It was a long weekend. We visited Sesame Place, taking advantage of complimentary admission for active duty military. Citrus was too scared to visit with Grover and Oscar up close, so we obliged instead.
In addition to a lot of water rides, Sesame Place has several musical shows including a “Rock Around the Block” parade of all the characters. There was one I had never seen before, a DJ named Jackman Wolf. I suspect he moonlights at a leather bar.
After two days at the park, we headed to Queens for a birthday party. Elysia’s grandmother turned 90, so we celebrated at a restaurant in Flushing, complete with a magician to entertain the kids. He turned out to be pretty good and even the birthday girl was pulled into the act.
After her friend, Alexandra, grunted at her, Citrus reports
And I said to her, ‘Whatever’.
I spent a good portion of the day at Walter Reed today trying to figure out why Citrus was crying when peeing. No fever, no ongoing visible signs of anything wrong. Cheerful all around. Yesterday I rewarded her with a donut for trying to pee in a cup. She angled for donut another today, but left empty-handed.
Sometimes at the doctor’s office you feel embarassed for being healthy. Other days you feel embarassed because you deserve it.
A few years ago I worked briefly at a public housing authority. One day we got word that a colleague had been rushed in an ambulance to the hospital.
That morning he had looked in the mirror and saw that he was ashen, almost blue. Seeing himself in this condition, he noticed also that his heart was racing. He was breathing rapidly and it was hard to get enough air. Fearing a heart attack, he called 911. A co-worker met him at the hospital.
As they wheeled him in to the hospital on a gurney, a nurse set up an IV. She wiped his arm with some antiseptic.
The blue came off.
He had gone to sleep the night before on some new blue sheets that he had not washed. By morning, after tossing and turning throughout the night, he was a shade darker. Our witness, the co-worker who rushed to the hospital, managed to tell the story without laughing until the end.
From left to right: Sue Hoppin; Sally Pressman (”Roxy” on Army Wives); Mitja Ng-Baumhackl; Tanya Biank (author of Army Wives); Brigid Brannagh (”Pamela” on Army Wives); Nicole Alcorn. As I was going to St. Ives, I met a man with five wives….
This photo and others are posted on the MOAA Spouse Blog.
For the Fourth of July we drove to Annapolis for a special treat, a sunset cruise to watch the fireworks from aboard a 74-foot wooden schooner.
In previous years we watched the fireworks from a field at the U.S. Naval Academy but most of the events have been moved to the city dock. They claimed it was for security reasons but I suspect it really was about bringing more money to the waterfront businesses.
There was a torrential downpour and by the end we were about ready to toss overboard the two guys singing sea shanties nearly the entire time. For some reason I assumed “live entertainment” would mean something like classical guitar, but that’s just because I grew up around some snobby cafes. This, however, was like being stuck with someone who got lost on their way to Ren Faire. We kept to the other end of the boat and had a good time.
In August, I am taking sailing classes. I figure that as long as Elysia is in the Navy, we are likely to be near water. Maybe next year this could be us! All we need is a mascot.
Here is our car plastered with magnets in support of military families. They seem to be breeding on the back of our car.
Years ago I couldn’t stand the yellow ribbon magnets mainly because they seemed to be prized the most by armchair warriors. Most of them have disappeared, so I think it is true that for civilians they were proxies of support for the war and had little to do with supporting the troops. Otherwise, wouldn’t there be even more of them now? I imagine that some people on the road have us pegged as warmongers.
In any case, they show up in tote bags at various events and have already improved the world for one person. Our daughter likes to rearrange them, so that is good enough for me.
General Casey does not watch Army Wives. Or at least would not admit it to a reporter who was standing next to him.
Tonight we attended an exclusive screening of Army Wives at Walter Reed. It was held to kick off the Fourth of July weekend and to honor America’s servicemen and women and their families. Two of the show’s stars attended — Sally Pressman, who plays Roxy, and Brigid Brannagh, who plays Pamela.
I was invited a few days ago to escort the stars to the red carpet and to be available to any reporters who wanted to interview real military spouses. It sounded like a fun night so I jumped at the chance.
When I called Elysia and asked her if she wanted to hear something funny, she just said “uh oh.” I guess I’ve earned it, but she did agree to attend and we gambled and took Citrus with us.
They showed next week’s episode in the old Red Cross Building at Walter Reed, and invited wounded warriors, their families, and other servicemembers. The place was packed.
Lee Woodruff, wife of news anchor Bob Woodruff, gave an amazing speech about what she went through when her husband was almost killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq and her understanding of what military families experience. If I can get a transcript, I’ll post it.
Brigid Brannagh then addressed the audience and barely said a sentence before being overwhelmed with emotion. She spent the day at Walter Reed meeting with soldiers and their families, and then being in front of a packed audience was too much. She regained her composure and made it through, as did Sally Pressman. Both of them couldn’t say enough how much they appreciated being able to represent everyone’s stories on the show.
Only in the past few days have I realized how many people watch the program, both military and those with no connections to the military. It is the highest rated series in Lifetime’s 23-year history, and it is because the scenes are very authentic.
It was quite something to watch the episode with several hundred families and wounded warriors. There are sappy moments and silly moments — which make it fun – but at its heart it manages to capture quite a lot of how families cope with war.
If there ever was a tough audience with a critical eye for the facts of military community, this was it. By the end most of the audience was wiping tears away. Wives, husbands, wounded soldiers, survivors. Everyone except for our 2 year old daughter, who has been particularly enamored of one character (Trevor LeBlanc, Roxy’s husband) and talked about him through most of the screening.
We mingled afterwards and Citrus chatted a bit with Sheila Casey while her husband – General George Casey, the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army and former command of the forces in Iraq — was elsewhere in the crowd.
The episode will show next Sunday at 10pm. I did not take many pictures, but will undoubtedly receive a few from Lifetime in the next few days and will post them then.