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Friday night is MY night...I go to bed early, or stay up reading...there's no fighting with my daughter about my bedtime, and if I'm not too tired from the week I can catch up on computer time...
I love my Friday nights...quiet, restful stay-in nights...Sunday through Thursday are full of stress and Saturday nights are full of fun but Friday nights are MINE...
Except tonight...
Tonight I have to take my daughter and go over to my brother's house so that we can sleep on his floor, all because of where we live...
You see that enclosed circle where the Derby miniMarathon starts?
That's my neighborhood...
(sigh)
Every year, those of who live here either try to make it out before the roads close, or just sleep in that day, because otherwise we're stuck making circles around our neighborhood for a couple of hours waiting for the 7,000 runners to go by...
But this year, I don't have the luxury of sleeping in, because my daughter has to be at Saturday School at 9 a.m...
Delinquent child!
So since the roads will be closed unless I choose to leave my house at 6 a.m. (I don't think so!), my brother's house it is...
I'm taking my laptop anyway, just in case...
Monday Photo Shoot: Hubble's 15th Birthday:
Finally one I can do! Space geek that I am, I don't even need to look for any Hubble shots because I already have my favorites on my computer...and my very favorite is one that I've posted here before:
At the time this was taken, it was the furthest glimpse into deep space that we had ever seen...space so far away, and so long ago...
It boggles the mind...
I think I'm done writing about the trip, for now...at least until I get my pictures developed.. I had a very productive week...I caught up on the laundry...worked overtime and finally caught up at work...and I gathered up all the disposable cameras we took to NYC and put them on top of the piano by the front door.
I'm trying to avoid a repeat of the shame that I have over last year's field trip to Chicago...I'm sure we probably have very nice pictures of that trip, but I wouldn't know, would I, because I've NEVER GOTTEN THOSE PICTURES DEVELOPED, EITHER...
I have just a tiny little problem with procrastination.
Whatever.
Moving forward...for the past month it's been 70-80 degrees...everything is in full bloom...it was summertime here! Then this freak cold front moved through...high winds...thunderstorms...hail...a funnel cloud touched down in downtown Louisville...and behind the cold front, oh no, it's so cold! It's like I'm back in New York!
30 degrees yesterday and SNOWING, when it reached 80 the week before. That's the Ohio Valley for you...
I'm standing in my living room yesterday, and I hear this airplane flying low over my house, and I think, "Hmm, that's weird." It wasn't until I got in the car and turned on the radio that I remembered it was THUNDER OVER LOUISVILLE, the kickoff to the Kentucky Derby Festival, starting with the air show downtown over the river,and culminating in the largest fireworks display in the country last night.
We never go down there...last year, roughly 750,000 people flocked to the riverfront for the festivities..the crowds and the traffic getting home always seem just too daunting. This year, though, because it was SNOWING, there was not that big of a crowd at all...I tried to convince D that this is the year we should go, since there'd be hardly any traffic getting back home, but he told me off pretty good...something about freezing to death/am I crazy/what's wrong with you...we didn't have one of those silver survival blankets like one of those crazy people down there...LOL!
So we were at home, watching it on TV, as usual...my favorite part is the music...my daughter likes to watch out the window, because we live close enough to downtown that she can see the sky glowing even though she can't see the actual fireworks...
"I see green, are they doing green now, Mommy?"...
"Yes, honey..."
"Ooh, red, I bet they're doing red now, aren't they..."
"Yes, sweetheart..."
"Ooh, yellow..."
This is the point where I break down and say, will you please come and watch it on the TV? Please please please... LOL!
After the show's big finale, it lives up to its name, as the shock waves from all the explosives downtown move through the city...it really does sound like thunder, and as it moves through the house, it actually shakes the walls...
Thus the annual two week party that my city lives for is kicked off...
All this for a two-minute horse race.
Here we go...
We drove the rest of the way through Pennsylvania. We drove through New Jersey.
In the distance we could see a skyline...
Yes, our leaders said, that is New York City.
Everyone oohed and aahed...the kids got their cameras out and started taking pictures, while the parents gazed thoughtfully into the distance...
It's like we were seeing two different things. The kids were seeing the Big Apple, the Empire State Building, and an exciting adventure at hand.
All of us adults, having grown up seeing pictures of a very familiar New York skyline, could only gaze at it and think, "That isn't right..."
We couldn't see anything but the empty spaces.
Ground Zero was the first place we went to in Manhattan. The area where the World Trade Center once stood is surrounded by buildings still being repaired...or buildings still standing but were so damaged that they're still in the process of coming down, piece by piece, all these years later.
But mostly you can't see anything but the empty space...
...
We went to the Statue of Liberty after Ground Zero...
that was a very good idea...
if Ground Zero made my heart hurt,
well,
the Statue of Liberty made my heart swell with a wonderful emotion...
What is it about her?
Is it because she's tall? Is it because she's beautiful?
Is it because she's GREEN?
Or is it because she represents freedom and a safe haven to oppressed people everywhere?
Yes, that's it!
Those ideals that she stands for are pure and good, regardless of politics and borders and nationalities (I threw in that nationalities part because there were an awful lot of Japanese tourists on the ferry with us...they were just as excited about her as we were!).
Well worth it...
