Summer Vacation 2007 - Day 1

Day One - Savannah, GA

We were an hour off our start time. We were shooting for 9:00 A.M., but figuring out and loading the new luggage carrier took time. Connie had purchased the carrier after realizing that her purchase of a new Rendezvous included changing from her previous bench seat in the middle to bucket seats which eliminated a place in the middle and forced us to drive with the third seat raised, which in turn left us enough room for a cosmetic bag, a bag of shoes and Connie's carry bag of golf clubs in the "trunk" space in the back. 

Thus the carrier.

The carrier is black, soft-sided, and says "Weather-Tech " on the outside. The underside of the carrier is like a soft blanket so that it will not scratch the roof of the Rendezvous. Tom and I figured out how to install the carrier after some deliberating, some arguing, and finally some reading of the directions. 

Once the bag was attached to the roof, Tom loaded my ONE suitcase that contained THREE people's clothing for a month, Connie's suitcase, his suitcase, and a blowup mattress. He insisted that we put in the suitcase full of DVDs and CDs and my carry bag of books, but we protested this, and the carrier was closed and attached to the luggage rack. There was some discussion of taking a test drive through the neighborhood, taking corners on two tires to make sure the carrier held, but that plan was abandoned.

Connie decided that riding in the middle bucket seat with Madison would be a better arrangement than last year's passenger choice. Tom took that seat. I drove, and Darcy rode in the back on the bench seat along with the cooler, three bags of food, the pillows, and the other odds and ends that we insisted that we needed for a month away.

We left Largo at around 10:00 A.M. The weather was beautiful, sunny, hot, and humid. I had MapQuested directions. The trip to Savannah would take 5 hours and 18 minutes. Tom had consulted the instructions on Rand McNally, and it claimed a journey to Savanna would take 8 hours. Since I was driving, I opted to follow my directions. A small heated discussion occurred, but since I had the wheel, I didn't feel any other opinions really counted. 

The driver is also in charge of the radio, and Connie has satellite radio, an added plus. My half of the driving was without incident and really quite calm. Tom read the Sunday paper. Madison and Darcy watched movies on the handheld DVD players Connie purchased, and Connie sat quietly in the back, rubbing her feet, moaning occasionally and crying softly as she was having a painful morning with her neuropathy.

Tom took over the driving after three hours. The weather had changed and was no longer sunny. The sky was overcast and then dark, and it drizzled a tad as we moved north through Florida. 

When we reached Jacksonville, we stopped off at a truck stop that housed a gift shop, restrooms, and fast food joints. Outside the truck stop were three tables with umbrellas. We sat at one of the tables and enjoyed a picnic lunch Connie provided. The entire time we ate, the sky grew darker, and bolts of lightning could be seen in the distance. Thunder rumbled, and we calculated the storm about 4 miles off. The wind picked up as we finished, blowing our plates and napkins around the parking lot and stirring up sand from the road. We hurriedly packed up the car and got back on the road. 

Right into the storm.

It stormed and stormed. Visibility was hard. People were pulling off to the side of the highway without warning, their taillights flashing. Traffic was slowed. 

Tom was a champ. The rain came down in sheets, but we weren't worried. We had the "Weather-Tech" carrier.

The rain stopped when we arrived at our hotel outside of Savannah. We registered, unloaded our bags, and got into our two rooms across the hall and catty-corner from one another. I opened my suitcase and admired my packing job; my clothes on the left, Darcy's in the middle, Madison's clothes on the right. I went to pull out Darcy's pajamas, and as soon as I hit the middle of her stack, I felt water. I dug deeper and found more water. I began to frantically pull out clothes. Wet, wet, wet. 

Some items were soaking wet, and I could wring out the water into the sink. I filled 3 trash bags of wet clothes. I went to the other room and broke the news to Connie. Her suitcase was full of wet clothes too. 

Tom's suitcase and the blowup mattress: bone dry.

Our hotel on the Gateway to Savannah did not have laundry facilities. Tom took the bags of wet clothes and hiked across the street to another hotel and dumped them into a dryer. He then went to the store and bought trash bags to wrap the bags for our trip to South Carolina. 

Just in case. 

