Day 4 -- February 5, 2015

Day 4 – February 5, 2015

At last, we’ve arrived at the day that we’ve planned for for months – the day that we leave on a cruise, bound for Cozumel, Mexico! It’s a very short cruise (leaving February 5 and returning on February 9), and the vast majority of our time will just be sailing. We’ll have the day in Cozumel on Saturday. That’s fine with us, though, because we’re just looking forward to being on a cruise. We’ve been on board for about three hours (still docked), and already I’ve discovered that some folks must come for other reasons, like trying to see how loud they can be. I just think that they came for a good time!

We’ve already had one meal on board . . . lunch. Oh, my goodness, we had about four or five different venues that we could choose from – burgers, Mexican food, country, Asian, and I’ve probably missed something. We ate at the country buffet, and it was delicious. I checked out the desserts for cookies, but the only ones that they had were obviously “store bought.” So I skipped that part, and that’s a good thing.

I know I’ll write more about today later, but for right now, I wanted to get a note off and the photos that we took while we were waiting to board. I see lots of fun and too much good food ahead for the Youngs and Robbinses!

At 4:00, we had to go to our muster station. I always dread this part of a cruise I guess because I don’t like to think about having to use the life jackets and board lifeboats. This “drill” was a little different from others, though. We didn’t have to practice putting the life jackets on; a sweet young thing just demonstrated for us. That was nice, but we wound up just standing at the station for about thirty minutes in silence and behind the white line. Since I’m a rules person, I wanted to see everyone obey. There were some young people right down the line from us who took great delight in talking and in seeing how far outside the line they could get. I sent the old English teacher look down their way, but they didn’t notice. I doubt that it would have made any difference.

After the muster station routine, we went up on Deck 9 to watch our departure. I was disappointed that there weren’t folks standing on the dock shouting, “Bon Voyage!” HaHa! We spent the rest of our afternoon before dinner in our room, checking out the TV stations. We’ve never been on a cruise where the rooms have TVs. Really fancy for the Youngs!

For some reason, Claudia and Ivan had assigned seating and times for dinner, but we had open seating. We managed to get all of us in open seating so that we could eat together. The dinner was delicious. Frank and I had shrimp cocktails for starters; Claudia and Ivan, smoked duck. For the main course, Ivan had brisket; Claudia and I, lasagna; and Frank, fried chicken. Frank’s chicken proved not to be good, and he lost it during the night. TMI, huh? For dessert, Ivan and Frank had molten chocolate cake with ice cream; Claudia, cheesecake; and I, pineapple sherbet. I’m determined not to eat too many goopy desserts on this cruise. We’ll see how long that determination lasts!

Our dinner time was 6:00, and at 7:20, we realized that we were almost late for the Welcome to the Ship Party, which would begin at 7:30. We made it in time. I wasn’t overly impressed with it. Good singing and dancing but nothing spectacular. The Cruise Director was in charge. He was good at his job and funny most of the time. I thought Frank and I were going to be recognized as the couple married the longest, but a man and lady named Al and Judy beat us with 57 years to our 53. Al went down to the stage to give advice to the man (Alex) who was the newest married. And what was this advice? Always say, “as you wish”! Pretty good advice, I think! I imagine Alex’s bride agreed.

The last thing we did was visit one of the stores on Deck 5 so that I could purchase hair spray. Yes, I still use hair spray, and the can that I brought with me suddenly quit working. We were in bed early again in anticipation of a fun day at sea on Friday!

Day 5 -- February 6, 2015

The strangest thing has happened. I noticed just after we sailed away from Galveston that my iPhone time was six hours ahead of what it should be. At first, I thought that our room was possessed because Frank’s and Claudia’s iPhones still had the correct time.  A little while later, theirs changed, too. HaHaHaHa! I was not alone. When I went to buy hair spray last night, I received a little piece of paper saying that there would be a BIG SALE today . . . everything $10.00 . . . and one of the items listed was watches! I knew I’d be heading to that store at 10:00 to get a timepiece.

Oh, my goodness, but they were strange looking, really ugly for the most part—black, white, blue, and pink watchbands about an inch wide and huge faces. Lots of “jewels” on them. But I was desperate because I always look at my iPhone when I wake up during the night. I managed to find the “prettiest” one, though. You’ll see a photo of it. I have thought my problem through, though, and I had already decided that if all the lovely watches were gone by the time that I arrived at the store, I could just subtract six hours from the time on my iPhone and be right on target! I’ll probably have to do that anyway since I won’t be able to turn the light on to see the face on my beautiful new watch.

