After the Green Day, Blue Men

To end my spring break with a bang, I decided to take my sons to Orlando, Florida for twenty-four hours of fun. Davis and Lawson have wanted to see the Blue Man Group for several years, and this year, we decided to make that happen.





We got up early Saturday morning and drove to Orlando, where we stayed at the Hilton Grand Vacations Resort near Sea World. I reserved a room with a king bed and a pull-out couch so that all three of us would have plenty of sleeping room. However, Hilton decided to give us much more than that. Our suite came equipped with a full kitchen, a Jacuzzi tub, and a washer and dryer. If I wanted I could do all the housework I usually do at home! What fun!

Actually, the washer/dryer came in handy because we had a pre-concert swim and dried our bathing suits that night.

Here's our room.

Here's the view of the pool from our room, Lawson in said pool, and Davis sitting beside said pool:

































But the really fun part was seeing the Blue Men in concert. And after it was over, one of them left his blue thumbprint on Lawson's program, and Davis took a Blue Man photo.










Many friends and relatives have asked me, "What is the Blue Man Group?" Well, that's hard to explain. They're blue. They're men. They're in a group.

"But what do they do?" people ask.

Well, they play percussion on PVC pipes. They catch gumballs and Stay-Puft marshmallows in their mouths. They eat lots of Cap'n Crunch. And they really like their toilet paper.









Perhaps the best way to explain the Blue Man Group is to just show you:



They were a lot of fun. And now, spring break is over. Maybe my students will like me more if I shoot confetti into the classroom from a PVC cannon.

Green Day

While I've attended many St. Patrick's Day parades in Savannah, today I went to see one thing:

Davis Remler, the Brigade Command Sergeant Major of the Benedictine Cadets.

I call him Lloyd.

Doesn't he look handsome? Some of my out-of-town readers may wonder if my son had been practicing for clown school prior to donning his military uniform. Actually, the red smudges are part of an old Savannah tradition. As the cadets march by, the girls slather on lipstick--the redder the better--and kiss the BC boys. Because Davis marches by himself out front, he's prime real estate on the parade route.

Oddly enough, it was the lipstick extravaganza that brought out the mother bear in me. Not that I mind the girls kissing on him so much, but when a proud mama is trying to get a shot of her son marching in the parade, she gets a little irritable when females repeatedly jump into her shot. I sat patiently by as Davis's cousins leaped on him, and his female contemporaries quickly smooched before darting back to the sidewalk. But when a woman about my age made her way toward him just as he was about to pass me by, I surprised myself by yelling at her, "Move, lady! Move out of the way!"

She did. When mama wants a picture of her boy, she gets it.
In a few years, I'll be shoving women in the middle of Abercorn to get a picture of this cadet-to-be.

Of course, I saw other friends in the parade, too. The fried chicken was plentiful, weather was beautiful, and thanks to Zyrtec, the pollen was tolerable. Another successful St. Patrick's Day parade.

BC Ring Day!

Today is the day that all juniors at BC anticipate! Sabra's birthday! They all gather around a huge cake and sing "Happy Birthday" followed by the BC fight song.

As much as I'd like that to be true, the reason the boys really anticipate this day is that they receive their class rings. Unlike most American high schools, BC makes a production out of getting the class ring. There's a ceremony with a speaker (a BC alum), songs, prayer, and a reception afterward. Sons of BC alums can have their fathers present the rings to them. Many BC sons wear their fathers' rings, and that's what Davis did.


Davis had a large cheering section. Of course, Stephen was there to present the ring, and I was there to take the photos. JoJo and Bruce came for the event, as well as prom date contestant #1, Megan, who graciously sacrificed a day of school to see her beau get his ring. Awww. I caught Davis's ring presentation on video (It's not hi-def, but you'll still feel like you're there with me). Stephen was smart enough to make sure Davis smiled for the camera. Go, Stephen!

After the ceremony, the juniors got the rest of the day off, so after the obligatory photo sessions, they shot out of that cafeteria like it was on fire so they could get to the beach. Many rings went to the beach too. I wonder how many will make it home. Stephen and I urged Davis not to take his ring to the beach, but I just checked Davis's room. The ring isn't there. Is it at Tybee Island collecting grains of sand among those tiny engravings? I hope instead it's locked inside JoJo's house.

Decisions, Decisions...

Davis can't decide whom to take to the prom. Who gets your vote?

Contestant #1:
A real cutie with a bubbly personality, this young lady also has a
strong set of morals, vowing never to date boys who chew tobacco.



Contestant #2:
A good cook and devoted church goer, but don't let this contestant fool you.
She likes to party til the cows come home.

Submit your vote using the survey on the right (if you're reading this posting via Facebook, go to http://remlerville.blogspot.com).

The Idiot Prize: Anna Karenina Part IV

While I would characterize Part III of Anna Karenina as a snail of a section (did we really need to read a whole chapter about a character balancing his check book?), Tolstoy made up for lost time in Part IV. Lots happened. The story finally started moving along. Quickly. Still, while I was less frustrated with the pace of the story, I came away from Part IV more frustrated with characters. In fact, I would label Part IV as "The Book of Idiots."

Let me explain.

Karenin's position develops as follows: First he wants to maintain status quo at home, for the sake of maintaining a good reputation with the ministry. But when Anna invites Vronsky to their home, Karenin immediately decides to consult a lawyer for a divorce. And by the way, Karenin has decided that he hates his own son simply because the kid is also Anna's child. That one didn't go over well with me. He has second thoughts about divorce after Dolly urges him to forgive Anna, and he actually does, once Anna gives birth to Vronsky's baby and then in her delirium asks Karenin's forgiveness. All of a sudden, he no longer hates his son, but he's taken quite a shine to Vronsky's baby girl as well. By the end of Part IV, Oblonsky has convinced Karenin not only to give Anna a divorce but also to take all the blame so that Anna will not be a ruined woman. By the end of Part IV, I didn't know whether Karenin was coming or going, and his changes of heart were so sudden that I found them unconvincing.

