Ships and the Sea

We spent the day on the S.S. Jeremiah O'Brien today. We left before sunrise to make it to Pier 45 on time. There was a horribly nerve-wracking hour or so, while I tried to figure out if I was supposed to bring tickets and/or whether they would let us onboard without them, and while D's sister broke the speed of sound getting from her home to the ship before it left.

But we made it, we were all onboard when the tugboats started doing their work, and it was a long but enjoyable day. They served good food, there was a big band playing all day, and we saw the Snowbirds do their stuff. I'm still rocking from being on sea from 8 to 4:30, but it could also be that I'm swaying with exhaustion.

We had dinner out (my request) and after the kids got to bed, I went through a drawer of my grandmother's papers to pull out letters from the kids. I've been doing that for hours now.

A funny thing happened, too. Before I got to the drawer of things, I was cleaning up one of the ubiquitous piles of paper on the office floor, and I found an offer to join or contribute to the Nature Conservancy. Well, I do sometimes send checks to various causes and non-profit organizations. But every once in a while, you just have to release yourself of the false sense of obligation brought on by unsolicited mailing. And I said to D., "I'm not going to give to these guys right now," and I threw away the paper. (Ah! Liberation!)

Forty-five minutes later, going through my grandmother's things, I found an envelope from the Nature Conservancy asking her to renew her membership. She'd hung on to the request (for who knows how long), and when she died, it went with all her other paperwork to me.

Yeah, okay. But she died over 8 years ago.

So I threw it out on her behalf.

I think we all feel better. Except maybe the Nature Conservancy. But they'll get over it. Heck, they not only have the domain www.nature.org, but they got a plug in my blog. Twice, if you think about it.

To bed. Tomorrow will be another big day, followed by only big days until we leave for Japan. It's the last big push to get myself and my family ready for our 10 day adventure apart, the last few days during which I can organize my things, clean the house, pack, and find a cure for cancer.

Makes me tired just thinking about it. I've done my duty for the day. I've written. To bed.