Claudia, Ivan, Frank, and I went to breakfast a little after 8:00 this morning and managed to sit and talk until time for the big sale. The food on the ship is delicious, and as usual we all ate heartily. Actually, my sea legs aren’t working as well as I’d like them to, so my tummy didn’t want as much as my eyes did. All I had was half a grapefruit, half a bagel with cream cheese, some kind of passion fruit juice, and coffee.

Yesterday, when we were surfing the TV channels, we found out that Todd Somebody was going to tell us all about shopping in Cozumel on Saturday. I’m sure he had good suggestions for us, but with my poor hearing and his fast talk, I didn’t learn much. I don’t think the four of us are your typical Carnival Cruise folks because we don’t jump up and down and get all excited about freebies. Maybe we’re just too old! Anyway, I enjoyed the hour, and I did see some things advertised on slides that I’d like to check out tomorrow. Sandy Dorsett, you mentioned one of Todd’s favorite places to shop, and we’ll check out the restaurant that you mentioned. Thanks!

When we went to lunch, Frank chose a table close to the swirl ice cream so that he wouldn’t have to walk far to get to it. Good idea, but in a rather noisy part of the buffet. That’s OK, though. We’ve gotten used to hollering across the table to each other! Dinner is different. Much more subdued at the time that we eat, so I’m looking forward to that.

Frank and I came back to our room after lunch, intending to go to a meeting with Claudia and Ivan at 4:00. The meeting was about shopping for jewelry and not getting gypped. When they knocked on our door before going, they woke both of us up. Nap time took over novel time for us. We opted out of the meeting, asking them to knock just before 6:00 when we’d go to dinner with them.

Because we wanted to have an assigned table for the four of us, Ivan managed to get us changed to another dining room—Paris—for the remainder of our evenings. We had to go up in the elevator two or three decks, through a casino, past photographers taking quality photos, and down a deck to get to it. Just about the same as the other one, but smaller.

Our waiter was very nice, very efficient, but he knew our names ahead of time and insisted on calling me Sandra, my real name, but one that I hate. Frank told him that we’d like it better if he called me Sandy, but he almost poo-pooed that request and continued to address me as Sandra. After about three times, I asked him if he’d be our waiter for all the meals, and he proudly said, “Yes!” I then asked him to call me Sandy, and he listened. I was Sandy the rest of the evening. We’ll see if he remembers on Saturday.

Again . . . a delicious dinner! I have photos this time (if I can get them to post), but I need to explain that my starter, stuffed mushrooms, looks really icky. They were delicious! The ribs were to die for, but I had so many that I didn’t eat anything else on my plate. Butter pecan ice cream for dessert. It was just butter pecan ice cream, nothing special but good.

When we were in the middle of our dinner, a loud DJ started announcing that we’d have music! Oh, dear . . . more noise. But he sang (yes, the DJ sang) only one song, and all of us old folks in the room joined him in a rollicking rendention of “That’s Amore.” Lots of fun, but we were happy that he really was just advertising his DJ gig in another room later that night.

Claudia and Ivan went exploring after dinner. They found a quiet little bar last night, and they probably visited it again. We wound our way back to our room and discovered that we could get our favorite Friday-night TV programs—Hawai’i Five-0 and Blue Bloods. As I said earlier, we’re not the typical cruisers. We’re having a wonderful time just being Sandy and Frank!

Tomorrow, we’ll be off the ship . . . in Cozumel!

Day 6 -- February 7, 2015

The water at Cozumel is as beautiful as any that we’ve ever seen. I hope the beauty will be evident in my photos. As we walked through the duty-free shopping mall that led to the city, we saw vendors selling every kind of alcohol that anyone might want (I suppose), perfumes, vanilla, diamonds, emeralds, just about anything that a visitor to Cozumel could desire. And then we laid eyes on the real vendors . . . those with shops. We had already been indoctrinated on the ones that are the most reliable, the ones that will send replacements free if anything is wrong after the buyer gets home. What the “pushers” didn’t tell us is what kind of kick-back they get when cruisers purchase. I’m sure there’s some kind of deal between the cruise line and the business people. But maybe not. I’m afraid no one got anything much from our purchases.

We walked through Diamonds International, just looking and listening to the people who worked there. We don’t have either the money or the desire to purchase expensive jewelry, but we do like to look. The aggressiveness of the clerks turns us off, so we don’t spend much time in jewelry stores. Claudia and Ivan are more patient and really look at beautiful jewelry, but on this trip, they didn’t buy any.

