This Reminds Me

Archive for the ‘Away from Home’ Category

Our summer calendar is a patchwork of scribbled initials and intersecting arrows.  It was obvious to Keith and me that if we were going to do anything as a family this year, we better do it soon.  So we threw six people and their luggage into the Expedition Friday afternoon and headed south to Nuevo Progresso.  We found the streets vendors and shops more plentiful and better-stocked than last year.  We also found a really good restaurant.  Our apologies to all the sensationalists but we never felt threatened.  We saw no violence.   And we came home with some great finds.

On the way south – a stop at Van’s Bar-B-Q for really delicious brisket served on waxed paper with onion, pickles and a jalapeno on the side.  Their heavily-grafetti’ed tin walls now sport a “Team Katniss” slogan.  As we approached Nuevo Progresso, Lois asked, “The beer billboards are all in Spanish now.  Does that mean we’re close?”

 The obligatory “between two countries” shot. 

“Bike Expo and Tattoo Convention” – two good reasons not to return on Cinco de Mayo. 

First great find of the day – purses for me.  For more than a decade, I’ve used backpack purses exclusively.  They’re hard to find.  Last month – while battling a migraine – I accidentally cut the straps of the purse I was using.  Dumb.  Lois was using her Vera Bradley backpack purse (left) which just happened to be in my favorite Yellow Bird pattern.  I sweetly asked her if I could borrow it until we went to Mexico.  Or maybe I dumped its contents into a Wal-mart plastic bag, shoved that at her and grumbled, “You wouldn’t mind loaning me your purse for a month, would you?”  Either way – she loaned me hers.  I bought three identical black leather backpack purses at $23@.  That should hold me a few years.  Normally, women buy knock-off Coach bags, and Juicy, and the like.  I don’t care about the label.  I care about the functionality.

Sweet Sop drink mix thrilled Keith and Hannah.

Begin fanned by an older sister?  Oh, no, Julia’s not spoiled.   After all…..

…she begged for a sword and didn’t get one.  You ever heard five people all shout “No!” at once?!

The most exquisite items we saw:  Collapsible tin nativity sets – but these were different than we’d seen before.  In addition to the holy family, they sported prop-up wise men and their transport animals, including an elephant.  The colors were jewel-brilliant

A great view of the main drag from the third-floor of Angel’s “Bar, Restaurant and Dental Clinic.”  Lunch for six with drinks, an appetizer and entrees:  $40.  Their warm salsa with salty chips – magnifico!  Try the cheese enchilladas and the chicken tacos.  Good store on the ground floor, too. 

Mexican dresses – a “must buy.”  Lois favors the wrap-around, wispy style; Rachel, Hannah and Julia are more traditionalists. 

Street vendors asked $5/pair for sunglasses – but we paid $4/pair, of course.

This is what a talavera elephant, manatee and bird look like in the store.

Box them with a talavera chicken, and they look like this, i.e., taking up most of the back of the Expedition.  Come by this summer and you can see what they look like in the backyard menagerie.  We drove by a “Rent-A-Tire” business and Lois asked, “Can you do anything with those tires?  Or are you limited to driving?”

For the first time ever – we crossed the border twice.  Normally, we are “go up one side of the street, down the other, and go home” people.  We were getting ready to leave Sunday morning when Lois realized she couldn’t find a $2 name bracelet she just had to have.  I stayed with the packed car while Keith took the girls  back across.  The good part:  We learned all the stores and the street vendors are open Sunday.  We’d always thought we had to shop Monday – Saturday.   This gives us a little more flexibility in scheduling family outings.

A spill of bright red soda on Hannah’s one remaining clean shirt prompted her to ask Keith for his last clean shirt – a spiffy blue Hawaiian number.  Rachel accused her of trying to “grab all the hot babes” with it.  Hannah was the only one who thought to bring movies to watch on the five-hour drive.  They watched “Halloween Town” on the drive down.  Rachel begged for a different flick on the drive home, so Hannah gleefully pulled “Halloween Town 2″ from her purse.

Lest we forget why the border agents have a tough job…..

