in my mom’s room away from civilization but still couldn’t get comfortable. Came back downstairs, took 3 aleve, crawled up in my bed, and when it finally started to subside, I was down for the count. I woke up at midnight and freaked out thinking “holy crap…where is everyone”. I really wasn’t tired so I didn’t plan to sleep. It just happened. So I went back to sleep realizing everyone else was there, and got up with everyone else in the morning to start day 4.
DAY 4:
Today was an exciting day. No headache. No problems. We decided to drive down the mountain this time so we could fill up our gas tanks. Went to Pigeon Forge without really having a plan. We went through a bunch of brochures here at the cabin and found really one place that we thought would be interesting (3 bears general store) and decided we’d take the kids there. So we did. Only to find out it wasn’t open yet. Don’t know if it was just being remodeled or what, but we found it, parked, and then realized the sign said “opening soon”. So we walked around for a bit and couldn’t find anything else to do. Then we remembered WonderWorks. It was the big upside down motel that was supposed to be full of adventures, but we had seen a youtube video that didn’t look all that interesting. So we decided to go ahead and give it a shot. Boy were we glad. We LOVED it, and they talked us into getting the dinner show combo at Hoot & Holler with it (making the total bill $217). The kids and adults loved everything at WonderWorks, and when it was time for dinner, we had an absolute blast. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed that hard in my life. Poor Alex was tired as hell from all the fun at WonderWorks, so he crawled up in the booth and went to sleep after having a little bit of salad, prior to the main course, and of course missed most of the show. He woke up for desert but we had enough dinner left over that he would eat some later. So the show ended and we went back to the grocery store (where my car was parked) for a few more items to get us through the week. I sent my mom on back to the cabin as we didn’t plan on being there too long, and after we picked up some salad dressing, snacks, and of course more beer, we were off to the cabin. We took the bypass hoping to avoid the downtown Gatlinburg traffic and ended up getting lost and going up the wrong mountain, but we only drove about 5 minutes out of the way before figuring it out, so I would consider that an accomplishment. While lost, we found the 3rd of the 3 pools we have access to up here, not that we have actually been to the 1st or 2nd….but we know where they all are now if we should decide we want to swim. Tomorrow is sure to be just as action packed as today was since it isn’t supposed to rain tomorrow either, but the kids (and us) are all tuckered out and ready to get some shut eye. So more info tomorrow!
DAY 5:
Today was another good day. Started out the day with three aleve hoping to alleviate any headache that might come along. We all jumped in the van (1 person too many, which left me sitting on imagination which was fine for all the further we were traveling). I have this thing though about being a passenger while riding up or down the mountain. I can drive it and be scared shitless, but the fact that I’m in control of my own destiny gives me a little bit of a comfort. Knowing that I may go plummeting to my death at the hands of someone else at the wheel is perhaps a much bigger fear of mine. But this trip is all about overcoming fears, right? Anyway, we went back up to ober, caught the tram to downtown where I videotaped the entire tram ride this time. Went shopping pretty much, wanted to hit some of the shops we had seen in the days prior but didn’t want to stop so as to avoid boring the kids to death. We got a lot of cool souvenir type stuff for ourselves, but I always dread picking out souvenir stuff for friends. I know they expect nothing and would not be offended if that is exactly what I brought back, but I still toss and turn over whether a shot glass is okay, or a keychain is too cheesy, or whatever. So I didn’t end up finding any “take home souvenirs” yet, but I still have a few days. Jennie finally found her purse and a purse for her friend that asked her to get one while here, so the shopping trip wasn’t a complete wash. We had lunch at Quizzno’s, hit a few more shops on the way back up the hill, then hit the tram again for the ride back up. (We did get some awesome fudge…3.5 pounds of it actually, but I don’t expect to be bringing any of that back home as I’ll probably sit up and eat a pound tonight). So then we took the kids down to one of the clubhouse pools (we have access to 3 of them). No more did we get there, get our clothes off, get sunscreened up, and some kid apparently decided he didn’t want to go to the bathroom, so he simply took a dump in the pool. Immediately, the person overseeing the pool area closed it down and told everyone they would reopen in about an hour. We didn’t know (at that point), what had happened. When she first announced “everyone out of the pool”, I assumed it was one of those 15 minute break type things where the staff could go get something to eat, or whatever. Once we overheard them directing everyone to another pool, we began questioning the shutdown, at which time we decided whether they were able to successfully clean it out in an hour or not, we would voluntarily go elsewhere. Not sure exactly what the process is of cleaning feces from a pool, but I didn’t really care because the thought was enough to direct me elsewhere. So the kids didn’t understand (especially Alex being so little and excited to get into the big bathtub as he considers it), but we got them dressed and went to the upper alpine clubhouse which I actually think is closer to our cabin anyway. We got there, were ensured that nobody had crapped in their pool, and began the preparation process of actually swimming for real this time. Alex refused to get in his little flotation device because he was quite certain if he didn’t have his arms and legs wrapped around me, he would sink straight to the bottom, so I set it aside and we hung out in the kiddie section first, and made our way to the big kids pool never crossing the rope leaving the 4 foot section. Everyone seemed to have a really good time, but we had to cut the trip short as Alex’s poor face was turning bright red and I was quite certain he was going to have an incredible sunburn to deal with in the morning. We got back to the cabin and had dinner (eggs, bacon, biscuits and gravy) and retired to the hot tub for some relaxation and miller light. Well, we didn’t let the kids drink any, but Jennie and I had a couple and since the boys had actually gotten their swimming time in, they were more susceptible to simply enjoying the 104 degree hot tub rather than trying to swim in it.