We all wanted to see genuine Alexandrite, so we went in a store that has probably the largest collection anywhere. It’s so expensive that the clerks weren’t even aggressive to us. Guess they took one look and knew we were just lookers!

After visiting as many of the stores as we wanted to, we left the shopping area and went toward the town. I bought a big bag to carry everything in. I love it and will use it at home, too. Then we decided to go to the beach to take pictures. We saw a sign saying that it was 1 km to the beach, but that was too far for my gimpy knee and back to walk, so we found a taxi to take us. It cost us $14 for the four of us, not bad since it was actually 10 km to the sand and water. We were surely happy that the driver didn’t take off immediately because when we discovered that it was going to cost us $15 EACH to walk on the sand and take photos, we decided to head back to town right then. We were disappointed but not distraught.

Our decision for lunch was to go back to the ship, where our lunch was already paid for. We had hamburgers at Guy’s Burger Joint (the Guy of The Food Channel fame). Absolutely delicious! Frank and I had The Ringer . . . a cheeseburger with a fried onion ring filled with barbecue sauce on it . . . and a handful of fries.

Back to our room to read and snooze till dinnertime. Claudia and Ivan went back to Cozumel to the lounge chairs right at the water to catch their zzzz’s!

Dinner was in Paris Dining again with the same wait staff that we had had the night before. The same loud DJ erupted about half way through dinner, but this time he played a tune that all the waiters knew, and they danced and danced! Wonderful entertainment!

Claudia and Ivan are really good at roaming around the ship after dinner and finding all sorts of interesting activities; however, we just get ready for bed and either read or watch TV and are perfectly happy. This cruise has been so relaxing and such fun. I can’t believe that we have only one more day at sea before docking at Galveston. But there’ll be more fun after that, and I’m excited about the next week, when we’ll be able to visit with friends and family!

Day 7 -- February 8, 2015

Our last day on board the Carnival Triumph, along with 2,996 other cruisers, was relaxing if not exciting. Breakfast in the Paris Dining Room was actually brunch. We laugh at ourselves a lot, and we got a good chuckle when we seated ourselves at our assigned table, #470, thinking how smart we were to be able to take care of ourselves. The hostess followed us and politely informed us that we didn’t have our usual table for this meal, that it was open (unassigned) seating and that another hostess would have to seat us. Hmmm . . . sounded a bit strange to us until we saw the sign that we had passed up in our eagerness to do the right thing – HOSTESS WILL SEAT YOU. A bit embarrassing, but, hey . . . these people will never see us again. We could have danced on the tables!

The choices looked delectable, as always. And starters for breakfast? Well, after all, it was brunch, and brunch is always fancier than breakfast. Right? So I had a bagel with all the trimmings, two eggs over easy, bacon, and, be still my heart . . . cheese grits. The eggs were a bit underdone, but everything else was just right, especially the grits.

On a ship like this, there are lots of activities to choose from during the day, but there was only one that really interested us, so after relaxing with our books and taking a climb up to the top deck to see how everything up there looked, we met up with Claudia and Ivan and headed for the Rome Lounge (actually a big theater), where we were all set to laugh at the couples chosen to take part in “Love and Marriage,” an on-ship version of the old TV show “The Newlywed Game.”

After a bit of hoopla, the cruise director told us that there would be three couples who would participate. The first one, he chose . . . Alexander and Kim, our bride and groom, the newest wed folks on the ship. The next couple would be the couple who had been married the longest. Claudia and Ivan or Frank and I could have won hands down, but we didn’t want to “show off.” The Robbinses will celebrate their 50^th anniversary in September, and we just had our 53^rd in December. We just sat quietly as others vied for the “old folks’” spot on the stage. The “children” who won had been married only 46 years. The middle spot had to be auditioned for: the man had to do his best rendition of Tarzan and Jane. The first couple won. The big black man beat his chest, yelled, “AhhhhEeeeeAhhhh!,” picked “jane” up nimbly (quite a feat for she was no feather), and made as if to run off with her. Others tried to imitate him, but most couldn’t lift their hefty “Janes” or didn’t have the right volume or were too young to know really what to do.

They were asked ten questions. The men had to answer the way they thought their wives would, and the wives were to give their own true answers. The questions ranged from where the couple met with some description to who was the husband’s last girlfriend with a couple of words of description to where they last made “whoopee” so that it was never the same since to what the wife would say the husband’s most irritating habit was. The answers were hilarious! The black couple had the funniest answers, and the husband was good at guessing what his wife would say. The answer that broke the whole audience up was the husband’s most irritating habit. Remember that she said this, not me. She replied, “When he gets excited, he farts!” Oh, my . . . that’s almost TMI, don’t you think?