While he was gone, the heavens opened up and dropped upon us a storm full of gushing rain, wind, and wicked lightning. It was a couple of hours before we saw Tom again. He was stuck in the laundry room of the hotel across the way.

Day one came to a close with a nice dinner at a local seafood joint dressed in dry clothes, thanks to Tom.

Because I Made Them Do It....

We spent three days of our Spring Break at Ft. Wilderness in Disney World. Definitely my kind of camping with its pre-fabricated cabins with running water, beds, a bathroom, and a refrigerator, not to mention the deck and grill. We tried to cram everything in those three days. Here it is through the eyes of a 7-year-old, an 8-year-old, and a 10-year-old:

Darcy: "We're going to the Magic Kingdom today. We are with Savanna. We came to Disney World yesterday, and we were happy when we saw our cabin. We have a bunk bed, and I am sleeping on the top. I am going to It's A Small World, and I can't wait because it is a fun ride. I love it here."

Savanna: "Today, we went to the Magic Kingdom. We went to the Crystal Palace, and we went on the It's a Small World ride. We also shopped for Disney Crocs. I love those. Later while at the campfire, I lost my tooth. Losing a tooth at Disney is exciting because I got Disney stuff from the tooth fairy. It was very fun. Tomorrow we're going swimming. I can hardly wait."

Madison: "Today we went to the Magic Kingdom. We went on many rides and watched shows, including The Hall of Presidents, It's a Small World, and Stitch's Great Escape. My favorite ride is It's a Small World because it is a happy ride. For lunch, we ate at the Crystal Palace, a buffet where we saw the characters from Winnie-the-Pooh. At night, we went to the campfire and roasted marshmallows. We also watched the Princess Diaries II movie. It was a Great Day!"

General Hospital Rant

I began watching General Hospital in high school when my friends Kelly, Robin, and Kelly's sister, Kathy, introduced the soap opera to me. At that time, Laura had just killed her mother's lover, David. I was hooked.

My dream was to one day write for the soap opera. That never happened, but they certainly could use me now. First, they ax Stuart Damon and now this hostage/fire/explosive situation they have going on. I must rant...

Cons:

• What was with the whole of Luke getting arrested episode? I mean, if he was eventually going to get out and play vigilante, why not just let him do that in the first place? And seriously, I know that Luke would have gone in search of Jason to be his back up instead of his pill-popping I' m-a-play-by-the-books lawman son. He has to know that Jason has Sonny's back…..HELLO!

• What have they done with poor Mac? He is pushed aside by the District Attorney, and he says, "Oh, okay?"

• And what is with the DA coming in and running a hostage situation in the city? I'm sorry, but what training has he taken as a lawyer to just go in there and push aside the police commissioner and start running the PC police department, not to mention the SWAT team? Where is Mac's second in command? Where is the SWAT commander?

• Robin has absolutely NO pain while they are cutting into her with a paring knife, sticking fingers inside her wound to find the bullet, sewing her up, and wrapping the wound with duct tape? And then when the pain does hit, she can carry on a conversation and THEN stop the pain with vodka? I don't think so…

• You can't tell me that those masks are not itchy and bothersome. I understand why they can't remove them, but how about the guy in the vault with Maxi? If he could only see how ridiculous he looks sitting there talking to her with that mask on…

• Why doesn't Mr. Craig shoot Robin in the head and end the whole "she needs to go to a hospital" whining? And then finish off poor Allan. Does he really want to watch a man have a heart attack? If those two were dead, the others could focus on poor Elizabeth and her baby.

• "Well, I am the DA in Port Charles, and right now I have a serious hostage situation on my hands because I am the DA and I have taken over this hostage situation because I don't think the Police Commissioner can keep his head together since his niece has been shot, but right now I have to run off to the hospital because my soon to be ex-wife has been admitted and I can get in some licks while she is down?" I don't think so…

• Oh, and now the Mayor of Port Charles is thinking he will come in and take over the hostage situation….. He obviously took the hostage negotiating class with the DA.

• How about all those citizens of Port Charles crossing the yellow line to talk to the police? And what do they do when one of those citizens irritates them? They handcuff him to a pipe? Now that is some police work, huh?

Pros:

• How cool was it when they spray painted the windows?

