A few people have asked me to write a mini trippie of the NY DC excursion I am on, and I had a little time to do some writing today. I, typically, have loathed lengthy car trips and have gone to great lengths to avoid them, confronting even my fear of flying as an alternative rather than sitting for hours upon hours feeling slightly car sick and wasting time. However my children are watching the King and, I and our laptop is at my disposal. Thus I am taking advantage of a few minutes to jot a few thoughts down as we head into our nations capitol. I am sitting under a blanket to avoid the glare as we head down 95 as I tap the keys on the laptop writing this. It must look really strange to those people driving by us. We left Long Island this morning, and are making our way to DC.
New York State of Mind
Day one-
I ended up really sick and in a clinic in NY yesterday instead of spending the afternoon in the city on the first day of our Eastern Seabord Whirlwind tour. A sterile clinic, strep throat, antibiotics and sleep, that was my first day of our trip instead of taking the kids to the Empire State Building, going to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and strolling through Central Park! Blach!
But the truth is my symptoms were really scary and I had one of those mornings where I confronted my mortality. Only until I found out what in fact was wrong, but I thought about alot while I was waiting to learn what in fact ailed me. In an instant, our lives can change, and it is beyond any of our control. I could only think of a close friends daughter who died at 13 years old, 9 months after being diagnosed with throat cancer, and poor Dana Reeve, who perished 2 years after her husband, Christopher, passed, and only one year after she herself was diagnosed with lung cancer. Life deals some of us blows. How some of us escape and others do not, I must admit I do not understand. I did some heavy thinking yesterday, and jumped for joy when it turned out I was spared....
I was really disappointed missing the city. I love it there. I felt badly for depriving the troops from a day in NYC as well. I also felt bad as DJ, and my MIL were required to care for the three bouncing tiggers while I slept. But they managed. I awoke in the later afternoon, and joined them for a few hours, then hopped on the Dis for a little last night. I saw Lous post and connected in a deep way to his thoughts. So Lou, again, I do understand, I think, how jolting your SILs aneurism affected you and your family. My thoughts are still with you
Evaluating ones life, we do that sometimes when we run into something unexpected, dont we? So my brain ticktocked extra hard these past 36 hours. There are changes I want to make in my life, and being spared a hardship that many unlucky people suffer, caused me to think about many things, I think I might just try to begin tackling a few of those changes when I get home from this trip
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Washington through the eyes of babes
I want to share my son Carson for a few minutes, in the context of our trip to DC. He turned 7 last week. He is a very inquisitive and curious child. He will not learn by traditional means, I suspect, but is taking in a lot of at school despite this. He has been very excited to see these big cities and had lots of interests and questions.
On our trip down from Maine on Tuesday, as he went through Worchester, he asked if one of the buildings was the Empire State building. We chuckled, but answered him with the respect he deserves. No, this is Massachusetts, and the Empire State is in New York City, and is a whole lot bigger than that!. He replied, My friend, Frazier, wants me to take a picture of it. So not only did my affliction disappoint me and my kids, but also our beloved Frazier, a wonderful child of our friends
..I was able to snap a picture of it from the Verrazano this morning, but it wont be very tall, just a speck of a needle in a two inch line of buildings in a picture. Thank goodness for Google
.and heck, we cant see everything before the age of eight right?
Heading along the Interstate this trip, Carson has asked what every single green sign on the side of the highway is. There are a whole lot of towns between Maine and DC, folk, but we read each one to him, if he asked. He is anxious to get to DC. These are some of his statements.
When we get to Washington DC, I am going to tell President Bush to just stop all this he is doing. (THATS MY BOY! )
Why does President Bush lie? I want to tell him it is wrong
Washington DC was where there was a war. It was terrible. Why did the war happen?
George Lincoln was killed at a theater then. He was shot when he was president.
Abraham, Yes, he was, for wanting to put a stop to slavery, Carson. We discussed slavery and economics and the general theories behind the civil war. I explained about the atrocities of slavery in measured terms but with enough honesty to give him an understanding of its profound cruelty on human dignity. He listened and took it all in, then replied, Mom, you make me do chores, and I dont like it.
LOL,LOL,LOL,LOL We spent the next few minutes outlining that putting your clothes in the laundry and picking up your toys constitutes nothing less than personal self care. His view of himself as a victim of that terrible practice that started a war and killed a president was interesting, and if it is appropriate to say quite amusing.
It hit me that my son in first grade was actually learning in our little rural school in Maine. Had we not gone on this trip, perhaps those details that he brought up would have left his young mind. This trip should solidify some things for him, and I hope cause him to continue to be interested in life, education, and learning from the past. And that if we had not gone on this trip I would not have known the he even knew about the civil war, George Lincoln and the Washington Monument.
And with that, I bid you all adieu as we are 20 minutes from hitting the National Zoo and the Panda exhibit.
I hope this mini diatribe is not too out of place here on the Maelstrom thread folks. I will forward another installment complete with adorable and patriotic images of all things DC.
Thank you for allowing me some airtime to share these thoughts.
Next up You mean the National Zoo is Free? complete with pics!
- sorry I couldn't help myself. I hope they correct the mistake quickly!
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