Our trip to UWM - pt 1

I would say the most painful casualty of the layoff is not the everyday scramble to pay the bills, or the slooow and often complicated process of securing a good paying job (Sealed university transcripts please, couriered, not sent via post, and include a standard release form and two reference letters. And remember, we are closed on Monday's! Thank you!). No, Lisa might disagree but I say the situation I regret the most is the curbing of our traditional family activities, the things we feel to be important and hold dear.

For instance, I don't know how (or if) we'll be able to afford to keep the kids in dance class in the fall. A small matter, in the big picture, but again, something we hold dear. We've even sucked it up and asked the family for assistance on this (and note, it is the ONLY time such a call has gone out, whatever Lisa's AWOL brothers might mutter to themselves). It was met mainly with a deafening silence.

(But when they need assistance, my how our answering machine lights up!)

I digress.

One of the casualties of our - MY - failure to replace my former income was UWM's College for Kids program. YaYa had attended for three years, and LuLu for one, and I'm proud to say I participated in the same program in my youth.

Whatever they learn in the classroom is a bonus, but even if they come out without a single fact learned, I think it's incredibly valuable. It acclimates them to a university campus, to professors, and to a (faint shadow) of the expectations placed upon t students. It demystifies an often intimidating experience down the road. I'm the perfect example. I ALWAYS felt at home on campus, because I'd walked those same halls years before.

So I decided, as Grandpa's Day neared, to take the girls and spend the day on campus. I wanted to walk around and reacquaint them with the school, to have dinner on the grounds, and to finish the night with a visit to the planetarium.

Friday afternoon, we hit the road.

As we drove over the Hoan Bridge, with Lake Michigan to our right, we had a splendid view of the crystal blue water. What happened next is irritating to many people, but music to my ears. For me, one of the best parts of being a parent is wading through a barrage of questions, watching their reactions to sights and events, and answering, knowing that some small part of what you're saying is absorbed and becomes a part of who they become.

Look at all those sailboats Daddy!/Have you ever been on a sailboat? Was it fun?/ What's on the other side of the lake?/How long would it take to sail there?/ Could you, like, take a paddle boat across?/Have we ever been to Michigan?/What states have we been to?/ Have I been to more states then Lulu?/ How come YaYa's been to Minnesota and I haven't?/Why isn't there a lake on the other side of the bridge?/Are there sharks in the water?/ Why is the ocean salty?/ Why are all the people down there (Irish Fest)?/ Are Leprechauns real? (Cousin) Stacey says she's a leprechaun [No, she isn't. She's just short honey.]/ Are we Irish?/ What are we?/ I've been to Irish Fest haven't I?/Why are they stopping? You can't stop on the freeway, right Daddy?/How come sometimes the lines on the road are solid and sometimes they're dashes?

Our first stop on campus was Downer Woods, an 11 acre forested land on the north side of campus. It is/was home to a pile of logs and branches the kids believed was Eeyore's house, and it has become our custom to pay him a visit. I've written about this on several occasions in the past few years.

Anyhow, last year a storm, or rot, or just jag-off human knocked Eeyore's house down. At the center of this myth had been the sighting of a blue light inside the structure, 'proof' that it was inhabited. (I think it was a castoff of blue garland or glass, if memory serves.) Even with the house down, they were intent on looking for evidence Eeyore had visited.

(oh, YaYa claimed to be above it all, but was awfully eager for a skeptic).





We found the house still is disarray . .





But YaYa returned to "Pooh's house" and the sight of it, and something or another inside 'proving' it to be in use, saved the day.



At that point we usually reverse course and head back the way we came. But this year, with no infant or fuddy-duddy Mom around, we completed the circuit of the Woods acreage, something I'd never done before.



Every so often the kids would stop to look at something. YaYa at a spider she frightened her sister with; Lulu with some mushrooms growing on the side of a tree, complete with a big spider of its own.



Right outside the woods they both noticed the imprint of leaves in the concrete. "Fossils!" said YaYa, and they both made me stop and take a picture.



I note, with some alarm, that this post is already mammoth. I'll cut this off and call it "part one", and see you on the flip side.