Two ways to see the same place - departure

guest post by Sarah

Virginia days seem to last on forever.  Hot humidity fries your brains to a fool-hardy stupor, fool-hardy enough to go on a road trip at five in the morning.  Virginia days are so long that the minutes are so long and subsequently the hours are so long, given the minutes length, that in the end 5 am closely resembles 2 pm.

I woke up to the alarm at 4:51 am.  The alarm was at 4:50 am, but I had been reading Anna K until midnight, and am prone to spending too much time asleep with the alarm sounding.  David had, as he proudly told me, been up since four, and he reported in a kind of sleepy chatter, “Mom and Dad said we are leaving later.”  David and I loaded the car, resulting in a missing purple thermometer, and partially blocked rear-view mirror. (The mirror part was easily fixed; the thermometer was Anna’s fault.)  “New plan,” Dad said, “We are going to leave at 9… at 10… at 11… If we go soon we’ll still get to the square dance.  Just help Mommy.  Stop wining.”  “Can I go to my library thing?”  “Yes, we’ll come and get you and then go.”

            I got home from the library program at 1:00 and met exactly what I predicted to Daddy on the car ride: a flustered Mom and kids loafing on the sofa. 

Finally we entered the Richman Express, but that does not mean we were prepared to go.  No, there remained the important issue of what movie we were going to watch.  Anna loudly declared that Liberty Kids was the only movie worth watching.  Miriam voiced no opinions, but we all knew she just wanted Thomas.  She loves trains.   We only actually brought one Tomas video though, because the rest were lost, (and later found in the musical instruments bucket, curtsey of la goose.)  Leah voted Tangled after Little Bear was smudged, and David and I remained neutral as long as it wasn’t Liberty Kids.  Tangled was selected with 20% of the votes, and no strong objections. 

Anna, much to the misfortune of everyone involved, got the end seat on the first brown bench, the seat that formally had the broken buckle, the seat with half door responsibility shared with me in the end seat, back bench.  Leah sits by the window in the back, Miri in the seat right in front of that, and David in the middle, back row.  This leaves the middle, front bench, empty.  But the front end is mostly the go between.  The go between is the portal linking the front seat city to the back roads town.  Our highway hoards popcorn, and can’t take care of the baby.  Anna is NOT a good go between.

Tangled was not finished.  In her middle seat inspired distress, Miriam got bored, and we put on Thomas, Salty’s Stories.  If I never hear that story again I will, following the suit of Cranky in the episode, be very happy.  We did watch Liberty Kids in the end, and someone picked the theme song for a sing along.

States for day one:

#1. The state of my skirt covered in dog drool

#2.  The state of my voice after singing The Wheels on the Bus way too long (the Sarah on the bus goes read, read, read.)

#3.  The state of Mother’s frustration as we sit around and she cleans, not a nice state to be in.

#4.  The state of everyone, fatigue.

States for day two:

#1. The state of Dad’s missing deodorant, it is no longer just a territory.

#2 . The state of Mommy’s life as a 14 year old, (old selfies and cards anyone?)

#3.  The state of a clean van, it was mussed up on the drive.  (lol, Dad [inside joke])

#4.  The state of the adorable kittens’ fate, the stars are not with them.