Esperamos volver – we hope to go again next year.  Angel’s chicken tacos are calling……

Rachel has been our next gen early adopter of all shiny objects with buttons.  Here’s a four-minute jaunt through her technology graveyard.  Of course, she’s the one I took to the office at age 12 to help with a volunteer project -  mailing T-shirts.  At lunch she asked me, “Mom, have you ever heard of a typewriter?  It’s kind of like a printer but it’s just text.”

Lately, I’ve been reading about “nomophobia,” or the acute fear of being out of cell phone contact.  At first I thought, “That’s just one more twitch of the psyche for people without enough real problems.”   But Hannah’s question made me think, and I see that I, too, have succumbed to nomophobia. My AT&T iPhone is either in my purse, in my hand, on my desk or charging on the kitchen counter.  I’d be lost now without it – literally, and figuratively.

Last month, I represented AT&T at the Ft. Lauderdale  She Streams vlogging conference.  I shot this picture with my iPhone.  From a cab window!  In years past, I would have taken a camera with me.  Photobucket has a lovely app for direct upload.  You don’t lose your pixel quality like you do emailing and then uploading shots from a p.c.

My phone is my entertainment (Words with Friends).   Before I get to work in the morning, I’ve scanned my office and personal email using the WI-fi on the bus.  If I’m lost, I either use its GPS, or call Keith to direct me from his.  I use a credit card at Sam’s for the rebate, but don’t like the big bill at the end of the month.  Before I leave the store, I’ve logged into my bank account and sent a payment to cover the charged amount.  One of my older girls has an unexpected expenditure – I can move money to her account.  I don’t carry my bible to church any more – I use the app.  I text my “MyCokeRewards” now.  Heck, I text with my older girls all day.  Keith gave me directions within a building once using Facetime – I could show him where I was.  We’ve stopped printing Groupons, etc. – we use our phones.  The trip to Ft. Lauderdale was the first time I used an electronic boarding pass – swiped my phone, got on the plane.

I am not a fantasy book lover.  Hardly ever read the stuff.  But I did read Stephen King’s “Dark Tower” series, and there was a recurrent phase that totally resonated with me:  “The world has moved on.”

Our world really has moved on.  I have noticed that those most folks contemptuous/suspicious/irritated  of or by wireless smart phone (smart phone + has an operating system, uses a data plan) usually live in a very well-defined niche.   That’s not saying a niche is “good” or “bad” – simply that “it is.”   When we lived in Houston, I was more “niche-y” than anyone I know now.  If you’re in a niche, you know that one place to stop and get directions.   Email is something you might check daily – or not.  You carry paper pictures tucked in crevices of a wallet still sporting a check book.  You don’t shop much – if ever – online because you go to the same stores which likely feature paper coupons.   Your friends may be in the same type of niche, which works well.   The rub, of course, is that tricky next generation, and the one after that, and the one after that.  Because the next generation never goes backward on connection methods, and they don’t wait.  The world keeps moving on.

Because the world keeps moving on, I’d watch for nomophobia to become more and more prevalent – in fact, I think it’ll be the norm.

You could call your doctor about it, of course.

Just don’t try to use a pay phone to do it.

In celebration of Pi Day – a cake!   The girls and I trooped off to Houston Sunday – Tuesday of this spring break week and were treated to a cake in our honor, selected by the kiddos of my brilliant niece Sarah  -  Laura and James.  Not sure when my name last topped a cake, but I’ll bet my mom baked it.

Red velvet, too – yum!

Sarah always makes us very welcome, which is fortunate – since we’re coming to her house regardless.  With all our bags.  And pillow pets.  And 12-packs of Diet Coke.  Which everyone will have to step around in the entry way, so sorry, really, Clark, we’ll be taking it with us when we leave here next month.

Couch Fulla Cousins:  James, 5; Rachel, 20; Julia, 12; Lois, 18; Hannah, 16; Laura, 8.  Strange to think this may be our last spring break with a full house, since Lois leaves for A&M in the fall.

We spent Monday the Houston Livestock Show.  I don’t like animals, but I love the fair atmosphere.  Plus we got a free koozie for checking in on Facebook, and I’m all about the $Free.99.

Julia’s first candy apple, inspired by cousins Laura and James.  Sarah and I swore we were going to devour fried Milky Way bars, but when we got to the concession stand, we were just too hot and tired to think about them.  Neither of us had sense enough to wear shorts instead of jeans.  We slurped multiple bottles of cool water instead of licking gooey caramel deliciousness from our fingers.  Next year, Sarah – next year.

