WHEN We Go Back

My husband keeps saying when we go back to Ohio again, we are flying.

Two things I’d like to note here:  1.  He must have had a good time because he said WHEN we go back.  2.  He must have had a good time because, again, he said WHEN, and we did not fly, we drove.

I loved the road trip.  I loved looking at things and that my son loved looking at things.  I loved reading the weird signs and the funny names of places.  I loved the local places to eat we don’t have at home. I love that my son is STILL hung up on the fact that the “Liquor Barn” in Kentucky did not actually look like a barn.

We came back with bourbon, bourbon chocolates, and wine from Kentucky.  Yep, bought at the barn that looked like a car dealership.  T-shirts from Cedar Point in Ohio.  T-shirts from various Harley-Davidson dealerships along I-75.  Peaches, pecans, syrup, and jam from Georgia.  And pictures and memories from everywhere in between.  You can’t do that when you fly.

Sure, we would have had more time to do things at our destination had we flew, but to me there is just something special about visiting different places, even if it is just to use the bathroom at their local McDonalds.  You’d think that things were the same across this country, but they are not.  We have different stores, different restaurants, different people, different architecture, different ways of life.  The only way to truly see that is to experience it.

Yeah, we’ll be going back to Ohio.  And if I have my way, we may just be driving again.

Hopefully, one day we’ll have the time to drive to other parts of the country we have not experienced before. 

With me driving, so I don’t have to grab onto my seat when we’re driving in heavy traffic and slamming on brakes. Ah, but that’s why they have wine.  If only I had had some when my husband was going through downtown Atlanta…

Road Trips, Family, Roller Coasters, and Cracker Barrels

You know a road trip is going to be interesting when it starts with a child who must travel with his own pillow, blanket, and milk. Just because he must.

We traveled from Florida to Ohio to visit family. Within the first hour of our drive, I had answered the same questions about what we were doing and where we were staying each day at least 20 times. I finally got a piece of paper and wrote out the schedule,which took care of that. Good thing, because now we had time for "Where are we now?" every 5 minutes.

A few hours into the trip, though accompanied by a bag of electronic devices, my son said, "You know, you're right, it is fun to just look at things." And look at things we did. Do you have any idea how many places there are with funny names? We are going to have the camera prepared for the Butt County sign this time. We're still debating if there are more Cracker Barrels or Harley Davidson dealers along I-75, and there is a $5 prize for the first person to spot both at the same exit.

After arriving at our destination and hanging out with family we don't get to see often, we found it quite interesting to learn what kind of things are obviously hereditary. Things like dipping fries in mustard, getting mysterious rashes on your legs at amusement parks, the desire to ride every roller coaster and water slide in the world when you are a kid but having too bad of a back to do so when you are an adult, and the propensity to be a smartass.

We're now on the tail end of our trip, heading back home. Almost a trip with one less person as Aiden had devised an elaborate plan on how he could live undetected at the water park resort we stayed at. Luckily, we were able to drag him to the car, but I know how he feels. Not about his attachment to the water coaster he tricked me into riding, but about the sadness of leaving people we rarely get to see.

And that's why they have wine. Or,since I'm writing this in Kentucky, bourbon.

Y Must U Write Like This?

“U aint got no f*****g idea what u b talkin bout.  I went 2 grad skool and no one b hiring me.  Its just who u no not what u no.”

If you write like this, let me smack you upsi….I mean share a secret.  No one is hiring you because you can’t write.  Or you think it’s more important to play stupid cool than show that you have knowledge.   No 1 b hiring u cause u sound like n idiot. You get the picture.  Or do you?

Sometimes I feel like I need to go get a lobotomy so I can actually read some of the things I see online.  I really don’t understand why people feel the need to write that way.  You could have the highest IQ in the world, but if you write in that manner, it just makes me wonder which you are, stupid or lazy.  I’m just stuck right there too, anything else you may be saying has lost all credibility, if I can even make it past your first sentence.

The other day I read a post with perfect grammar, but every ending “s” was replaced by a “z” – something like “The schoolz are more concerned with the children’z test scorez than their gradez.”  Seriously?  I’m glad I’m not your kid’z teacher.

Yes, I understand it is easier to text “4ever” than “forever.”  However, if you can’t take the ½ second to type 2 extra characters, is your message all that important to begin with?  Does using a “z” instead of an “s” make you think that you stand above others?

It actually doesn’t bother me if people have random misspellings or don’t have perfect grammar.  It’s the PURPOSEFUL mangling of the language that gets to me, and to those that might be hiring you.

When it comes down to it, in most cases, it IS what you know that will get you that job, and knowing how to write a sentence correctly is just one of those things people look for.  U can continue 2 rite like this and blame others for ur lack of employment, or you can choose to write like this and let people know you have a brain in there somewhere. 

Now back to trying to decipher some of the posts online.  And that’s Y they have wine.

My Friend, Tim.

I once was a very active member on an internet Disney forum, one I got a lot of advice from, and made a lot of friends on, many of those friends being people I have come to know in “real life”.  I was banned from that forum for also posting on another forum (amazing how tyrannical the internet can be), but that is a whole other reason for wine...I have a different story to tell with this blog.

One of the friends I made on that forum is a man named Tim.  Tim is not your usual guy.  He didn’t belong to that forum because his kids love Disney.  He doesn’t have kids.  Or a wife.  Or a significant other.  Or even actually a lot of friends.  He is dependent on his parents.  He loves Disney, anything Disney, with all his heart, and has very definite favorite characters.  He goes to Disney alone, and he goes to the character meals so he can see those characters.  He’s also one of the most knowledgeable people I’ve ever met when it comes to anything Disney.  And one of the sweetest, most genuine, most open people you’d ever see.  I’ve met him at Disney world and hung around the park.  He is a pleasure to be around.

And, sadly, that scares people.  Really scares them.  He’s not their idea of normal. To a lot of people, that somehow translates to that he must be a child molester.  (???) That he is a danger.  That he must be avoided, shunned, and made fun of.  Or, on the other hand, that he’s “making up a persona.”

Some have speculated that maybe he has a disorder, but he denies it, which just fuels the fire.

Personally, I speculate to that he has a disorder too, most likely Asperger’s.  However, he has never been diagnosed with anything (and for people who’ve never had to deal with a “different” child, it doesn’t occur to most of them that could just be because no one went to hell and back to try and get one, getting a diagnosis for a child is not so easy, trust me!), so he is just being honest when he says he does not, and he appears to think in a very concrete manner (which, well, would be a symptom of Asperger’s) and it doesn’t occur to him to speculate that it could be true.

Why am I telling you about this?

I’m telling you this because my own child is similar.  Perhaps not to the same extent, but he also has his obsessions, does not have the same maturity level as others his age, is an open book with his heart on his sleeve, and has a wealth of knowledge about all kinds of trivial things (Just for fun, ask him who the Rays played on any random date!).  He will most likely have a lot more trouble moving out on his own than the average person and need to have some dependency on his parents….he’s just not your average kid, and that is about as well as I can explain it.  And like Tim, he is intelligent and “normal” enough to cast those doubts.

And it scares me to death that people will have such harsh and outrageous judgments about him.  Intelligent people.  Caring people.  But people that just really don’t get it.

And that’s why they have wine.