I read another couple chapters of my book and relaxed with the television on before Alex crawled up in my lap ready to call it a night, and now I’m here with him in the bed beside me writing my day 5 portion of the blog before retiring myself. Oh….I almost forgot. My mother brought her camcorder which records about 2 hours of footage, so we decided we were going to set some food out Friday night and let it run for a couple hours so that we can see exactly what animal hangs out in our kitchen each night. Based on the size of the feces (and I’m quite sure I’ve already relayed this in an earlier portion) we have a hard time believing that it is simply mice, or even rats. So we’ll record it for a couple hours, and then watch on Saturday on the way home to find out the actual culprit. Obviously we could do this any night, but perhaps it is safest for us and will allow us to continue to get decent sleep NOT knowing until after we have left. So Friday night it is. (Oh…some of the ramblings of Alex are starting to sound like real words now. There were a couple times today that he would say something, I thought I knew what he said so I’d repeat it, and he would look at me with the most excitement in the world and nod his head saying yes…so enthusiastic about the fact that I understood him. I think he’s starting to figure out that I am much too old to learn his language, so he’s giving mine a shot! The more he figures out he’ll get what he wants if he asks for it by name, the more he’s gonna do it….so it’s a start!)
DAY 6:
Today was the ultimate eventful day. After waking up at 2:30 in the morning to some sort of rat race, or other type of event they had, unfortunately it took quite a while to get back to sleep. I may have explained this in an earlier post, but rather than going back and reading the first 6 pages to determine if I had, I’ll simply explain again. When the air kicks on, all is sound on the western front. The air is loud enough that I can hear nothing. Fortunately, that is the time to fall asleep. If the air kicks off and the house is silent, the things that go bump in the night come to life. I awoke at 2:30 to the sound of somethingS in the ceiling running back and forth, sliding into walls, making a horrible ruckus. I kept my eyes on the clock hoping like hell the air would kick on once again and I could fall asleep and ignore the obvious sounds above me. So at about 3:15, the air finally kicked on. I rolled over, got myself comfortable, and the air kicked back off again. The air up here was apparently cool enough that the central air had a smaller job to do maintaining the temperature, and I was left to lie awake and listen to the race for yet another half an hour or so. When I finally made it back to sleep, I awoke around 8:30 feeling not so refreshed, but awake and ready to hit the day. Much to my surprise, nobody else in the house heard the race, so I once again agonized over the fact that I was chosen for the downstairs room to allow me some seclusion for my vacation (I’d rather have slept in a twin bed with all 3 of my damn kids but the beds upstairs were bigger, so I stayed by my own choosing). We had a nice breakfast and then charted out our day. We decided we wanted to hit 3 places today…a magic show, a cavern, and mel’s diner. Called the magic show place and found out they had 2 shows, one at 3 and one at 8. We decided on the 3:00 show as nobody ever wants to drive up the mountain in the dark, hell, I’m not sure I like driving it in the daytime. It was close to noon when we all got ready, so we decided we’d hit Mel’s Diner for lunch, and then hit the magic show (Magic Beyond Belief) and then hit the cavern. We got out of the show shortly after 5, and figured out that the cavern closed at 6 and was in Sevierville so if we could make it, we would not have much time to enjoy the beauty. So we called it a day. Jennie and I had some things we wanted to pick up in town, so we all headed back to our cabin, and mom volunteered to watch the kids while her and I took the tram down to town to pick them up. We desperately needed sugar if I was to have coffee in the morning (and they don’t want to be around me if I don’t have coffee in the morning), and she needed some cough medicine for Ariah as she is started to get sick, and she is miserable when she is sick. So we went down on our own, walked around a little bit to find some last minute souvenirs for the people back home, and headed back up. When arriving back at the cabin, I really just wanted to snuggle up on the couch and watch a little bit of television while everyone else was eating dinner. They all sat down to eat, and I glanced out the window to see a bear outside walking up to our cars. I yelled at them so that they could all get up to see it, and we were all amazed that he walked right up to our cabin and was searching around for food. I’m not experienced with bears, but I could tell it obviously wasn’t a big one. We determined it was a baby bear, and malnourished at that, desperately searching for something to eat. I snapped a couple shots from my camera trying to keep the kids back, but the glare from the window and my flash made it nearly impossible to capture a good shot. So with the littlest ones in the hands of an adult, I opened the door and attempted to get a couple better shots. IT didn’t work out all that well because it was venturing to the other side of the house, but looking at the pictures, a couple of them show that it was certainly a bear for the viewing pleasure of the people back home once I