Friday night, Forest and I closed the Store, and looted it for road munchies. I took all of the backseats out of the minivan for the trip, and we overstocked ourselves so that we really saved quite a bit of money. I was proud of my packing job. We had every single thing we needed, plus I had been psychic enough to know what types of snacks Forest would want on the road without asking. He's a dried fruit junkie, and loves those little Farley's fruit snacks things.
We pulled out of Lansing at about 8 PM, and started toward Ft. Mitchell, Kentucky. We'd decided to get a hotel room that first night, since we weren't sure how late we'd be there, or where we could camp along the way. We got there at about 1:15 in the morning. Forest slept for an hour or so of the drive, and I dozed for the last 30 minutes. We were both a bit on the tired and cranky side, but were listening to a book on tape (the Hunt for the Red October) and didn't really bother each other.
At first I was worried that we were going to be cranky all weekend, since there wasn't going to be a lot of time for resting. It was in the back of my mind, but I dismissed it as our being tired out. On an odd coincidence there was a huge Tae Kwon Do tournament going on the next morning, and Forest and I both enjoyed considering weighing in and competing. We had all of his Tae Kwon Do equipment in the car, and there was a good chance we could have just shared that, since we're about the same size. We went to sleep daydreaming about that, and were awakened early Saturday morning by the people outside preparing to drive to weigh-in.
It turns out that the tournament was ATA, and Forest and I are used to WTF rules. Their belt ranking system doesn't work the same way as ours, and they use different forms, too. We decided quickly not to compete, and went to the pool for a while, both still a bit grumpy, anyway.
Swimming helped. We enjoyed the water, and the pool actually had a real deep end, that we could use for diving and jumping! That's a rarity, and we enjoyed it for as long as we could before check-out. We had driven in the dark to get there, and hadn't been able to see a lot... however in the morning I discovered that the spring flowers were all in bloom in Kentucky, adn started to get pretty excited. It was 70 degrees and sunny, and I was eager to spend a day outside. Forest really wanted to get ahold of Aaron first, though, to settle the plans, so I was patient, and tried to keep the exuberance in check so I wouldn't be too annoying.
We had a rather icky breakfast (the buffet was cold by the time we got there), and Forest went to try to call his cousin. This only made the crankiness worse, as Aaron's phone number we'd been given was disconnected. I think Forest was afraid we wouldn't be able to get in touch with him at all. He was sincerely not a happy camper. We got in the van, and I suggested that we use my cel phone to page Pat, and get the new phone number from him. My cel even has voice mail, so we had a way to store the number without even needing to write it down. Go modern technology! I thought this would cheer him up right away, but after he made the page, his cousin didn't call right back.
Then it was back to the old story of when he's not in the greatest mood.
"What do you want to do today?"
"I don't care. Whatever."
This was upsetting to me on some deeply subconscious level. I hear "whatever" and I interpret it as "I don't really have any interest in being with anyone or doing anything; leave me alone."
I know that's not what he was saying. It's my inferrence. It insults me. But I was in too good a mood to care, so I decided to drive us to the Cincinnati Zoo. It's one of the top-rated zoos in the world, and they have many very rare animals there. I'd heard about it in my zoology classes, since they do a lot of breeding there, and have actually saved some endangered species with their projects. I tried to get him excited about it, but Forest was asleep before we'd driven 5 minutes.
A half hour later, I had driven to the zoo, paid for our tickets, parked our car in the assigned zoo lot, and tried to wake him up. I still have no idea how to do this when he's really asleep. It took nearly a half hour, and I was so frustrated after the first 10 minutes that I was almost in tears. He woke up angrily, because while shaking him by the shoulders and yelling on top of my lungs, I'd accidentally knocked his head into the seat belt mount, and he bonked it.
That was the bottom point of the weekend. The rest of it, however, was wonderful! Soon after entering the zoo and getting some fresh air, we both began to cheer. The sun was beaming down, and we were able to walk around in just a tee shirt (him) and a tank top (me). We each even got a bit of a sun tan, which for us is saying a lot! Usually, we'd burn first.
The zoo was wonderful, and drew us out of our shells nicely. The first display we saw was the kimodo dragon. He eyed us as though he was contemplating eating us for lunch, and according to the displays on the walls, I'm sure he could have! I've never seen one up close before, and it was amazing how much his snout looked like something out of a fairy tale. He was a sort of combination between a dinosaur and the type of dragon that you picture attacking a castle in ancient Europe. Pretty cool.
