100 Years

The first time Mr. Wonderful and I left The Boy for more than a few hours was when he was about 15 months old. The Boy spent a week with his grandmother, being spoiled, while Mr. Wonderful and I spent a week in London.


While I fretted and worried and called to check on him every day, we also had a wonderful time. We slept until our bodies woke us up and we talked and ate without interruptions. We visited museums and The Tower and Westminster Abbey. It was the end of September and the weather was beautiful. One day we took a boat ride down the Thames to Greenwich. Mr. Wonderful wanted to visit the Prime Meridian and the National Maritime Museum.

When we arrived at the National Maritime Museum we found that an exhibit, which we thought we had missed, had been held over until October 1st. It was the Titanic Exhibit. This was September of 1995 - before James Cameron's movie came out and before the Titanic Exhibit went on tour around the world. This was the first time the artifacts from the doomed ship had been seen by the public.


We didn't really know what to expect when we walked in. Apparently, not many people were aware that the exhibit was still being shown because there weren't a lot of people in line. When we walked in, there was some chatter but as we walked through the exhibit the chatter died down. It became silent and solemn.


There were photographs of the ship and it's interior. There were copies of newspapers heralding the grandeur of the ship and it "unsinkable" qualities. There were copies of boarding passes and dinner menus...

And then there were the artifacts themselves. Often, behind the artifact would be photos of where they were found in situ.

Deck chairs found floating in the ocean after the disaster...

Cork filled life preservers...

A man's hat...

A child's pair of shoes...

A container of toothpaste...

Money...

A White Star button...

A man's pair of gloves...

A pocket watch...

A suitcase...

Spectacles...

A bottle of champagne...

a ladies gold mesh purse...

Tie pins...

A pair of men's shoes with the laces still intact...

Perfume...

Dishes with the White Star Line logo...

Jewelry...

The sheer randomness of the artifacts was amazing. There were photographs of rows and rows of perfectly preserved bottles of wine and dishes. 

The glimpse of mundane, everyday objects such as combs and toothpaste was almost more overpowering than the many, many photos of passengers - most of whom did not survive. 

Yesterday marked the 100th anniversary of the sinking of Titanic. 

As I remember walking through that exhibit with Mr Wonderful, silently viewing the artifacts, I am once again overcome by the enormity of it all. Those seemingly ordinary items that make the names and faces of those who died that evening 100 years ago into real people. People who packed their bags, wore jewelry, combed their hair, tied their shoes, and brushed their teeth. People who worried and dreamed. And people - real people - who died.

Smoke gets in my eyes...

There are a bunch of wildfires burning in our area. And it is crazy, awful smoky around here. Everything is closed up in the house and the air conditioning is on and I can still smell the smoke inside the house. 

The traffic has been terrible since visibility is so bad. Yesterday morning a student, a senior, at The Boy's high school was struck by a car while riding his bike to school. He was in ICU with brain injuries, the last I heard.

There have been air quality advisories the past few days warning people to stay inside.

And yesterday The Princess texted me from school to tell me, in pure, outraged, teenaged-girl-dramatic fashion, that her PE teacher had made them all go outside to run and play soccer.

The Princess said that most everyone had dressed out and gone outside but that most of the kids refused to run. The teacher told them to stop "being so melodramatic." The Princess huffily told the teacher that she wasn't risking her health and then told the teacher that she could pay for her chemotherapy when she ended up with lung cancer. 

So, yeah, maybe the teacher wasn't that far off track with the melodramatic comment. Teenaged girls...what can I say?

But truthfully, I was proud of The Princess for standing up for herself...although I admit that perhaps she could have toned down the drama just a wee bit.

I was appalled that this teacher sent them outside.

In fact, I was so appalled at this extreme lack of common sense that I called the school and complained. And then I sent an email to this teacher and sent a copy of the email to the Dean. I attached links to the health and air quality advisories.

As of this morning, I haven't heard back from the school. I figure that it's either (a) they were so inundated by calls from outraged parents that they haven't had a chance to return my call yet, or (b) they're so sick of hearing from me (i.e. the crazy teacher, the rats, the irresponsible PE teacher) that the next contact I have from the school will be to tell me that The Princess needs to find another school.  Wait! I just realized that I never told you about the rats! Alright, y'all need to remind me to tell that story.