Claudia showed us the photo that she had taken earlier from the stern, and the pattern of the water amazed us. We HAD to go to the back of the ship to take our own photos. Absolutely beautiful! You’ll see it in the pictures.

I finished my novel a little before dinner and managed to squeeze in a short nap, too. Sleep No More was a bit more sexually graphic from what I usually read, but the descriptions were necessary for the story to unfold and wind up the way it did. Oh, dear . . . now there’ll be a run on the book either in the book store or on Amazon because you’ll be so curious! HaHa!

Our last dinner in the Paris Dining Room was a bit nostalgic because we knew it would be our last time to have Agus and/or Sudipta as our waiters. They were such polite gentlemen, and we loved having them serve us. The waiters all memorize the names of their diners and call them appropriately, no matter where they see them on the ship. Agus never forgot that I wanted to be called Sandy! Sudipta is a very handsome young man, and Agus has the proverbial (as we say in the South) “face that only a mother could love,” but we loved them equally. You’ll see them in tonight’s photos. Agus practically led all the waiters in a rousing Macarena toward the end of our meal. He was just full of personality even if he wasn’t the handsome one.

I must admit that I didn’t check the schedule very carefully on Friday and Saturday, so we weren’t aware that there was a musical every evening. Claudia and Ivan had happened upon the one of Friday – “Around the World in 80 Days,” featuring music and dancing from various countries. I wish we had known about that one because it sounded like the best show. Tonight, though, we knew that the show would be “The Big Easy,” and since our next destination will be New Orleans, we wanted to see that one. I’m not a jazz fan, so I didn’t enjoy the music much until the singers and dancers got to “Jambalaya” and “When the Saints Go Marching In.” Those were WONDERFUL! The costumes and dancing throughout were magnificent, and I drank in everything.

Back to our rooms after the performance to be sure that everything would be ready for early Monday morning, when we’d dock, debark, and be on our way for the rest of our trip!

Day 9 -- February 10, 2015

Day 9 – February 10, 2015

Frank and I both thought of the same words as soon as we awakened this morning . . .  Happy Birthday, Jay! If our boy had lived, he’d have been 47 today. How I miss him! But on his birthday, we try to do nothing but celebrate. As usual, I posted something on my Facebook page. I know that most of you who are reading this saw my post; however, I’m posting it here just to have it saved in a place that I’ll remember.

Happy 47^th, Jay!

That’s right. Had Jay lived, he’d be 47 today. Hard to believe. Thinking about Jay on his birthday (and my dad’s!) could be a sad day; however, as so many of you know, Jay was a funny guy, and we like to spend his birthday thinking about the Fun Jay.

As you know, I always post something here on Jay’s birthday and on the anniversary of the day he died. I start thinking about my post weeks ahead of time, sometimes writing new memories and sometimes posting something that I wrote a while back. The one today is from a couple of years ago.

I love to write, but my genre is nonfiction, to be specific, memoir. In a weak moment (or perhaps it was a brave moment) a couple of years ago, I succumbed to the encouragement of my favorite writing teacher, Melanie Faith, and signed up for her online poetry class through WOW—Women on Writing. A poet, I am not! In fact, back in my Woodham years, I used to write ditties for retiring teachers. All of us laughed at my attempts and called them “pomes,” not nearly good enough to be called “poems.”

My poetry attempts for Melanie were just a step above the pomes that I wrote for teachers. My submissions (I still can’t call them poems) leaned definitely toward memoir, my chosen genre, and one was about Jay. That piece is what I’m posting today. You’ll see my boy and my heart in it.

Progress

You’re absent.

Of course, you are . . .

Absent from me, the one left at home.

But you’re present There,

With the Lord,

enjoying much more singing and dancing and bass music

Than I am,

and that makes me as happy

as I used to be when you put my head in the fan.

Do I still grieve?

You know I do, but not all day every day.

Just when I walk down the hall at home,

Where the photos of you playing at Trinity’s

Or hugging some sweet young thing

Or putting the kitty in the fridge

Or making funny faces with Wendy

Hang.

You know I do, but not all day every day.

Just when I happen on a song by INXS

Or David Bowie

Or The Church

Or Billy Idol

Or Crowded House.

I do still grieve.

You know I do,

Just not all day every day.

Not all day every day, my son.

I hope this little ditty brings back good memories of Jay . . . of his talent and of his humor.

Happy Birthday, Jay!

