Things to do...CHEAP!

With the beginning of a weekend the thought hits most people-what should I do this weekend?  For a parent that thought thunders in, and at times can send you reeling into a minor panic attack!  So I thought I would post a couple of tips for fun cheap things we do!

1.     

      Warwick Museum of Art 3259 Post Road, Warwick RI.  I have been taking Brady to the art openings at WMOA since he was only two years old!  Does a two year old know what they’re looking at in terms of art?  Yeah probably not.  But, he would pick out pieces he liked, enjoyed the complimentary spread and of course liked getting dressed up to go out where other adults would tell him how cute he is!  Not to mention they offer art classes for kids that are…drum roll please AFFORDABLE, and they have been known to offer drama and improv classes for kids that are…drum roll again please AFFORDABLE!  Throw in the annual Holiday sale where everything is under $32.59 (cute take on their address right?) and the weekly family friendly performances from Bring Your Own Improv, this place is a GEM in our state!

2.      Old Colony & Newport Railway 19 America’s Cup Way, Newport RI.  What better way to spend the day than riding the rails of Newport!  A 80 minute ten mile tour brings you through Newport, and believe me you learn a lot!  This is Brady’s favorite way to spend a Sunday!  Children under 8 are not allowed in the parlor car, which puts you in coach-but what a deal!  $5 for kids, and $9 for adults.  We bought a membership (they’re $45 I believe now) and get to ride coach whenever we want for a year for free for all three of us!  When you’re done, you’re already in Newport, so you can spend time walking around the town, looking at the boats, or whatever you like to do while in Newport!

3.     I know most people are expecting to see the Providence Children’s Museum here…it isn’t.  Except for the free Fridays I find them kind of pricey for the size.

4.      Barnes and Noble.  It’s not only fun to browse books, but they have a train table and a lego table.  Sometimes they have story hours as well!

5.      Make every day an adventure!  Trader Joe’s, Dollar Store, Walmart, anywhere you do your errands!  I make errands a “treat”.  I play it up like it’s a privilege to go grocery shopping and whatnot and for now he’s buying it!  I’ve even used Trader Joe’s as bribery-he’ll do what I want him to do and I get the shopping done!

Not the longest list in the world, but some things I wanted to share!

So....I'm a writer???

Here's the thing, I write, but VERY few people read what I write.  Of course the hubby, the best friends read what I write and if I produce something I write an audience experiences it, but I never have the guts to actually put stuff out there...until now.  After all what is the point of a blog, that may be from a  writer-if I NEVER post things I write?

As part of my Creative Writing minor I had to take a poetry workshop.  Man do I suck at poetry!  One thing I wrote however I do kinda like, since it makes me giggle and makes the hubby roll his eyes, plus my professor liked it and he was one hell of a hard professor...so here it is...(and remember I am a playwright/fiction author before you judge how bad this is!)

Walking in any bookstore

I would love the feel of the spines against my fingertips,
the sensation of pages flipping in my hands,
the smell of the various stores; old books
in a used bookstore, or even the inviting
aroma of Starbucks, a welcoming scent for browsing.

Walking into a bookstore today my senses are alarmed
for although the coffee smell still lingers in the air
my eyes cannot comprehend the garish displays
of electronic readers that demand my attention.

You can hold all the books you want in one I am told,
But isn’t that the function of my bookcase?

But this one comes in color, so you can look
at children’s books or even magazines.
How will my son learn the fine motor skill of turning a page?

I have vowed I will never own an e-reader, my husband agreed
they are too creepy, too unnecessary, why read on a computer
after all what would Dickens think, or Emerson say?
Would they want the intimacy of their words glared from a screen?
Now my husband has a Nook, and is trying to convert me.
It will never happen; I have prized books authors have signed
what next? An author can sign a Nook?

There are books we can no longer share, since his are
not in the true form of a book. And afternoons once spent
browsing a bookstore become a memory
as the stores around me close.

Teaching

I've been thinking about teaching for awhile now.  Although my ultimate goal has been to teach Secondary English, now that I am in the Certification program at Providence College, my dream is becoming a reality.

Or should I say nightmare?

Wait, back up!  Nightmare?  Don't get me wrong, I am excited when I think of having my own classroom, planning lessons, opening the world of literature to teens.  And then I sit in my classes, and my head feels like it is being squeezed in a vise!  This is not going to be easy by ay means!  And true, nothing worthwhile ever is; but the amount of work that goes into becoming certified, and then planning lessons, reaching out to kids who don't want to be there, reaching out to kids who might be bored, well quite frankly it is overwhelming!  And I have found myself thinking of teachers I have been lucky enough to have had the pleasure of sitting in their classroom.

Miss Brown, fifth grade Hope Elementary.  She honestly originally sparked my interest in writing and told me I had a talent for it.  She made class exciting, and even wrote to me, (back int he days before emails) after I was her student.  So the question is-did she ever sleep?  How did she have the time?

