Thursday 13 #38- Family Updates

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1. College Student has quit his job to focus on his studies. Prioritizing is a skill many of us need to work on, students especially.

2. Anime Queen is planning to go to New Orleans for a week this summer with her church youth group. They will be rebuilding and passing out supplies for a week. Our parish has adopted a church with an identical name and we've worked with them over the last few years.

3. Pianist has become the school accompanist. He's played for the 6th grade play and the county spelling bee. His music teacher wants him to conduct a little, and has tried to get him to do it during Thursday night handbells. Pianist, though, was self conscious and uncomfortable.

3. The Husband is frustrated at work, staffing issues and his boss trying to juggle a serious family medical problem which is distracting her. School seems to be perculating along, which I'm glad to see. I think it helps keep him going, knowing that every day he's in school brings him one day closer to his goals.

4. Next weekend we're going into DC for the anime movie marathon held at the Freer. It's free (YAY!) and there will be fireworks that night too. Plus- College Student is coming home to go with us.

5. Anime Queen is begging to go to the street fest the following weekend (April 12th), but both Hubby and I have to work. I can't decide if she could go for a little while during the day while I'm working. Doubt it but she's very convincing.

6. I've decided to give my notice at work, probably at the end of April. Read this post to understand why. When I accepted this job I knew it might not last long because of the commute issues, but it has really snowballed out of control. I will stay through the end of Hubby's semester because I want to keep that promise.

7. College Student went to my sister's a couple of weeks ago to play with his little cousins. He says the little one (a toddler) is quite a firecracker and the older one (early elementary age) loves to play Grand Theft Auto. My Lovely Sister was working, but notre chere Grandmere, who comments here, made all the boys go outside.

8. No progress on finding a Japanese language class for the AQ. The one held by the community college begins May 19 and goes twice weekly all summer, but she'd still be in regular classes and needs to concentrate on those first. Not to mention having two trips away.

9. Speaking of AQ again, she has been promised a ticket to the Warped 2008 Tour. IF she gets a C for the year in IBMYP Algebra II. She's gone to tutoring all year and has still struggled mightily. I happened on this incentive by accident with prodding by College Student, but if it works more to the good. Poor girl's gonna get ulcers because of her math struggles.

10. Other than work and stress and high blood pressure and ulcers, the family life is anemic. April's going to be the longest month, I swear. I am regretful on the kids' behalf, but the Lord gave me this job when we needed the extra money to set College Student up and to pay for the car. It'll all work out in the end, I think. For everyone's benefit. Think positive and have faith. *That's me reminding myself*

11. The gentlemen in the family are hoping to go camping this summer, and are aiming for somewhere out in the Shenandoah Valley. They threaten to take the AQ- as the representative female and as one who whines at the start but beats the boys in enthusiasm in the end.

12. No the Wife will not go camping. She will stay home and play with her books.

13. Or visit the chere grandmere. Or garden. Anything but camp.

Hiking in DC

Ought not be done in 95 F heat, let me tell you. We survived, though. As regular readers know, our Daughter is away in Germany with her church youth group. As preparation we decided to go to the Holocaust Museum before she left. Now- several years ago I used to regularly park in Ft. Myer and walk this hike when the older kids were elementary school age. No one had serious problems with the distance & the youngest was pushed in a stroller. We walked through the Museum of choice and walked back through Arlington National Cemetery to the car. We always enjoyed our little outings and I didn't remember the walks as being arduous. So we figured, "Hey. The kids are older now, the HM doesn't look too far up the Mall. Let's just walk this one."

Fast forward past a few years. The route follows. If you have DoD stickers on your vehicle, it is possible to drive onto Ft. Myer, park, and walk through Arlington National Cemetery and walk across the bridge (with an enormous half nude female statue at the end- which grossed out Son #2 no end let me tell you). Once you're over the bridge you're near the pencil (otherwise known as the Washington monument), the shell and the tidal basin edged with cherry trees. Walk a few blocks to the right, when coming from Arlington, and there's the HM. Near the Mint. By map it looks to be a relatively reasonable walk. It is a relatively reasonable walk- as long as you're not in a hurry and it is cooler than 95. I also recommend the ability to walk a minimum of 5 miles at a single stretch.

Anyhow- ANC, like the Zoo, is built sloping down a hill (or up the Hill depending on where you start from). Following the roads (as required; no shortcutting through the actual grave sites) it is roughly three quarters of a mile from where we parked to Memorial Dr. which leads you over the bridge into DC. From the edge of the George Washington Parkway over the bridge to the opposite shore is approximately a mile. I'm guessing here, but I think the distance from the DC side of the bridge to the HM is roughly another mile- lightly shaded. I was able to measure distances up to the DC side of the bridge, but not through the Mall to the HM. So- round trip our 'little walk' turned out to be 5 1/2 miles!

The National Park Service has installed water fountains every couple of hundred feet along the pathways, so we didn't expire from heat exhaustion. Luckily Husband had purchased to large cups of ice from the HM cafe, so we had plenty of cold water to drink along the route back to the car. The problem is, The Graduate has a long looping stride which comes naturally to persons well over 6'2", the Daughter has short quick strides and likes to keep up with Graduate so they can share earphones & moan about how bitchy mom really is. And Husband? As a nurse he regularly zooms all over his assigned floor for 12-14 hours a day at work.

Where does this leave Son #2 & me? In the caboose. Waaaayyyy waaaaayyyy waayyyy behind. I'm not normally a slow walker, but I wasn't about to leave poor hot whiny "OMG mom are we there yet??" Son #2 in the caboose alone either. So every once in a while the Husband would slow down and wait for us or the older kids would stop to wait for directions or wait at a fountain for us. "Jeez mom! You didn't used to be so SLOW~ what's the problem? Are you getting old?" Thanks a lot guys. I feel so much better now.

The Son #2 and I- we survived. I kept hearing that old disco song I Will Survive in my head as we trudged uphill back through Arlington Cemetary. We made a little game of trying to spot the oldest year on the tombstones as we passed. We walked by a judge who presided over the Nuremburg trials. A fresh turned grave with a tiny palstic marker at the head. Watched the caisson roll by over the hill in the distance. Heard taps. Every time we go to Arlington I hear the echoes of tears and the sighs of those finally at rest. They remind me that all of the little trials we go through every day won't mount to a hill of beans (to paraphrase Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca) in history.