• Carly is the best female soap character on TV. She may be scared, but she isn't going down without a fight. How funny was she telling Robin that she had better not die and leave her for everyone to blame? 

• Yeah, for Sam! I loved it when she held that knife to Mr. Craig's throat. It wasn't the best thought out plan, but her getting mad enough to pull it out when he baited her was believable. Too bad it didn't work. 

• Alan going into cardiac arrest amidst all of the shooting was believable.

Privacy Invasion

Yesterday my daughter was involved in an incident at school. My daughter, her friend H. and her friend C. (no names as they are under 18) went to their teacher, Mrs. V., to get their math equation assignments for the day. 

Mrs. V. was writing in a journal that she keeps for an education class she is currently taking. She has told the children about this, and they know she writes about her teaching day. The journal is read by her professor. 

When the girls came to her to get their math equations, Mrs. V. put down her journal, where C. casually read what Mrs. V. had written.

When the three girls returned to their workplace, C. told the other two what she had read. My daughter said, "Let's write it down." C. and H. loved that idea, and C. transferred what she had read on to a piece of paper. ( When questioned later, my daughter did not know why this idea popped into her head. She doesn't know what she was thinking. When asked what they were going to do with the paper, all three answered, "Nothing. Just throw it away.")

Unfortunately, it didn't end there. C. instead went back up to Mrs. V. with bogus questions so that she could read some more of the journal. Which she then documented on to the piece of paper. When the girls tired of that, C. put the paper into my daughter's reading book, and they went back to their school work.

Later that afternoon, during reading time, my daughter opened her reading book, and the paper fluttered unnoticed to the floor. Unseen because this is the daughter who never knows when or how she spilled something onto her clothes. Of course, the paper was discovered, and when Mrs. V., who found it and read it, realized what it was, she claimed that "HER PRIVACY HAD BEEN INVADED." 

Questions were asked about who had written the paper, and eventually, the three girls were taken out of the classroom, given a stern talk regarding privacy. They were made to write notes to their parents, as well as an apology note to Mrs. V. I was alerted to the incident and was informed we would go over it at our regular scheduled teacher conference appointment the next afternoon.

When I arrived today, I admit I came in as the Mama Bear ready to defend my cub. Not that I didn't condone what had happened but having spoken with my daughter and the other mothers, I didn't agree with the teachers. Invasion of privacy? 

Let's discuss that.

My husband and I were seated next to the two teachers for our conference. One was grading papers and continued to do so while we talked. I was right next to her, where I could read each name and see each child's grade. Should I have looked at the ceiling? Kept my eyes trained on the teacher's bent head while she talked to me? It was hard not to see those papers. Invasion of privacy?

The second teacher, Mrs. V., got up and went over to my daughter's desk and proceeded to go through it, and then she did the same to C.'s desk. Invasion of privacy?

She told me she was looking for my daughter's planner so that I could see this new assignment, which included the child writing down his/her tasks and chores. Unable to find my daughter's planner or C.'s planner, she rifled through another student's desk and gave me that child's planner to read. Invasion of privacy?

We eventually came to the "incident," and during the discussion, Mrs. V. told me what C. had written in her apology letter. Invasion of privacy?

Mrs. V. explained to me about the journal, how someone else reads what she has written about her students, and then she proceeded word for word to tell me what she had written and what the girls had read, including the child's name and what had been written. Invasion of privacy?

I don't know how I kept the above to myself. So many incidents in just a 45-minute meeting, and I truly wanted to go through each episode one by one to point out how often privacy is invaded. 

Sure, going through the students' desk might be school policy but discussing other students with adults who are not their parents? Grading papers in front of parents? Writing students' names in a journal that is read by someone else without the parents' permission? All a bit iffy, I'd say if you want to get technical. Which I did, but didn't do because well, these two rule my child's world from 8:30 to 3:30.

Both teachers kept commenting on the teacher's "invasion of privacy" with Mrs. V. indignant over this as if the girls writing this information down was the absolute worst INVASION of her life. I gently commented on how the invasion of privacy is tricky. I used the example by asking, "Do you read the student's journals? The ones that belong to them, where they are told to write down their inner thoughts?" My husband piped in with a question of why when Mrs. V. picked up the folded paper that clearly wasn't hers had she read it? Invasion of privacy?