We dressed and took everything out to the car. Then we headed straight for Café Du Monde, where we’d fill our tummies with coffee and beignets. Frank used to eat three orders (three beignets in each order), but his appetite has dwindled to only two orders. I have one order. When he told the waitress that we wanted three orders, she said, “Three beignets?” No . . . three ORDERS . . . that’s nine beignets. They were as delicious as they ever were!

I took a few pictures before we set off for Pensacola.

Frank decided that we’d go to Sam’s for gas before going to my cousin’s house. Yikes! It was supposed to be cheap. It was $2.24! Not cheap at all. But we didn’t find any gas in Pensacola as low as ours is in Santa Fe/Albuquerque. Who knows? It may be that much at home by now.

When he got back in the car, he said, “Do you want to take flowers to Jay on his birthday?” Of course, I did. So we went to Michael’s and bought posies for Jay and also for Mother and Daddy. As we were leaving, we saw our good friend Linda Thomas Lasher outside the store. What a treat! We stood in the cold visiting for several minutes. So what’s so important about this? We were going to have dinner with her and her hubby tonight! We still had plenty to talk about in the evening, though.

If the person who added some new flowers to the last ones that I put on Jay’s grave is reading this, thank you so much! Also . . . an apology to whoever put the black bracelet on the vase because it broke when we emptied water out and tried to put the vase back. We left it, but it’s broken. Made me so sad. I chose the flowers for my parents’ graves, and Frank chose Jay’s. They’ll look very pretty for a while, but the Florida sun doesn’t allow the bright colors to last very long.

When we arrived at JoAnn and Fred’s house, we found that their son, Freddie (I believe most people call him Fred now, but old habits are hard to break), was there. We were so happy to see him because it had been years and years since we had seen him. We always enjoy being with Jo and Fred and catching up on everything that’s going on in their lives.

We left at 5:00 to meet friends at the Marina Oyster Barn for dinner, the REAL beginning of our seafood splurge. Linda and her husband Bob, Barbara and David Lautner, and Fran Crumpton are five of our best friends in the whole world, and we thoroughly enjoyed being with them. There was not a minute of dead air at the table! Two more best friends, Annice and Gene Webb, couldn’t join us for the evening because of Gene’s health, and we truly missed them. Frank had fried shrimp, and I had fried oysters. Yummmmmm! We splurged and had key lime pie. So good!

We were back at Jo and Fred’s house by 7:45 and had more chatting to do before turning in. Good start to a very short visit to my hometown.

Day 10 -- February 11, 2015

Do you think it’s possible to dream that you’re not sleeping? I do. And that’s what happened to me last night. I thought I was awake most of the night, but I really don’t think that’s what happened. Anyway, just to be sure that I do sleep and that I feel as though I have, I have a plan for tonight.

Today was Doctor Day in Pensacola for us. We never have found an optometrist in New Mexico. We like to go to Doug Boyd, our doctor in Pensacola for years . . . actually, decades. He is working a couple of days a week at Sam’s Club in their Optometry/Optician Shop, and Wednesday is one of those days. Ten o’clock found us waiting for Doug. In addition to having our eyes examined, we get to catch up on family talk. Always fun.

Between appointments, I spent a little bit of money at a great sale at Chico’s. We ate at Taco Bell for lunch. Strange, huh? New Mexicans eating at Taco Bell? Actually, we like the restaurant!

At 1:40, I had an appointment with my ear doctor. I never have even tried to find a doctor in Santa Fe because having my doctor here assures me of trips back to my hometown. My ear doctor just happens to be one of my favorite former students, Derek Jones, graduate of the Class of 1985 at Woodham High School. He looks just like he did in high school and is the same sweet person that he was thirty years ago. I always feel sorry for those with appointments after mine because he takes so much time with me. I have this crazy, oft-operated-on ear that has to cleaned out at least once a year. Since I hadn’t been to Derek since October 2013, he had lots of cleaning to do. Pretty much painful. At one time during the cleaning I told him that if he dug any further, he’d be digging out brains. I can’t afford to lose any! We have such a good time catching up on his family. Makes it worth the pain! I can’t believe that his oldest child is a freshmen at Florida! Where has the time gone since he was in my class?

On our way back to Jo’s, Frank took a little detour for us to look at a small motorhome, a Chevy Roadtrek. It was beautiful . . . a 2011 with only 10,000 miles on it. We almost bought it, but Frank, sometime during the night, decided that we had other things to use our money on right now. Probably a good decision!