I took lots of great pictures, and the zoo had many amazing animals. My favorite one, oddly enough, was in the nocturnal house. I almost missed the display, because it wasn't framed as they usually are in the zoo. It was just a door, with plate glass in the frame, knob still intact. In the darkened interior was a little creature called the Slender Loris. When I first saw it, the loris was standing upright on one branch, and reaching for another, and looked for all the world like a Brownie out of mythology; a little tiny person, with simian-looking hands and feet. Here's a cute picture of a Loris:
What was neat about this little creature is that it could see through the glass, and was very interested in its visitors. When Forest and I came close, the loris immediately came forward to investigate. First it would reach forward with its tiny hands and rest them against the glass, then it would move around a little bit to get a look at us from different angles. He seemed fascinated with my eyes, and stared directly into them for some time, and was startled when I blinked. When we moved, he followed us. It was pretty fun to play with him, and completely filled me with wonder. He was certainly an adorable little creature!
Soon we were enjoying walking about the zoo in the sunshine. Pat called as we were looking at the bald eagles, and we finally had Aaron's phone number, which helped improve the mood as well. Soon we were holding hands, wandering, and joking around and playing together, and having a very nice time. We managed to accidentally catch the cat house at feeding time, so they were all active. By that time the tension of crankiness had melted away, and wonder had returned to us, and we were amazed by the many beautiful creatures we saw. They had such a wide collection of wild cats that we hadn't seen or heard of many of them before.
I highly recommend the zoo, by the way, if anyone goes in that direction. It was beautiful.
After the zoo we had some time to burn, and drove into downtown Cincinnati. We walked around for a while, just soaking things up, and vaguely looking for something to do. Having been outdoors and on our feet all day, though, started to tire us out, so we decided to head back to the van, cuddle up and read our books for a while. Actually, we ended up clearing space in the back on the floor, laying down a sleeping bag and pillows, and falling completely asleep. It was a wonderfully cozy little nest, and we were in a blissfully affectionate (although sleepy) spirit, perfect for snuggling. Thus we zonked in downtown Cincinnati for two hours!
After that we went on the prowl for dinner, and discovered that everyplace was absolutely packed. We ended up in a little place called "Madonna's" (no relation to the pop icon) which looked pretty seedy at first, and a little intimidating, since we were the only people there. Soon, however, we came to realize that this was our type of place. Everything was the right price, and the burgers were really good. The waitress and bartender were really nice to us, and we ended up sitting at the bar so we could watch the MSU basketball game while we ate. A nice old man chatted amiably with us about his betting pool, and we chuckled with him a bit about our chances of winning.
After dinner we wandered back to the Arnoff Center, a beautiful fine arts hall where we had tickets to see Stomp!. It turned out to be lovely inside as well, and we had good seats, I think about 20 rows back. The performance was great, and even though both Forest and I have a tendency to squirm, neither of us moved an inch the whole time, except to stamp our feet and clap our hands. It was really an engaging show. Forest enjoyed it just as much as I thought he would and we left in great spirits to drive south.
At about 1 in the morning we arrived in the boonies near London, Kentucky, where we pitched our tent at Levi Jackson Wilderness State Park. It was a beautiful night for it, and though it got a bit cold, it wasn't really noticeable inside our sleeping bags. In the morning I was awakened by a cacophany of bird whistles and chirps, and Forest came around soon after that. It had been a solid night of good rest, but we were both groggy, as usual in the morning. We decided a nice hot shower was in order, and headed in that direction. While I took my shower, Forest sat at a nice picnic table and had a breakfast of cereal, bananas, and milk. While he took his shower, I decided to follow his example, and remembered what a wonderful thing a breakfast outdoors is!
We often did it when I was a kid camping; but it had been a long time, and I'd forgotten how pleasant it could be. The sun was beaming down on my back, and there was a cool breeze in my face. I listened to birds, and watched a caterpillar crawl from one end of the picnic table to the other. It was quiet and relaxing, and when Forest came out of the shower we were both feeling refreshed and ready for a new day.
