Thursday, November 19, 2009

"don't say blog"

a few years back, "memorabilia" was an unacceptable word to my son. he was about 9 or so when the word became disturbing. i'm not sure when it began. maybe it was the year we drove from connecticut to ohio for a wonderful family thanksgiving. it was a very long drive. our kids are road warriors...so a road trip like that was not a concern. of course a road trip today is not what it used to be "back in the day", a phrase that also was found bothersome. i will agree the four words did get a bit overused. family road trips for our kids are just a bit different than our days of "are we there yet?" the question still comes up from time to time but not like "the old days". "the old days" are really just a few of years ago. maybe only about one car ago for some families....maybe during the minivan days rather than the new s.u.v. days.

growing up, our family trips were mostly about jumping into the car, that was the only car in the family.... turning on the radio to a station that our parents enjoyed .....driving to the gas station, having the attendant (a man) fill the car up with gasoline......regular, because that's all they had....he checked the oil....washed the wind shield, paying cash, saying "thank you".......calling him by name because of a long time relationship......because he was the owner , because his name was embroidered on his shirt near the embroidered name of the gas station ....and, maybe talk to him about the trip while looking at a paper folded map that took a rocket scientist to fold up after wrestling it across our lap and trying to find the roads that helped us coordinate our travel and then we could drive away. we had no seat belts, we at where we wanted .... if we sat at all....sometimes, in a station wagon, we could go to"the way back" and lie down....maybe with two other kids...with sleeping bags and pillows and lots of hard luggage. if we voted on it, the"way back" window could roll down so we could have all kinds of wind blowing through the car....only, we might not be able to hear the radio since we didn't have stereo speakers throughout the car....and that was o.k., because the music could be a bit tinny anyway! we could sing along to the music...play license plate bingo.... count the cadillacs.... look for the different states on the license plates.,.... usually with generic state plates, not so many personalized plates or plates with our cause of choice ..... wave to the people in other cars or just look out the window! sometimes we even talked...to each other. we read the clocks on our watches, not digital. we had no air conditioning. we each had to lock our doors individually or not at all. we had to roll the windows up and down with the window crank....and sit.

our trips now are just a bit different. some cars can be started remotely.....we all get into the car..... adjust the seats to our level of comfort...... the driver locks the doors automatically....sometimes with childproof locks.....sometimes the back window won't go down all the way, just as a precaution...as opposed to us hanging our arms and heads out the windows like golden retrievers. we may also choose to have the sunroof open automatically and if it's sunny, we can open the sun glass compartment overhead while it opens. today, we have a choice of air conditioning....heating....seat warmers all individually adjusted. we must buckle up....or the car will beep incessantly until we do...our right rear door may be "ajar"....the driver has the mirrors adjusted electronically, depending on who is driving......the radio may be a.m., f.m, cassette tape or c.d., which we keep stored in the compartment between the seats, maybe next to the cold bottles of water being kept cold by a mini-fridge....or satellite radio, with hundreds more stations to allow us to know the local weather half way across the country, should you care. if interested in some reading, a book can be read to us....by c.d. or cassette. if we choose our own books, we can use our ipods or individual c.d. players. OR, we can each watch a d.v.d. individually or together. when we load the car, the "rear lift gate" will open by pushing a button on our "key fob"...that is after we have used it to unlock the doors....and hopefully, we haven't touched the button that sounds the car alarm to alert all that there is a burglary involved......even if we're in a bucolic setting that is in our own driveway. oh, and before we leave, we may set the g.p.s. to get us to our destination by the fastest route, shortest distance or by avoiding toll roads....and it will talk to us and tell us what to do and quite literally, tell us "where to go".

on one recent car trip, we counted up the different "screens" in our car....

4 ipods with music, movies and t.v. shows down loaded
1 g.p.s
1 d.v.d player
1 blackberry with internet availability
1 laptop computer with the world at our fingertips, including d.v.d..... until the battery wears out.
3 cell phones with camera and video and music
3 digital cameras with video recorders

-----screens for a family of 4...the 2 dogs, 2 cats and 2 fish stay home
-----we have a-------bike rack for 4 bikes
-----we have roof racks for the 2 kayaks or 1 canoe
-----if we choose, we can use the car top cargo holder on top of the car
-----and we have a trailer for the sailboat

if their was just a bit more room and we could find healthy food in drive-thrus, we could probably live in the car.
roof over our heads, warmth, food and sleep.

soooooo, it was the 2 day thanksgiving trip to ohio that the trouble with "memorabilia" began.....it may have been because we dragged our pre-teens kicking and screaming, almost literally... out of the car.......where they were perfectly content, with all of their accoutrements, .... to stop at the "i love lucy" museum, at my request, with all of the memorabilia that made my heart sing! i grew up with "i love lucy"! no one cared about "i love lucy", no one loved her like me. after all, she was in black and white.... that's another story. i know the word "memorabilia" sealed the deal!

now they are teens..... now they know i'm writing my blog....guess what? .....they don't think that a mom should write a blog....they are concerned that my blog is about them....it's not really about them....it's about ME....and what goes on in my little world! i love writing, i love telling stories and i love our kids. who could give me more to write about than my kids, who don't like me to talk about blogging. they say to each other, "uh-oh, mom's gonna write about you in her blog!"....they say to my husband, "dad, tell mom that she's to old to have a blog" they say to me, "what could a mom have to say on a blog?"....and like "memorabilia, they protest,"don't say blog".

i am embarrassing...i am a mom....they are our teenagers...that's the way it's supposed to be...i do tell them that there is so much more embarrassment to come......this may just be the tip of the iceberg....my husband and i are sure they'll be more....and, with a nick name like "little mary mixup", i KNOW there's more to come!

i say"blah, blah, blah, blahGGGGG"! until a wwk ago, i thought it was called a blog because of the blah blah blah of it

i'm still learning the world of blogging.... know these are long and i'm so sorry....it's just that it's my life.....and i love it.

by the way, I LOVE OUR KIDS! everyday is different and that's the best part!

liz