After visiting a while with Jo, we went to Coach-n-Four, a restaurant not far from her house, to meet friends and family for dinner. I had written Facebook messages to Neal Kinard, Nancy Strebeck, Linda (Blossom) Bloom, and Gloria Byrd, longtime friends who were in our Singles Department at First Baptist Church way back when. Also got in touch with my Little Brother, Bob, and asked him and Trish to join us. Everyone except Neal, who has a job at First Baptist and has to be at Wednesday night services, met us. What a great time we had catching up and remembering old times!

I’m a connoisseur of fine seafood, and I’m here to tell you that it doesn’t get any better that what we always have at Coach-n-Four! I had shrimp and oysters, fried of course, and they were scrumptious!! I forgot to order mud bugs (actually little crawfish bites) for an appetizer for everyone, and later I was glad that I forgot. We always treat Bob and Trish, but somehow they talked the waitress in to giving them the check for the four of us. So . . . I’m glad I didn’t add more to the bill. Thanks, Little Brother!

I told you earlier that I had a plan for a good night’s sleep. We stopped at Walgreen’s on the way back to Jo and Fred’s and I bought Aleve PM to help me sleep and also to alleviate the pain in my knee and back, always with me. It worked!!

Jo and Fred went to bed very early because they had to get up at 4:00 so that Fred could take Freddie to the airport. He has a new job (he’s a pilot) and had to fly to Pittsburg for his physical before he begins the job on Monday.

Very good night’s sleep!!

Day 11 -- February 12, 2015

Yesterday was our second and last day in Pensacola. I’ve NEVER had such a short visit, and I hope I NEVER have another visit that short! Just didn’t get to do as much as I like to do or see as many people as I like to see. But time was short this time.

After a little more catching up with Jo and a cup of coffee, we set off for Destin. A couple of years ago, in a weak moment (Frank says that it was all my fault), we succumbed to purchasing a Wyndham membership. Ours is a very small buy, but we enjoy using our points every once in a while, trying not to lose them in September. Our destination in Destin, Beach Front Cottages, would use up some of the points.

We found the cottages easily, but ours wasn’t ready yet, so we went to Pompano Joe’s for lunch. Started my beach photos there, and you’ll see them below. I had Popcorn Shrimp Salad. Very good, but they surely do waste all that rabbit food on me. I eat all the goodies off the top and send the rest back with the waiter.

After lunch while we were waiting for our room to be cleaned, we found the theater that we wanted to go to tonight. We seldom go to movies, but this one would be our third in just over a month. The first two were Unbroken and American Sniper, both so good and ones that everyone should see. The one for tonight is Black or White. It turned out to be one that everyone should also see. Such a great theme! And a happy ending!

As we were looking for the theater, I spied my favorite store, Chico’s, and determined to have at least a short visit there before leaving Destin.

When we entered our cottage, we found a lovely little apartment, just right for us, and spent the afternoon in it, just catching up on emails and taking a peek at chosen junk mail.

Since we had had a rather late lunch, we went to our early movie before eating dinner. We located the RedBrick Pizza Café just outside and theater and decided to go there after the movie. We always arrive a bit early so that we can get a good seat. Hmmm . . . very strange. We were the first ones there, and we weren’t THAT early. A few minutes after we chose the best seats in the house, another couple came in and sat a few rows behind us. Would you believe that we four were the only ones in the theater? Black and White (Kevin Costner) was one of the best movies we’ve seen, right up there with The Blind Side. I’ll probably order the DVD so that we can show it when we have guests if they want a good story, lots of laughs, and some tears.

The pizza was very good!! Tomorrow will be our last day of real vacation. Somehow, we always manage to squeeze in a lot in a little time. Don’t you agree?

Day 12 -- February 13, 2015

One of the first things I said this morning was, “What are we doing today?” Frank’s answer, “I don’t know. I have some writing to do.”

Now, that was a strange answer from my sweetheart, who types with two fingers and hates the process. Oh, well, I had several things that I needed to do in preparation for going back to work next week.

After we ate our breakfast – three Krispy Kremes for Frank and one for me, plus coffee, all in the room – Frank attacked his computer, and I worked on mine. About two hours later, during which time, he shouted, “I knew it! I knew it!”, he came to me and sheepishly requested, “Will you post this on Facebook tomorrow?”

I saw two pages of handwritten text. He hadn’t been typing; he was writing something for me to type. I read the first line or two and told him that he needed to read it to me. Many of you saw it posted on Valentine’s Day, but I want it here so that those who might have missed it can see the beautiful letter that my sweetheart wrote to/for me:

This will come as a surprise to many of you as I am most often the silent partner in this Sandy and Frank relationship. However, its being Valentine’s Day today, there are a few thoughts I’d like to direct to my sweetheart of almost 54 years, and it seems appropriate that I share them with her vast audience of friends that follow her (us) quite regularly.