But then there's Anna, who wants a divorce but can't have one. So she invites her lover into her husband's home (that took some guts). Then, once her husband is considering divorce, she gives birth and gets sick, which for some reason gives her a change of heart and she begs her husband's forgiveness, right there in front of Vronsky. Once forgiven, she falls into a deep funk over her farce of a marriage, which readers get to see very little of. Only when her brother steps in on her behalf and convinces Karenin to grant Anna a divorce does she pull out of her depression, and she does so in a snap, taking off with Vronsky before Karenin can even draw up divorce papers. And she leaves behind her precious Seryozha, whom she had once claimed she could never do without. I don't know what happened to the baby girl. Tolstoy didn't explain that. Maybe Karenin gets her too. Anna's quick changes of tune, like Karenin's, turned me off.

Please don't think I misunderstand the intent behind Anna's and Karenin's characters. I get that Anna is frustrated by the rules and expectations of society and that Karenin is striving to keep up respectable appearances at all costs. I get that those two personalities conflict.

I get it.

But we see very little of Anna and Karenin's relationship prior to the betrayal, and as a result, it's hard for me to simply accept their rash changes in judgment as Tolstoy depicted them. Not only that, but Anna acknowledges in Part IV that she married Karenin even though she didn't love him. I know many women did that in the nineteenth century, but still, I find it silly to make such a decision and then complain because the marriage is unhappy. To me, that's like jumping into a shark tank and then complaining of being bitten. To me both Anna and Karenin come across as selfish, silly, and, well, idiotic.

But they don't win the idiot gold medal. No, that one goes to Vronsky. Once forgiven by a magnanimous Karenin, Vronsky goes home to ponder the loss of his true love. He decides he can't live without her, so he loads his revolver, points it at his chest, and...(wait for it)...He misses!

Vronsky is a soldier! He's trained to use weapons! And he can't even shoot his own chest? Puh-leez. I think he didn't really want to go through with it; otherwise, he would have pointed that gun to his head. At any rate, it's a good thing he retired his post and ran off with Anna because if Russia ever needed him to defend it, everybody'd be in a world of hurt.

The only characters exempt from the idiot prize, are, of course, Levin and Kitty, who finally get together in Part IV. Now, I am told by my father, a HUGE Tolstoy fan by the way (and probably cringing at my throwing out idiot awards hither and yon), tells me that the scene in Chapter 8, in which Levin writes down a code consisting of about a dozen letters which Kitty immediately deciphers (the code is a declaration of his love), is an actual episode from Tolstoy's life. It's how he declared love to his wife. In the subsequent chapter, Levin decides he must come clean to Kitty that he is not a virgin, which upsets her, but she stands by him. That episode is also from Tolstoy's life. According to Father, Tolstoy kept a specific diary, and prior to his marriage, he gave his diary to his fiancee for her to read. She learned of his previous relations with another woman (or women--I can't remember). She was terribly upset, but she married him anyway. I think that's an interesting story.

Anyway, Tolstoy consistently strikes vivid contrasts among his characters. In Part IV, Kitty and Levin couldn't be closer, while Anna and Karenin couldn't be more distant. Kitty and Levin's lives become more stable; Anna and Karenin's grow more chaotic. I'm sure Kitty and Levin will get married in Part V. I'm looking forward to that part.

One more thing: I am dying to know whether one sentence is a result of poor translation or just poor writing, so I issue a question to Susan Baldwin. Please look in the next to last paragraph of Part IV, Chapter 12. I would like to know if the following passage reads the same way in your book as it does in mine (this is Karenin speaking):

"I have never hated anyone, but I hate her with my whole soul, and I cannot even forgive her because I hate her too much for all the wrong she has done me!" he said, with tones of hatred in his voice.

Please, please, let that horrible redundancy be the result of yucky translation and not Tolstoy's writing. Susan, let me know.

On to Part V.

Davis at 17

My son Davis has had a big week.

First of all, he had a great lacrosse game, during which he scored twice. Go Davis! That's him at left: #16. But of course, now that he's a skilled lacrosse player, I'm going to have to learn the rules of the game. I looked up the basic rules, which were no help at all. They said the object of the game is to score more points than the opposing team. Duh.

Further research told me the area around the goal is called the crease and that players cannot touch the ball with their hands. Instead, they must move the ball by kicking it or throwing it with those pool skimmers they play with. Recent experience as a spectator has shown me they can also whack each other with said skimmers. Lacrosse looks like a cross between soccer and hockey.

I'll found out more about the game. Right now my burning question is whether I should capitalize the word. Lacrosse? LaCrosse? lacrosse? Maybe I should just spell it LAX. That's what the coaches do. Every time I get an e-mail from them I think they're giving me an update on happenings at the Los Angeles airport.

But enough about that. Davis has also had a big week because he turned 17 on March 1. We threw him a birthday dinner Monday night, complete with cheesecake, ice cream, and a girlfriend!

Megan gave him a new pair of Sperry flip flops (which means I can throw away the old ones!), which she couldn't wait to give to him. She also gave him an attractive belt, which Davis loves to model. Grandparents supplied him with a fistful of Benjamins, and PopPop gave him use of his Cadillac for prom night. Pretty sweet! I'm sure Megan appreciates that, as her hair would not survive an evening in the lucky truck. No radio and no air conditioning.

I now had 363 days left to control Davis. I'd better get busy!