I am on vacation and I do not drive. My wife is not on vacation and she does. Francie is attending the ACE convention. ACE is an organization of agricultural college communicators of different stripes. Editors, writers, branding experts are all brought together under this big umbrella.
My status of being a non-driver is not incongruent in this situation really. We, the entire family that is, are lodged in a lovely beachside hotel. The boys have been happy as clams to spend their time playing out on the beach with the children of other academics who have tagged along to the convention with their parents. Sand castles have been made. Tribal alliances have formed.
The mix of kids is interesting. Three kids are children of two Danes who moved here to get a degree and then moved back to teach agriculture of some kind. Blond, blue eyed with a southern Illinois accent (think people who add an r to wash) they are very nice kids. Two kids are from Mississippi and have slight accents. However their parents are first generation immigrants from India. Mom sits beachside in traditional garb, a sari I think, and the kids have a slight southern accent. I love it y’all.
Anyway yesterday was not a beach commons day. The air was old, the sky was cloudy and the wind was up. Thus the boys and I decided to take a bus to downtown to see a movie. Well much like the jitneys in the Ocean City of my youth, these buses travel on their own schedule no matter what timetable is posted. Well this resulted in the family chase the bus through a circular cul de sac bus stop next to the hotel. As you might assume it was all my fault.
Time passed and we caught the next bus. My planning allowed us to be at the theatre early by about 20 minutes. Obviously this would allow time to get a good seat, get some treats and watch all the previews. Good plan but it was not to be. The movie was set to start at 1:30. After I bought the tickets I noticed the show time had changed. It was now set to begin at “approximately” 2:30. When I asked why the delay I was told that Michael was previewing a potential entry to the Traverse City Film Festival.
My children are nothing if not verbal. Loren started kvetching about the whole bus thing and now we had to wait and …. You get the idea. The manager of the theatre hearing the boy’s rant handed me back my credit card and comped us the tickets. Not bad but Loren was still not happy.
Being the basic dilettantes that they are we lodged at a local bookstore and drank lattes and read Dilbert books. After a time we went back to the theatre and once there got into the queue. The movie we were going to see was Son of Rambow. Anyone heard of this? It was a hoot. Two misfit kids try and remake one of the Rambo movies with a VHS camcorder. I highly recommend the flying dog scene, really. I laughed my butt off and that is no small feat.
Well I am jumping ahead. When the staff at the theatre finally let us in Michael thanked us all for our patience. Loren was in awe. Shaking hands with Michael Moore my boy (and I) babbled on about Sicko and Fahrenheit 9/11. Mr. Moore in a very kind and generous way urged the lads not to try the stuff they saw in the movie at home. That advice was a very good call. Again refer to the flying dog bit.
Ebb and Flow. Miss the bus, have the movie start time moved, clearly ebb. Complimentary tickets and meeting an actual movie director, one who was actually quite funny in person, flow. I guess this vacation is having its moments.
4 comments:
The heck with Michael Moore. He LIVES up there somewhere (or owns 1/2 of Torch Lake, or something). The QUESTION OF THE DAY IS Did you meet Madonna?? Or at least her father???
Sounds like an interesting trip.......as most trips MUST be with the Todd family.
JDB
I guess it did! So the "Ebb and Flow" Todds had another brilliant adventure up north. You lucky ducks. Are you back, yet?
On the Madonna thing, no I didn't meet her. However a number of locals sat in the rain for several days so that they can observe the queen of metal cones. She will present her new film in the same theatre during the Traverse City Film Festival (in which the film being previewed which delayed our entry into Son of Rambow may be seen, if the director is lucky).
On the are we back yet, yes. Does it suck? Yes.
This was the first trip where I have had nothing to really do but sit on a beach and read in decades. It took me back to my days in Ocean City and reminded me about the positive things about being a complete beach goof. There is some on watching water lapping the shore that takes you into the mystic threads of life, the cosmos and everything.
Oh my reading choice, Tony Campolo’s “Letters to Young Evangelicals.” It is a very interesting read. I liked his idea of red letter Christianity, i.e., follow Christ, love one another, forgive one another, give to the poor, serve the needy, live communally and have faith. Ours is not to judge, that is God’s alone.
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