English was my minor in college, so it’s not surprising on this day that I would remember Elizabeth Barrett Browning and her Sonnet 43, “How Do I Love Thee?”

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight

For the ends of being and ideal grace.

I love thee to the level of every day’s

Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.

I love thee freely, as men strive for right.

I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.

I love thee with the passion put to use

In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.

I love thee with a love I seemed to lose

With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,

Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,

I shall but love thee better after death.

Say , “Ahhh!” with me. But those were Elizabeth’s words, sweet, but not mine. Many of you may have a touch of my sweetheart’s heart from her many writings posted on her Facebook page as well as in her personal relationships with those of you whom she taught or has known through the years, but I HAVE her heart, though never fully deserved, for I’m not the selfless person she is.

So, to my Sandy . . . You broke your ankle in mid-February 1961, and your roommate asked me to carry you up the stairs in Nelson Hall each day so that you could meet your classes. Little did I know how you would then “carry me” through my life by loving me endlessly.

We had our first date on March 10, 1961, became engaged in July, and were married December 17, 1961. Life has dealt us many of its storms, but never have these storms dampened our love for each other, and life has been good. On this day, February 14, 2015, let me ask you, “Will you be my Valentine?”

I love you forever,

Frank

Of course, I’ll be your Valentine, Honey! I’ve been that for more than half a century, and I don’t have any intention of not being your Valentine . . . ever! I do need to tell you, dear readers, that on our first Valentine’s Day after we married, my sweetheart gave me a thesaurus. The letter is much more romantic, isn’t it? Just had a thought. Our first Valentine’s Day together after we married was our first Valentine’s Day ever.

I typed his letter this morning and emailed it to him so that it’d be on his computer. I could post it on Facebook so that it was from him, not me. I’ll post it tomorrow morning as we’re traveling.

We ate lunch at The Crab Trap, not far from our cottage. Frank had popcorn shrimp, and I had a popcorn shrimp sandwich and gumbo. I know you’re not surprised that the main souvenirs that we’re taking home with us are the pounds that we’ve added because of fried seafood and sweet tea!!

As was the morning, the afternoon was laid back. I mentioned Chico’s, and Frank knows how much I like to shop there, whether I buy anything or not; therefore, he rooted around in Books-a-Million while I went to my favorite ladies’ store. Nothing looked good on me today, so I bought only a couple of pairs of earrings. I’ll  be wearing them a lot, I’m sure. They’re just alike, except one is silver and the other, gold. Frank found a book on sale, though, and will begin another trilogy that will take him months to finish. He bought Book 2, and I ordered Book 1. We’ll get number 3 when it comes out in paperback. It’s a trilogy about World War I and World War II, but we can’t think of the title of the set of novels.

Dinner tonight was at the Hog’s Breath Saloon, where their motto is “Hog’s breath is better than no breath at all!” Ain’t that the truth?! We were actually a bit tired of seafood (can that be possible?), so we had ribs. Very good! Not quite so good as the ones that I had on the cruise, but very good. We were a bit impatient to get our check because we wanted to get back to the cottage to watch Hawai’i Five-O and Blue Bloods. Skipped the first one (Frank watched Megan Kelly, and I packed and cleaned the kitchen) and will watch it when we get home, but Blue Bloods, our favorite show, was just as good as it always is. We do love Tom Selleck and his Irish Catholic law enforcement family!

We were in bed early once again so that we could hit the road at least by 7:00. Tomorrow will be the last day of our real vacation. We would have liked to stay longer, but life in the real world is calling. I’m not looking forward to walking in the door at home, though. Many of you know that our sweet Maizy dog is no longer with us, and the old homestead just doesn’t seem right without her. My next composition will be “Memories of Maizy,” and I’ll probably post it on Facebook.

February 16, 2015

I’ve been a bit derelict in getting my writing done. That’s not unusual. Right now, we’re on the last leg of our trip and almost to Hwy 14 . . . just about 15 minutes from home.

Just thought I’d thank those of you who saw on Facebook Frank’s Valentine letter to me and either LIKED it or COMMENTED on it. I read the comments to him as he was driving, and he just smiled and smiled. I even read the names of those who LIKED it, and he smiled then, too. I’ll give you some numbers. As of right now, 172 friends LIKED it, and 43 made comments. I can tell you for sure that he was very happy!