My point was that the girls didn't do it maliciously. They weren't going to sell it out on the playground or even discuss it with the other students. To them, it was harmless fun. Curiosity about what Mrs. V. was writing about them in a journal they'd been told about. A journal that was open and lying where they could read it. Should they have done what they did? No. But an invasion of privacy repeated in capital letters in all discussions with the students and parents? Whoa. Let's just take a step back and tone down the craziness.

For the most part, I held my tongue. We let the teachers know that we had discussed the situation with our daughter and that any further steps we left for them to handle. But we also let the teachers know that our primary concern in the incident wasn't an INVASION OF PRIVACY but fear the girls were not doing what we send them to school to do...their school work.

I did not suggest that overseeing the students to make sure work was progressing might be a better form of activity instead of jotting down PRIVATE information about said students in a journal, but you can bet that thought was racing through my brain.

Invasion of privacy? Ha. How sure are those two that their classroom isn't bugged by administrators?

I couldn't have said it any better

For all the football fans still moaning, HERE is a good link.

It wasn't pretty, but....

Steelers 21 - Seahawks 10

PITTSBURGH IS THE SUPER BOWL CHAMPIONS OF THE WORLD!!

Super Bowl Sunday

The first week was exciting. I celebrated with my flags and my car magnet and the fight songs I found on the internet. I bought a big flag to hang outside my house, and I spent lots of $$ on merchandise. The second week the nerves started, and my emotions were up and down. I didn't dare tell anyone why. My god, it's just a football game!

But without this "football game" I wouldn't have had the following:

• Something to look forward to each week that really excites me.
• Time spent each Sunday with good my good friends Krista and Scott who I rarely see outside of football season anymore because of different schools, activities, and life.
• Chats, high-fives, and hugs from strangers that I see in the grocery, the mall, the gas station, Target, the soccer fields, and in ballet class.
• Calls and emails from friends each time the Steelers won in the playoffs.
• Dinner at my favorite restaurant the night the Steelers won the AFC Championship from a friend I don't see often enough.
• A beautiful bouquet of Steelers cookies from a friend who doesn't even like sports, but who knew how much it meant to me.
• Calls today from ex-co-workers and far away friends wishing me luck.

Football isn't any less important than a business deal that someone has worked on for weeks. Football is a business, and each week these guys go out and take care of their business. The Super Bowl is the big payout, the big merger, the million-dollar account.

For the fans that payout to watch these guys, it is a chance for a few hours to escape the real world, to block out the nasty, and to enjoy. And there isn't anything wrong with that.

GO STEELERS!!

Pittsburgh's Going To The Super Bowl!!

I got out of my car, my nerves a big jumbled mess. I was waving my car flag, and my magnet was attached to the back, but my feelings all week were a mess. It is too important to take lightly.
I waved to the Steeler fans in the parking lot of the Steelers Bar here in Florida. I chatted with a guy as we walked toward the bar. I asked him how he felt.

Him: "It will be a good game. A good match up between teams."

It wasn't what I wanted to hear, but then:

Him: "No matter what, I'm glad I'm here."

Me: "Oh, yes, It wouldn't be the playoffs unless we were here."

And then I opened the door. It was like what I imagine running through the tunnel at Heinz Stadium is like--wall to wall Steeler Fans, pumped, ready, and full of energy.

The game was exciting to watch, with everyone rooting for the same team. It is an experience unlike any I have been through.

We did it. The team played to win. We won.

PITTSBURGH'S GOING TO THE SUPER BOWL!!

Out of the Mouths of My Babes....

January 4, 2005

Sarina: "Miss Cara, Darcy just ate something and then wiped her hands on her pants."

Me: "Well, Sarina, I suppose I could make my kids do their own laundry. I could make both girls carry their laundry down to the river where they'd have to wash their clothes with rocks."

Sarina: "Poor people have to wash their clothes in the river."

Darcy: "Why?"

Sarina: "Poor people don't have any washing machines."

Me: "Well, Kelly doesn't have a washing machine. But then again, she does think she's poor."

Darcy: "Kelly isn't poor."

Sarina: "How do you know that?"

Darcy: "Because she has a purse."