Don’t let these babies get your goat, girls.

Cabrito on the hoof!  Hannah was smiling a lot more Monday than she has been today.  She had six (count ‘em – six!) wisdom teeth removed this morning, plus an oral cyst.  Glad we went to Houston earlier because we’ll sure be staying close to home the remainder of spring break.

Julia spent about 10 minutes in front of the bee exhibit, trying to locate the queen.  I joked, “She looks a lot like me!”  But alas – my humor was lost on her.  Sigh.

So Happy Pi Day – and Spring Break!  Hope you have a sweet to celebrate – maybe even a fried Milky Way.

One of the tricks of managing a family is to offer “separate but equal” rewards, gifts, acknowledgements, etc.   With four kids in a wide age range – that’s easier said than done.  As I am fond of saying while explaining why we can’t do this or that, “You can’t do for one what you can’t do for four.”  But, of course, you don’t have to provide identically for the four – hopefully, though, you provide comparably.  I stress hopefully because really – who knows about tomorrow?   The best plans can be derailed with a lay-off, car repair, medical bill, etc., as all of us adults know too well.

Rachel, Lois and Hannah each got a special trip for their ninth birthdays.  I took Rachel to American Girl Place in Chicago.  Keith took Lois whale watching in Seattle, and Hannah to San Francisco.

Keith took my very favorite picture e-v-e-r of Hannah on her special trip.  He had a full day planned, but she saw the Pacific ocean and begged to stop.  That’s where they spent most of the day.  This pictures captures “her” – joy and abandon.

But for Julia’s ninth birthday – the trip just didn’t work out.  We had first-year college expenses for Rachel, plus we were saving vacation time and every dime for the family cruise in December.  Julia wasn’t home to hear about the trips of Rachel, Lois and Hannah so I’m not sure her being shorted was bothering her as much as it bothered me.

One day, Keith and I would like to take her back to Russia to visit.  Let her see the beauty of St. Petersburg.  But that is a few years away, sooooo….

To celebrate her recent (12th) birthday, I took Julia to Space Center Houston to have lunch with an astronaut.  Rachel and Hannah couldn’t afford to miss work, school, Girl Scouts, etc. but Lois – grinning wickedly about “senior spring” – tagged along.

Julia’s fifth grade teacher  has their room decorated in “Early NASA.”   They’ve held several video conferences with NASA’s educational staff, and next week – they’re studying the moon.  Great timing for this trip, no?

When we lived in Houston, we visited often.  Lois (center) was only five years old in 1998 when “Space Family Woodworth” shot their Christmas card photo on site.

The three-story playground – a huge hit.   I, however, preferred the stairs to return to the ground level.

The older girls tease Julia about having a “six pack of abs,” but those weren’t much help lifting a planetary-adjusted weight.

While Julia spun around 360 degrees in this capsule….

…Lois and I could watch her on this exterior screen.  Omigosh!  Good that we did this before lunch.

Before enjoying lunch with astronaut Ken Cameron, we heard him speak for 30 minutes in the Blast Off Theater.  He spent a year training in Russia with cosmonauts.  My favorite Russian had a million questions for him – until he sat down at our table.  Then it was all “nodding of the head” and “chewing of the chicken strips.”

One small girl; one giant Saturn V rocket – part of the tram tour.  You may be asking, “Where are all the other people?”  Answer:  We went on a rainy Friday.  We had the place virtually to ourselves.  We never waited in line,  or had to elbow someone at a display.  It was awesome.  The perfect time to go!

The Saturn V building made great use of QR codes.  Lois and I got a huge kick out of scanning the codes for more info like…..

….a photo of and links to more info on the third stage.  Don’t have the AT&T scanner?  Well, heck - get it now!

The magic of a green screen!

We ended the day (5 p.m.) where we began (10 a.m.) – in the play area.  Julia absolutely loved building motorized “lunar rovers.”   This is my favorite picture of the day because it captures her fascination and concentration.

Next year, Julia will be a teenager and we’ll start those delightful adolescent experiences.

But for this year – I’m glad to still have a child to enjoy an out-of-this-world birthday.