A Promise for 2015

I have just been through the most awful series of questions in order to get to the place where I can post on my own blog! Google wouldn't take my latest password; therefore, I couldn't do anything on my blog. I still don't know that I'll ever be able to get back in here again. But . . . just in case I can, I promise to write on my blog in 2015. My last post was in the summer of 2013. For someone who loves to write and who would like to get serious about her writing, this is terrible! Let's see how the good intentions go!

P is for Playing

                  

All of us come into this world playing and continue to do so for the rest of our lives. Babies play with their toes and their daddies’ ears; toddlers play with toys and their grandmas’ whatnots; children play with their friends—hopscotch, dodge ball, red rover (I know these are old fashioned); teenagers play hooky and chicken and steal-the-boyfriend; adults play all sorts of “games” to capture their sweethearts and to advance themselves in the work world.  The two types of play that are surfacing in my mind this morning, though, are two that I haven’t mentioned and are coming to me from my childhood. Both games were important in developing me into the person I am today at the tender age of 73.

In my neighborhood in New Orleans, a WWII housing project, we children didn’t have many toys. I always had dolls, and during the war, I had plastic airplanes that we played with, bombing the Japs (I know that’s politically incorrect, but that’s what we called them), but I don’t remember many other toys. Oh, yes, I heard on the radio once about a cardboard farm set that I could order, probably for a dollar or so, and I did just that. But I forgot to include the dollar. I received it anyway. That was surely “back in the day,” wasn’t it? After school, we skated and rode bikes on the sidewalks in our neighborhood, and on Saturdays we played in new-mown grass and on a jungle gym in the big, shared backyard. We also played all of the previously mentioned games—hopscotch, dodge ball, red rover—but the ones that I remember best are house and school.

I loved it when Donny Lockwood played house with us girls because he could be the daddy. If he didn’t play, I had to be the daddy because I was the tallest. How I hated that! Just because I was tall didn’t mean I had to be a boy. Sometimes we played with dolls for the babies, but sometimes we just let the youngest or smallest child be the baby. She would coo and gurgle just like a real baby, and we loved that. We prepared meals the way our mothers did, using leaves and flowers and dirt for the ingredients. The “garbage” flowers and leaves were the best because they were the biggest. I have no idea as to what these flowers and leaves really were; they were just the ones planted around our garbage area, a fence-in square where the garbage cans were located. The plants did their best to hide what was really there. We mimicked our parents when we talked to each other, with the daddy pitching his or her voice very low and authoritatively. Whoever was the mother had a high voice and always told the daddy what had gone on around the house while he was off at work. In the same manner, the daddy would report on what he had done at the office. He probably had the same job that his daddy had. Occasionally, while we were playing house, we’d stop for a while to use our spoons or little shovels to try to dig to China because we were convinced that if we dug down deep enough, we’d see Chinamen down in the hole. Inevitably during our playtime, we’d use the expression “Let’s plike,” being interpreted “Let’s play like.” We little Southerners didn’t do too well with some words. We loved playing house and  could stay at it for hours. In the evenings in the summer, we’d play slinging statues and catch lightning bugs until our parents called us in for bath and bedtime.

We played house both inside and outside our homes, but the next game was played inside because we’d never heard of a school being outside. That’s right . . . we played school. And guess who was almost always the teacher! You got it . . . Sandy. This was probably the only game in which I was really pushy. I was the tallest, so I could be the teacher. This was one time that I didn’t resent being picked for something because of my height. Children back then didn’t have many books of their own. I really don’t know why. Maybe parents expected their kids to get books from the library. I did that, but I also had some books of my own. I wish I still had those books because inside each one of them I’d see a subject written: arithmetic (we never called it math or mathematics), reading, trigonometry (I read that word in a book one time and thought it sounded interesting . . . had a real ring to it), composition, history, and probably some others. I was a hard taskmaster of a teacher and made the students stay focused on what we were doing. My little wooden easel chalkboard with the alphabet at the top made my schoolroom look real . . . at least to me.  

These two games have stayed in my mind through all of these years because both helped me to think about the future at a very young age. I knew that certain things were done in a family and certain things weren’t from playing house. The daddy was the leader of the household; the mother prepared dinner and took care of the children. Sounds old fashioned, doesn’t it? It is, but for me, it still applies today. Early on I found myself at the front of the classroom, giving instructions to children, teaching them what I knew best. I must admit that even back then, we spent more time on spelling and reading and writing than we did on arithmetic. Just a little foreshadowing, I guess.

We had a great time in our project. Games were important in our lives, and we played them to the hilt!