Many stories ago I wrote one about how I felt about holidays. As a child I always looked forward to them even though most were not happy events. Dad loved them and went out of his way to make them special while Mother hated holidays and only wanted for them to be over.Usually by the end of the day for any holiday my parents were not speaking to each other. But she always said all families behaved that way which didn't make it any more pleasant for the three children.
As an adult and married to Dennis I thought holidays would suddenly become like the ones I always wished I had had as a child. That thought was quickly dashed as Dennis loved the holidays when someone else did all the cooking, cleaning, shopping, decorating and assembly of the presents .
I had always been an avid watcher of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade each year jumping up during the commercials to check on the dinner that no one should could or would eat. When I heard we were actually going to get to go to New York with another couple I was excited beyond belief. This would be THE year that a holiday would actually be fun.
The plan was that we would follow Jim and his wife, Janique, to New York, watch the parade and then eat dinner someplace. Jim and Janique had family in The Bronx and were going there for the rest of the holiday. The day dawned more beautiful than one could hope for with bright sunshine and warmer than usual weather for Thanksgiving in New Jersey. There was even not much traffic as we traveled up the Jersey Turnpike and through the Lincoln Tunnel to the city. The problem was going to be the parking so it was decided before we left that they guys would let us all out so we could watch the parade while they parked the cars.
So far, so good. Janique and I went and found a place on the sidewalk in front of the building Jim said to station ourselves at and the five children with us all got to the front of the crowd while we stood back on the sidewalk behind them. The parade was already in progress but we watched the bands, floats, huge flying balloons and saw all the movie and TV stars. I was so exicited about being there in person that I didn't realize that it had been a really long time since the guys dropped us off.
Finally right before the end of the parade they showed up.
Jim was all cheerful and was glad we were having a good time. Their children were all younger than ours and by that time had seen all the parade they wanted to see. They headed off to see their relatives. I noticed that Dennis did not look too happy and the bag he was carrying with the Airpot of hot chocolate looked a little sad. He was not happy - more like furious and he had dropped the bag with the Airpot in it which had broken and leaked all the hot chocolate out. He made a big scene about parking and wanted to leave right then but I refused as the kids wanted to see Santa arrive at the end of the parade.
Actually it was a good thing he had dropped the bag with the hot chocolate soon after he left the place where the car was parked. It was a good thing because he had no idea of where the car was so all we had to do was to follow the little dribbles of hot chocolate on the sidewalk to find where he had left the car. Arriving at the garage where the car was parked we were confronted by two big and a little scary guys who were furious with Dennis because he did not leave the keys in our vehicle. They had asked him to as they ran a limo service from the garage and could not move cars around because they did not have keys to ours. I hurried our departure when Dennis began what sounded like he thought they tried to steal his car and he was correct, as usual, by not leaving his keys. It was a straight drive home - no stopping for a Thanksgiving dinner anywhere.
As silly as this may sound I rank that Thanksgiving as one of my favorite ones. First of all I love New York City and actually think I could live there. I got to go see the parade I had watched on television all my life and it was everything and more I thought it would be. When you stop and think about the ordeal with someone being so stupid as to not pay attention to where he parked the car and depending on someone else, Jim, to lead him back you have to do a big eye roll. Always remember if you are worried about getting lost in the big city just dribble hot chocolate on the sidewalk. The big scary guys gave us the car back and we did not end up in the Hudson River tied to cement blocks. And, best of all.....I didn't have to cook and clean up that horrid dinner.
Dr. Grey, my calculus professor, had a novel idea after our final exam for the semester. If you were on the line between an A or B or any other combination of grades you could request an additional oral test to see if you could raise your score. I happen to have been between and A and a B so I jumped right on that one. It sounded so easy the day he had us sign up but when the day finally came I was so nervous that I really did not even know my name. As tiny in statue that Dr. Grey was he was a very imposing person and I had never had a one on one conversation with him.
I arrived at the appointed time for the oral exam which could be anything he had covered for the semester. There was no way to study for this one as it was all that information you were supposed to have learned. Before he asked me the question I could hardly breathe I was so nervous. No, not nervous just flat out scared. When he finally asked me something about being on an icy pond with the ice beginning to crack how would I get off I completely froze and my mind was a total blank. What kind of an idiot question was that! What did an icy pond have to do with calculus? If he had asked me if I shot an arrow into the air, where would it land or the speed of lightning I could have answered.
Standing there in front of someone I thought to be the smartest man in the world I wondered how he could come up with such a stupid question. Just before the tears started to fall I remember opening my mouth and mumbling something about how to get off the ice. I don't remember what I said or even where the answer came from but when I was done there was a big smile on his face and he said "Correct". Too use the old phrase, "you could have knocked me over with a feather" is one way to describe it. Then he told me that out of thirty-four students in the class I was the only one who had signed up for an oral exam and he asked me the ice question just for fun to see if I really studied and learned as much as he thought I did. Got the A!
Well, One holiday down the tube and vacation from Calculus for a month. Next is the holiday that somehow can be the most fun and a nightmare at the same time. This one turned out to be a real doozie. out to be a real doozie.
No comments:
Post a Comment