Americana Hotel and Swimming in the Snow

When I was a kid, we went on a lot of family vacations. Most of the time, we traveled by car to a National Park (with a stop somewhere to ride a steam train) and car-camped. We would hike and go for drives and spot wildlife and recite the spiel from the rangers' station ad nauseam: "Hello, five dollars please. Keep the receipt, show when you leave, good for 7 days." (I still remember it, that's how much we said it...sorry mom and dad).

Anyway, a few times, we traveled by plane to somewhere fun and educational. But, we were still money conscious...finding good deals and eating cold cereal in the hotel room because continental breakfasts hadn't been invented yet (or so my mom says). The two of those trips I remember most were Florida and Washington D.C. In Washington D.C., my mom was so proud of the great deal she got on our hotel, "And it even has free breakfast!" We got the rental car and drove past tall, shiny hotels until we arrived in front of the Americana Hotel.



It had bright pink and green doors on each room, a perfectly gaudy lobby complete with 60's decor and hideous puke-colored carpets throughout. I remember getting stuck on the questionable elevator and also being locked "in" our room because the door got stuck and I think one of us climbed through the bathroom window to open the door from outside. The free breakfast was literally stale donuts and room-temperature Tang. We still haven't let my mom live it down and it's been more than 20 years since the trip! I'm sure we did a lot of fun and educational stuff in Washington D.C., but the thing we remember most was the Americana Hotel.

Well, last night, I took a gamble at the Blockbuster Express while I was at the grocery store and brought home a movie I had never heard of called "State of Play" (I still don't understand what the title had to do with the movie).

It starred Ben Affleck and Russel Crowe...so in my mind, it could be great or horrible. Despite our skepticism, it turned out to be pretty good, but the best part was when Russel Crowe's character blackmailed a rich, flashy bachelor guy to come with him to a private location for some questioning. The dialogue literally went like this:

"You're sure this place is nice? I'll be comfortable?"
"Yes, it's a nice place."

Then they pull up to none other than THE Americana Hotel! The disgust on the rich guy's face is apparent as they walk into the room with puke-colored carpet and gaudy flowered wallpaper.

"What is this hole? Where did you bring me?"

Then he tries to sit on the bed as he is answering intense life-or-death questions from the reporters, he fusses with the bedspread and then stands back up, muttering, "This bed is disgusting!"

Later, Russel Crowe's character calls Ben Affleck's character to ask him to come to the hotel, saying, "Remember that place we went for so-and-so's bachelor party?" and Ben Affleck's face is like, "Oh great, that dive?" as he agrees to come. The scenes in the lobby as they talked made the taste of stale, plain donuts (no icing or sprinkles or anything) come to my mouth and distracted me for a moment.

I picked up my phone to call my sister and realized it was 10 pm and she is out of the country anyway...but my mom is in town and I was able to share the experience with her this morning. Awesome.

In other news, we went swimming today in the middle of a snowstorm...here are the pictures.





As you can see, the attempts at a cheerful group photo went really well. Stinkers.

Kids Dancin'

Here's a little game the boys were playing in the hallway. Evan is "sleeping" and Sam is inside the laundry basket reading.


Also for your enjoyment is a video of the kids dancing. I've always loved watching kids dance, especially when they are just having fun, not self-conscious and a little un-coordinated! The original video wasn't so dark, but this is how turned out when I uploaded it, so oh well. This video makes me laugh, but maybe it's because I know these kids so well! If you stick with it, Evan's moves get really funny around 1 min. 38 sec.

What Once Was and What Could Be

So...I poured my heart out in my last blog post and promised to write more, then it seems that all my creativity and deep thoughts dried up. Also, I left the camera at the bottom of a seldom-used bag and hardly took any pictures of the kids during the last month...which usually provides the inspiration to write. So, that's why I've been silent. Oh, and I am heavily involved in the planning, cooking, and decorating for a big Valentine's fundraiser dinner for our youth group, so yeah, I've been busy.

I often entertain thoughts of how I could make some money doing something clever or creative--you know, every stay-at-home-mom's dream job of working from home doing something really cool. But, it seems that the equation of the amount of time it would take vs. the amount of time it actually takes to keep the house semi-clean, the children alive and mostly healthy, and the husband reasonable happy doesn't work out in favor of me pursuing any money-making ventures.

Of course, it would be fun to be one of those mommy-bloggers who ends up writing a book based on their blog. I did win a couple of prestigious writing awards when I was younger...a $50 savings bond from the Daughters of the American Revolution and a free trip to Camelot Golfland and a bumper sticker for a D.A.R.E. essay contest. But I definitely don't blog aggressively enough to make that happen any time soon.


I recently dabbled in saxophone lessons...I had 1.2 students for a while (1 solid student and 1 who came to maybe 2 lessons and then quit). I used to be pretty good at teaching...and it's recently been brought to my attention that 2 of my former students now perform with people like Dave Matthews Band, Katherine McPhee, and Glee. I'm just sayin'. One of the students wasn't with me for too long until she moved on to a professional, but the other came to me as a little kid who didn't know how to put a reed on and would blow his heart out and wiggle his fingers frantically trying to sound really cool. So I'll take at least partial credit for his success.

I was also paid for some performances with my little saxophone quintet. Why is one of the guys wearing a 4th of July hat at a Christmas performance? I have no idea.

If I really look to the past for inspiration, I think I won a few cash prizes at costume contests in my day and also won some awards for crafty things I did at the fair (but don't bring that up around my sister...long story). I would love to sew cool stuff and sell it, but again, when would I do that?

I have had a few opportunities to "cater" events (using the word "cater" is kind of an exaggeration...more like I was compensated for the things I bought and served to people). I really like doing that and even daydream about it with one of my close friends. In fact, today is the Valentine's Dinner that I mentioned above, and it feels like I am a caterer with all the trips to Sam's Club, the restaurant supply guy, and the fact that crock pots have been going non-stop for 2 weeks at my house. Even this passion/obsession with making the event bigger than it needs to be goes back to my youth: I used to help put on a Valentine's Banquet each year for our youth group. It was big (well, at least in my memory). We got donations, had waiters and waitresses (okay, so it was the senior citizen Sunday School class from the church, but still), had strolling musicians, door prizes and lots of surprise guests. Here's some pictures to help you understand what happens when I am involved in planning an event.

It's hard to make a large room with tacky yellow chairs pretty, but I think we did pretty good!

The California Raisins showed up and surprised us one year.

Two guys took my instructions of "Ties optional, deodorant mandatory" very literally. (It's hard to tell in the picture, but they came in wearing just ties, no shirts, and carrying deodorant. Good times.)

There was a magnificent performance of "The Homecoming Queen's Got a Gun"--totally funny in my day but COMPLETELY inappropriate now...my how times have changed.

For our Valentine's Dinner tonight, my expectations are a little more practical (now that I am an adult)
1) that people don't get sick from the food
2) that none of my hair winds up in the food on someone's plate
3) that we at least make up the money that I spent buying supplies

If we have fun, people like the food, and we raise money for our Mexico trip, I will be relieved and happy.

So is event planning in my future? Considering the fact that there are dried beans everywhere in the house (because my kids kept getting into them while I was working), the waist-high laundry pile is engulfing a quarter of my kitchen, and my family has eaten frozen pizza 5 times this week, the answer is probably no. But it would be fun.

I did used to babysit, too. So un-glamorous...but it appears that that is the best option at this point for some income. But I had business cards made for my saxophone lesson teaching and I had some really cute ideas for centerpieces for someone's spring wedding...