get all the pictures posted on the computer. We all know for sure it was, and as much as we are glad to have had the experience of a bear actually walking up to our cabin, it makes for a terrible smoking experience as we are not incredibly guarded. Jennie on one end of the porch while I’m on the other keeping a watchful eye out for our newfound friend. It is a good thing we are leaving on Saturday, as I’m not sure how comfortable I would have been had we seen the bear say Monday! The porch has come to be our comfortable spot, usually away from the majority of the kids, where we can either plan our day, or discuss our day, while relaxing on the rocking chairs and enjoying the solitude the mountain has to offer. It was originally in our plans to be in the hot tub this evening, and a frightening thought knowing that 24 hours earlier, we were in the hot tub, with all the kids, and the bear could have just as easily come a day earlier and by this time, would not have looked as malnourished. My children are not knowledgeable of bears never having seen any roaming around the streets of Marion, and do not know to play dead. We, on the other hand, know to do so, but unfortunately would not be able to, as we are a couple of chicken shit women who literally scream when we see spiders and freak out until we manage to find someone brave enough to kill them for us. I’ve heard stories of bears being up here, but considering the fact we couldn’t even walk a tenth of a mile down the mountain, I was confident we wouldn’t be seeing any because there’s no way they could make it up and down this road!
So now it’s off to bed for another night. We decided to go ahead and record the noises that go bump in the night tonight, so that we don’t have to worry about it tomorrow, on our last night here. My mother advised that although her video camera battery keeps its charge for up to 3 hours, the discs only hold half an hour. Once we hit record though, I’m hitting the bed and not intending to go out an switch the tapes. So hopefully we get what we don’t want to see in the first half hour! I still can’t wait to find out what it is…ok, I can, until we leave, but I’m going to make Jennie watch it on the way home so I can see as soon as we are out of here.
DAY 7:
The last real day of fun! Forecast called for a 40% chance of rain. We didn’t get any thankfully. We’d have been stuck up here all day. My mom and I won’t drive down the mountain wet, and Jennie won’t drive down the mountain at all. Set up the video camera last night hoping to catch a glimpse of what has been keeping me up at night. Got up this morning, and the camera apparently didn’t work. So we’ll try again tonight, with two cameras instead, and maybe we’ll get some info on the drive home. So we took our time getting up and out this morning. Had to share two pots of coffee between the 3 of us. We decided we’d head to Sevierville to check out the forbidden caverns. Thankfully we all wore tennis shoes because it was an hour walk through the caverns. We reached a depth of 200 feet below the ground. We managed to get a lot of really good pictures there as well. It was a nice place. It sucked having to carry Alex all the way through it, but we found out there is some sort of Tennessee law prohibiting anyone from touching the rocks and stuff under there, because the oil from our skin will ruin t he growth, blah blah blah, don’t let us go down there then! Duh. Sounds uncomplicated to me. Make a video of it, and post it on youtube so we can all see. It works for everything else! Anyway, we decided to head back to Gatlinburg and have one more nice dinner out. We went to Texas Road House down at the bottom of ski mountain, and then headed back up for the cleaning, packing, loading job. Jennie decided she wanted to have one last go around with the hot tub. After last night’s bear sighting outside of our place, I decided I had no interest in getting in the hot tub. She fretted over it for a while, not knowing whether it was a good or bad idea, and then finally came around to the idea when I agreed to take “bear watch duty”. I sat at one end of the porch and watched up the mountain, my mother sat at the other end of the porch watching the other direction, and Jennie and the kids sat in the hot tub watching up the mountain behind the cabin. I explained the phrase that pays….if they heard me say “GET OUT NOW”, they knew a spotting had been made, and I would do my best to throw the hot dogs at them somewhat downward on the road in an effort to give them more time….but I explained that there would be no trial runs…if I say the words GET OUT NOW, they were obviously to do just that! Didn’t see any bears. They didn’t stay long….not so relaxing sitting in a nice hot tub at the end of the day if you’re on the edge of your seat the whole time. So we’ll have to go back home and have a hot tub installed in one of our back yards where we don’t have to worry about bears. Not much else going on now. We’re packing up the rest of our stuff, washing up that which is dirty, getting our clothes out and ready for morning, loading what we can, getting the video equipment set up for tonight’s attempted recording, and hitting the sack for one last night. I hate to say that I’ll be glad as hell when I get to sleep in my own bed again. It’s time to start thinking about what beach we want to go to next year. Can’t go to Florida. The Disney World trip is still in the plans for 2013. But maybe myrtle beach, or if I’m not able to put back enough, then maybe Indiana Beach. Hopefully not!