Kentucky-Ohio-West Virginia-Pennsylvania:
The first day we made it three-fourths of the way through PA before we stopped for the night...I LOVED that first day of traveling. When else would I get to just sit, and listen to music, and stare at amazing scenery, and think deep thoughts...and the best part was, one of my daughter's friends actually came on the trip and they sat together the whole way (seat to myself - YAY!).
That was the first day, though. I was so sick of sitting on that bus by the time we got back home!
Notes from day 1:
1. Winston Churchill called Cincinnati the 'most beautiful of America's inland cities.' Hmph. I guess he never made it as far as Louisville.
2. John and Annie Glenn have a State Historic site WAY UP AND IN Ohio...I know because we passed it...I have to go there! We like to visit Dayton, OH, anyway, to the Air Force Museum, and it's just a few hours beyond that. If I mention it often enough to D, I'm sure I can wear him down enough and we'll go, just so he can shut me up...
3. We stopped at a shopping center on the OH-WV border for lunch. C and I were faced with many options...should we go to Taco Bell? Wendy's? Steak n Shake? Or, if you wanted to walk really far to the other side of the parking lot, you could go to the McDonald's inside the Wal-Mart-
It was NO CONTEST - we were already on our way...we ALWAYS go to Wal-Mart when we go out of town!
I found some great pens I've been looking for...she bought a hundred different kinds of markers, coloring pencils, and sketch pads. Because, you know, she doesn't have anything like that...(LOL! LOL!).
4. The drive through Pennsylvania was my favorite, it was so BEAUTIFUL!
5. I now officially know what a 'hex' is and have a much better understanding of Orson Scott Card's Alvin Maker (I'm just a tiny bit embarrassed about this point - I didn't know that I didn't know, if you know what I mean...)
6. In PA, I started seeing more and more barns with green roofs, or cute little red barns...it finally dawned on me that I was seeing the transition from my part of the world to what is called 'New England'.
Wow!
More coming...:)
...where all things are green and leafy and most importantly, WARM...
...someone forgot to tell me that not only would the trees not be leafed out yet in New York...
...it was also at least twenty degrees colder there than it was here (I'm thinking now that I actually live in The Deep South, and just didn't know it. Is Kentucky The Deep South?)
As my daughter says, "New York was SO COOL, in both ways!"
More to come...:)
But I work best under pressure...
I have to be there at 6:45 a.m., with two suitcases, two carry-ons, and one daughter...
I can do it...
So why am I sitting here in front of my computer instead of, you know, PACKING?!
My city has turned into the most beautiful place in the world this last week and a half...all the trees are green now, and pink and purple and white and yellow...TREES RULE in LOUISVILLE! (That rhymes if you say the name of my city correctly...LOL!)
Okay, now that I've avoided the packing thing about as long as I can and now I'm getting kind of worried, I guess I have to get to it now...I've already packed the important thing (my laptop)...I do have priorities!...now comes the clothes and stuff...
I'm not sure about this, at all, at all...
Here we come, New York...
Mr. Scalzi's Weekend Assignment #54: Tell us all a single piece of wisdom you've learned from personal life experience. It can be a small thing, it can be a big thing, a simple tip or trick or the most important thing you've ever learned from life. But whatever it is, you should be able to state it in one sentence. That way people will remember it easier.
Extra Credit: Tell us: Would you have listened to your own bit of advice as a teenager? Be honest, now.
Here's my 'wisdom'...I actually felt I could contribute something this week!:
When you're approaching an intersection and the light turns green, SLOW YOUR CAR DOWN ANYWAY, AND LOOK LEFT AND RIGHT, to make sure some idiot hasn't decided to run their red light...and right into you...
I learned this one the hard way, of course...that was the only car accident I've ever been in that wasn't my fault!
Would I have listened to this advice as a teenager? I WISH someone had told me this, since I was a teenager when it happened...Yes, I would have listened!
My pear trees erupted and have pretty white blossoms all over them...but what I really like are those pink trees...what are they? They're all pink and flowery and beautiful, and then just a couple of weeks later the pink blossoms are falling off and have made a pink blanket on the grass underneath the tree...
It's like we skipped spring and went right into summer, with the temps in the high 70s and low 80s this week. We went into daylight savings time...I stayed up all night Saturday...I've got the air conditioning running now...all of that means SUMMER to me!
My iPod is my new favorite toy ... I'm trying not to love it TOO much, because usually, you know, you love your new favorite toy so much it usually gets lost, or broken, or some other bad karma-type thing...
But I'm loving taking my music with me wherever I go...even to work...it doesn't even feel like work anymore! Hopefully that's because it puts me in a good mood, and NOT because I'm slacking off...
...okay, this is serious, I'm going to New York in less than a week and I really don't have anything to wear. I'm not joking. Unless I want to do laundry at the hotel every night, I have a big problem. OR, I guess I could slouch around the city wearing my FORD sweatpants, which I don't think will go ever well on Broadway...it might fit in okay at the ball game, though... :)
I guess I'm going to have to go clothes shopping this weekend.
Darn it.
The only thing I hate worse than clothes shopping is, um, ... I can't even think of anything I hate worse. All that money that could be going towards new books, being wasted instead on clothes!
It's a good thing I have a brand-new iPod to take shopping with me, so I can take the edge off!