The Princess is worried that she will be given a "0" for participation for this class. (Just as a side note, The Boy would have been all, "Meh. Whatever." The Boy and The Princess are SO different!) I told her that I didn't think there would be a problem.

Because the squeaky wheel gets the grease. And this particular squeaky mama wheel has been sqeaking a lot lately and is about to get a lot squeakier. Hmph!

Weekend Update: Giselle

We had a busy weekend, with Giselle and all the rehearsals and driving back and forth and then Easter. The Princess has one more dance performance to get through this week - this time it is the Freshman Solo Dance Concert - and then, hopefully, things will slow down a bit...

Arriving at the technical rehearsal bright and early Saturday morning. Don't you just love the outfit?

There was a quite a bit of waiting around during the tech rehearsal...

And then it was finally time for the "friends" to run their piece. 

(The Princess is on the far left)

(Princess on left)

The Boy brought a date. They sat in the balcony and Mr. Wonderful and I sat up front. The Princess was beautiful and fabulous, naturally. Of course, we ARE slightly biased.

Your Jedi mind tricks will not work on me

It's TGIF for us, even though it's only Wednesday, because the kids both have a four day weekend. Unfortunately, I doubt it will be very restful since The Princess has rehearsals every single day until the performance of Giselle on Saturday evening. 

It rained last night and this morning is a strange mixture of gloomy, gray skies mixed with bright blue skies. Which is also a good analogy for how the past couple of days have been around here...

The Princess, probably due to being so tired, has been a bit...moody. And temperamental. And I, probably due to being so tired, have seriously NOT been in the mood for it.

Which is a polite way of saying that we clashed a tiny bit.

If you have teenagers, and especially if you have a teenage daughter, then you probably understand what I'm talking about. I will ask her something and she will affect that completely exasperated tone of voice which teenagers seem to excel at. I will warn her not to cop an attitude and she will exclaim, with her attitude in full throttle, that she doesn't HAVE an attitude. I will sigh dramatically and she will, occasionally, roll her eyes.

At which point my inner Mommie Dearest explodes like a ballistic missile and World War Three ensues.

The Boy has, apparently, been channeling his inner Obi Wan Kenobi. Anytime I ask him to do something such as take out the trash or empty the dishwasher he will wave his fingers at me and say in his calm, Jedi voice, "This is not the boy you are looking for." If I scold him for not leaving his bedroom clean he says, "You did not see a messy room."

OK, yes, it's slightly amusing.

The FIRST time.

After that, not so much.

I've been forced to channel my inner Jabba the Hut (NO jokes about THAT, please!!) and tell him that his Jedi mind tricks will not work on me. He's even tried his Jedi mind trick on me via text!

The Boy found a little box turtle trying to cross the road yesterday. He brought it home and has created a home for it in his empty aquarium (which his water turtle used to live in). He's a happy kid.

I'm not so happy about the fact that all the reptiles seem to waking up and getting active. The turtle is fine, but yesterday I saw a snake in our yard (just a black racer, but still!) and heard a gator bellowing down the lake. Ahhh...mating season.

Here's a little something you may not know about me - our bathtubs are yucky. We live in an older house and our bathtubs have soap scum stains and are just disgusting. I'l tried everything - Scrubbing Bubbles, Comet, Soft Scrub. I've even tried pouring bleach and letting it sit. Nothing worked. But then I saw something on Pinterest and thought I'd give it a try.

It's a miracle!

Vinegar and Dawn dish soap has made my bathrooms shine and glisten like they're practically new. I spent yesterday morning cleaning with my Pinterest inspired cleaning recipes. I cleaned my cook top with baking soda and cleaned the bathrooms.

Doesn't it make you feel good to get something really clean and sparkly? Especially when it's been a challenge to ever get it clean in the past? It almost makes up for snarky, teenage drama.

Almost.

Today I am going to be wiping down all of the baseboards with dryer sheets and doing laundry and steam mopping the floors. What exciting things do you have planned?