DAY 8: Pack em up and move em out! Drive time. No blog today!
Friday, June 19, 2009
T-15 hours, 10 minutes
My mind is racing. My heart is beating out of my chest, I’m beginning to break into a sweat. I need a drink of water. I need to sit down. No, I need to stand up. No, I need to lay down. I need something, I just don’t know what it is. What is it? What do I need? What am I forgetting? What’s missing here? My mind is racing. I already said that didn’t I? I’m not having a heart attack…worry not. I’m going on vacation! Boy will I be glad when we get there, figure out what I’m forgetting, and just go buy another one. Unless it’s a kid. That would suck. Or would it? Yeah, it would. They need a vacation just as much as I do. They wish they could leave me at home so they can REALLY have a vacation, but unfortunately for them, they don’t have a license or know how to get there! But we will have a good time if I can help it. Forecast at the moment says: Saturday, Mostly Sunny (won’t be there until afternoon/evening). Sunday, isolated T-Storms; Monday, isolated T-storms; Tuesday, Sunny; Wednesday, mostly sunny; Thursday, partly cloudy; Friday, isolated T-Storms; Saturday, mostly cloudy (coming back that day). So, it kinda sucks, but the 10 day forecast is much better than it was yesterday. It said isolated or severe t-storms all week except Saturday….so apparently Gatlinburg is much like Indiana in that if you don’t like the weather, wait 5 minutes. If you don’t like the forecast, stop looking at it, cuz it isn’t right anyway!
But yes, it has been a stressful last couple of days. My mind isn’t where it should be apparently. I have been incredibly forgetful lately. Literally, I have always been a stickler for remembering everything. Never missed an appointment. Never really even had to put it on a calendar because once it goes in, it just doesn’t come out. I missed Alex’s post-op appointment the other day. Just completely spaced it.
When vacation is over, I have a cat scan scheduled Monday the 29th to see what is going on with me, why I have such horrible headaches, and maybe we’ll figure out why I am suffering from CRS as well. I hate to think they’ll find something, but boy would it be nice if they did and I’ll know I’m not just going through Alzheimer’s at freaking 30 years old. I just hope I remember to show up for the cat scan! lol. Alex’s rescheduled post-op is that same day as well, so I’m bound to get one out of two if not both.
Ok, I’m done writing for the day, and actually for the week. If I do manage to find some local hangout that has wi-fi or free internet access, I’m sure my kids won’t let me stay long enough to write anything….they’ll want to hit the ice-cream store next door instead (maybe they’ll have free internet access too J )
But yes, it has been a stressful last couple of days. My mind isn’t where it should be apparently. I have been incredibly forgetful lately. Literally, I have always been a stickler for remembering everything. Never missed an appointment. Never really even had to put it on a calendar because once it goes in, it just doesn’t come out. I missed Alex’s post-op appointment the other day. Just completely spaced it.
When vacation is over, I have a cat scan scheduled Monday the 29th to see what is going on with me, why I have such horrible headaches, and maybe we’ll figure out why I am suffering from CRS as well. I hate to think they’ll find something, but boy would it be nice if they did and I’ll know I’m not just going through Alzheimer’s at freaking 30 years old. I just hope I remember to show up for the cat scan! lol. Alex’s rescheduled post-op is that same day as well, so I’m bound to get one out of two if not both.
Ok, I’m done writing for the day, and actually for the week. If I do manage to find some local hangout that has wi-fi or free internet access, I’m sure my kids won’t let me stay long enough to write anything….they’ll want to hit the ice-cream store next door instead (maybe they’ll have free internet access too J )
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