Before leaving we went for a short hike, and saw many tender blossoms and vines taking hold in the spring sunshine.
In that beautiful day we drove to Knoxville, Tennessee, where Forest's cousin Aaron lives. On the way we went through some of the Smoky mountains, and they were absolutely breathtaking. We ooo'ed and aaaaaahh'ed as though we were watching fireworks... and actually I was reminded of fireworks several times. The colors were amazing. The azaleas were out, and magnolias, and a hundred other flowering trees and bushes that I couldn't even name. There were spots in the road where we could see for miles, and there wasn't much civilization to get in the way of our enjoyment.
My only regret for the weekend is that we didn't get the chance to go hiking in the Smokies.
Another time.
We spent Sunday with Aaron, who turned out to be a very nice fellow. I like him a lot. We sat around and just talked for a long while, happily leaving the sliding glass door open to the beautiful weather, and then went for some dinner together. We really had a nice time, and I crashed at 2 AM, which gave Forest a couple of hours to catch up with Aaron one on one, which was nice, too.
The hard part came at 7 in the morning then the alarm went off, and we had to drive back to Lansing. It was 9 straight hours, with stops only for gas. Forest slept for a couple of hours of it, and we took turns driving, so it wasn't too bad. It was nice to have the book on tape to listen to, and we were both engaged by it. After the trip, we were both stiff and sore, and after rehearsal and class, fell into bed quite early.
All in all, though, we both had a nice time, and are looking forward to going back very much. I'm glad to say that Forest commented that it wasn't such a big deal to drive down there, and he seems relieved that it can be so easy. He had missed Aaron a lot, so that's a good thing.
Today is a drag, because while I was out of town my babysitter cancelled, and there wasn't enough time for me to do anything about it. That means that I picked Kirstin up from school at noon today, and she is sitting, bored, in my very quiet office while I unfortunately have a lot LOT of work to do. I feel bad that she has to spend her half day off this way. It's got to suck for her. Happily, she's not complaining. I really appreciate that. After work we'll go down to the Store and get dinner, and then I have Tae Kwon Do. Hopefully between now and then I'll find someone who can watch her during class... at least during the really busy part from 8 until 9:45 or so. She doesn't mind going, but gets irritated when she doesn't get to participate. It wouldn't suck so much if she wasn't going to have to spend all afternoon cooped up in my office. Blech.
I wish I knew how to deal better with Kirstin's new tendency to think very loudly for herself. She has been getting argumentative with me of late. I don't mind that she thinks about things instead of taking my word for it. I understand that 8-year-olds generally do that a lot. However, I wish she would remember to ask her questions politely, and not in a sassy tone of voice. It just sends jolts up my spine and I definitely feel the spirit of the wicked witch of the west welling up behind my eyes when she gets mouthy with me.
An example. This morning, in our kitchen, 5 minutes before leaving for school.
"Oh, I need money for the book fair today."
"No, you don't need the money, you want the money. I don't have money for you today, sorry."
"So I don't get to go to the book fair?" (Whiny tone of voice)
"You can go to the book fair, you just can't buy anything there, because I don't have money. You would have needed to tell me about it in advance so I could get it from the bank." (Me, sounding a little irritated.)
"But I want to get books, and it isn't very much." (Rolling her eyes at me, spoken with a "duh" look and a pout.)
"It doesn't matter whether you want to get them or not, if I don't have the money, I can't give it to you! You needed to tell me about this before, so I could be ready and have the money for you. " (Getting really annoyed and starting to raise my voice.)
Forest came out at that point, money in hand, and a relaxed tone of voice.
"You know, dude, you can ask me, too, if you want."
Kirstin looks at him oddly.
I explain that Kirstin has a book fair today.
Forest asks how much Kirstin needs.
Kirstin points to a list of three books she wanted, one for $3.99, one for $6.99, and another for $4.99. "About a hundred dollars," she says. She isn't kidding. She has no concept of money.
Forest smiles, and hands her $11.00. "Here's eleven dollars. Why don't you take that and see how efficiently you can spend it; how many books you can get."
Kirstin thanks him, and we head for the door.
I give Forest a kiss, and thank him too.
"There are two of us, you know," he says.
Isn't that lovely? It's a negative morning turned into a positive, thanks to him and his manner of things. He's quite a peacemaker. I love Forest so much!