Mrs. Mumford, Scituate High School, by far one of my all time favorite teachers.  Mrs. Mumford taught English, and I had her twice.  Honestly if I can be half the teacher she was, I'll be doing fabulous.  She made Shakespeare come alive for us, introduced public speaking so we didn't pass out, went to the plays to support us, taught us how to write papers.  How?  How did she find the time to make class exciting, and give us each that personal touch she was so great at doing?

Mr. Kane, my chorus teacher all through high school.  Another fabulous teacher, who kept his music selections fun, while being educational.  Who would plan something special every year.  Who never treated us like we were children, which of course we were.


One of my classes has asked us to reflect on some of our favorite teachers and think of what made them so great.  What I want to ask them is how were they so great, while managing a life?  Teachers very often get a bad rap in society, and I think if people just saw a tenth of what a teacher has to do in order to get the positions they have, they might not be so quick to blame the teachers.

One last look at 2011

This may be seen as a depressing post to some, but for me it is healing, and honestly since the blog is here for my growth...here goes.

Today while cleaning out my car I found a copy of the eulogy I wrote for my Dad.  Of course the entire year was framed by my Dad's illness, and his passing just intensified that.  Reading the eulogy actually did not make me sad, it made me reflect on the positive so I am posting it here now for those times I feel myself concentrating on the negative. 

I am not posting this for sympathy...I know if you actually know about my blog, you're a friend and feel sorry for what my family went through.  I turned to writing with a vengeance the week after he was gone, writing is my form of therapy/drug/obsessive compulsive behavior. 

Plus my Dad was just a great guy and people should know that.  So feel free to skip ahead if you think this is morbid...

How exactly do you eulogize a man like James Vescera.  He was many things to many people; husband, Dad, father in law, uncle, brother, brother in law, friend.  All roles he performed with the upmost of importance.  I could stand here and tell you what a horrible disease this is, that took my Dad from us far too early, but when I look back on my life, and when I tell stories about him to Brady or any of mine and David’s future children, I will not focus on HD, I’ll focus on all the little things that made my Dad so great.  Like Halloween.  Every Halloween he would put on this ridiculous old guy mask, to take us trick or treating.  Every year. 

I’ll remember the father and daughter dances where he would do what I called his Frankenstein dance, and I would get annoyed.  Not at his lack of dancing ability because as we all know, I can’t dance either, but I would get annoyed that every other Dad at these dances had to come up and talk to my Dad.  Or how every Christmas it was hard to see who was more excited, Jay and myself, or our Dad.  And how much he loved to tease my Mom every year for Christmas or her Birthday with the worst wrapping job known to man.  Or how he would make up little annoying nicknames for my Mom.  How proud he was whenever I was in a play, no matter how bad some of them were.  How he coached my brother’s T-Ball team, and never was the Dad to get ultra competitive, he would just laugh when instead of looking for fly balls Jay was looking for bugs.  How even though he had to take a night job, that was far below his qualifications because he was getting sick, he still took the time to take me out driving so I could learn to drive, which is probably why I can parallel park, and have a huge love for the Doors and Classic rock.  I’ll think of all of our family trips, North Conway where we would cross country ski, go to the Polar Caves, our trip to Disney, Dad loved amusement park rides, and to this day I can’t think of Disney without picturing his face after the Back to the Future ride. 

 I’ll remember the wood car he and my brother made for Boy Scouts one year, he was so proud to have done that.  I’ll never forget how he even designed our house in Scituate, did so much of the construction, the electrical, and even the painstakingly hard job of hardwood floors, plank by plank with my grandfather.  How every Sunday at my Grandparents, we knew if there was a new recipe, Jimmy would like it.  Or how he was teased by his friends earning him the longest nickname in history “Jim V as in Victor e-s-c-e-r-a.”

I’ll remember having chocolate cake or cold pizza sometimes in the morning for breakfast, and how he used to let my friends tease him about his minor beer belly. 

I’ll remember his fabulous sense of humor.  Even at times where most parents would be aggravated, we could say something and he would find humor in the situation.

I’ll remember times where he stood up for what he believed in, when it came to his brother Danny, or Tommy, or even once a friend of mine in Elementary School

I’ll remember how much he loved his grandchildren, Jay and myself, David and Courtney, and my Mom.

I’ll remember how he never once complained about his illness, how he took it on like he took on everything, with courage and strength.

The saying is a heart is not judged by how much you love, but by how much you are loved by others.  After last night and today, it is obvious our Dad had a large heart.  Thank you for loving our Dad.

So, just how do you eulogize a great man like my Dad?  By going out and living like he did, hug your loved ones, never let a minute go by to tell them you love them.  Laugh every day.  Be courageous, strong and above all be selfless.  That is the kind of daily tribute you could all give my Dad.