On the road.....

Ooooooo….well, I haven’t started off too well with this blogging thing, now have I? It is February already! I will just start again from here. On Saturday we had cake and ice cream for Savannah’s 11th birthday. She was delighted with her presents, and especially loved her new “postmasters desk”. It fits perfectly in her dormer window, so that she can look out and draw or write to her hearts content. We couldn’t do a more formal party, because it was snowing and icing, and Race had a terrible case of food poisoning that the nice folks at a local Italian eatery in D.C. were nice enough to give him, just before he took the Amtrack home for the weekend. Savannah’s little soirée with myself and her brothers, somehow morphed into “Barbarian Birthday”. Very funny. I really can’t articulate what went on here, but it WAS funny, and I guess that’s one of the nice things about having a “just the fam” party. Everyone was acting silly, and having fun…….except for Race, who was still writhing and moaning in the bed. Thankfully, the food poisoning was short lived. On Sunday afternoon, we headed up to Mom and Dads. When we got there, we realized that we were probably going to be in the way because they were having the inside of their house painted this week!
Race and I had to drive up to Washington to pick up his car from the parking garage for his office. It was great to see where he works, and to be driven around in Washington, D.C. by your husband, and have him actually KNOW where he is going! Cool! We ate dinner across the street at a pub called The Dubliner. Excellent salmon, and Oh-my-gosh-excellent Baileys Irish Cream Cheesecake!! (Yes, food will be a recurring theme on this blog).
Monday was spent at mom and dad’s skating center. My sister Em, has several friends meet her up there once a week , so that all of their preschool-n’ under aged kids can play together. We all met up there, ate pizza, and watched the kids play. My kids always love to see their little cousins, Q and W!
Tuesday, we went to breakfast with mom and dad, and then the kids and I took off for Baltimore, to visit the aquarium. No real problems getting there, and the Aquarium was unbelievable! It was much more than any of us expected. They have a dolphin show! We spent about 3 hours there, and then looked around the inner harbor a bit, got some coffee, looked at books in the book store, etc. I was dog tired when we finally pulled out of the parking garage, took a wrong turn, and saw the very ugly under belly of the inner city of Baltimore. “Roll em’up an lock em kids”. Can I take a moment to set the scene for you here: Me with my blonde hair (out to here), in my shiny, black suburban-(of course we had just had her washed that morning), tooling down the dark, inner city streets of Baltimore. The kids had a movie playing in the back, which is also visible from outside the car. We are the ONLY car on these roads. These people don’t HAVE cars. My head flipping back and forth-left, then right, then left again, frantically looking for some sign…some clue…where is the interstate!! Passing boarded up row houses, with small little children scampering out from in front of them, and greasy windowed, corner store fronts with young people flying in and out of them. I am on my cell phone talking (o.k., shrieking) to Race who is telling me to keep my face turned away from the window, so that they won’t know that I am white?!?! ARE YOU HELPING ME HERE? From the back seat I hear, “Mom, look at that girls tall pink boots.” Which, incidentally had a matching bolero style jacket. “She looks cold.” “Why is she just standing out there like that?” To which I reply hysterically, “Because she has made some very poor choices in her life, and I’m NOT talking about those pink boots!’ “ Now, be quiet, and watch your movie a minute, and let me see if I can find the right road.” To which I hear, (from Jack, of course) “Yyyyeahhhh…….cause I don’t think this is the way.” At some point, I see a couple of police cars sitting on the side of the street. I pull up and stammer and stutter something about the Interstate 95. It will be forever burned into my brain, the fact that the POLICEMAN, called me “sweet baby girl”. I kid you not. His exact words were, “Oh Noooooooo.. Sweet Baby Girl, you are in the heart of the inner city, you keep going down this road, you not gonna like where you are.” Now, I’m not knocking the guy, ya know, cuz, God bless him, we would be a statistic by now if it weren’t for him. My innocence and naivety must have been glowing from inside the darkened windows of that suburban. A little slice of seldom seen Americana.
We ended the evening eating dinner with Race at the Olive Garden. It felt good to be safe. We all stayed the night in the hotel where he will be residing for the next few weeks while he finishes his class. An overly tired Jackson had us all in stitches with all of his latest dance moves. And just before I drifted off to a coma like sleep, I heard him tell Austin, (with whom he was sharing a bed for the night), “I am sleeping with you tonight. I hope I don’t wet you”. Then maniacal laughter, followed by a pounding from Austin, then a threat from Dad…..and at last…Quiet.
Race had to go to class the next morning, so we were on our own again. We headed back south, which shouldn’t have taken long, except that for some unknown reason, it took us over an hour to get across the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. We meet mom, Em, and her boys at the skating center again. We got to see W walk, and Q proudly told us all about his new reading skills. Too Cute!
I ended the day with a late night dinner with my friend Janelle i downtown Fredericksburg. We didn’t even sit down to eat until 9 pm! She and I have been friends since the first grade, so no matter how long it has been since we last saw one another, it is as if no time at all has elapsed. She saw me through all of my years with small children, where I would dash out of the house for the all-to-infrequent, dinner out with friends with dried baby spit up on my clothes. And now it is her turn. It is always fun. Getting together with her always feels like a favorite blanket that you would never want to be without. We missed Thomasina though, she SHOULD have been there. We had a wonderful aged cheese plate with a glass of 20 yr old port that was to die for! One of the cheeses was called “Drunken Goats Cheese”. O.K., could someone PLEASE see to it that a small hunk of this is waiting for me tomorrow sometime before dinner? And one of the cheeses (aged Goulda, I believe), smelled a lot like feet, but really it tasted quite good. (Makes you want some, doesn’t it?)
And today we returned HOME. It is always so good to come home. It was snowing. The dogs (Scout and Jeb) and cat(Herriot) were happy to see us, and the fish(Frodo) and gecko(Gandalf) are STILL living. Can’t wait to sleep in my own bed tonight! Hoping that Race will be home for the weekend. We all miss him.