Tuesday, October 23, 2012

The perfect tablecloth


PART 1
BANG! Whap-whap-whap BANG! The bow of salty ginger slammed into the very, very high standing waves and Mom screamed at the top of her lungs in a very old mannish voice "COME ON SALTY COME ON GOOD OLD GIRL YOU CAN DO IT THERE YA NICE BOAT YOU! " Of course that wasn't all I heard though, I also heard the "oh my gods" from Alex's mouth and the not so reassuring scared laugh from Dads mouth followed by a "this is crazy man.” It was the worst pass we had done yet. It was the pass on the way out of Porto and I really might have rather not left and just stayed in the amazing city forever. That pass...oh that pass scared me. I pretty much got into a ball and pressed my face into a pillow the whole time. Lifting my face into the cold wind every minute just to be horrified and then huddle back in a ball again. Finally we made it through the pass and started our journey to Lisbon.

PART 2
We have now made it to beautiful Lisbon or outskirts of Lisbon in a city called Cascais and are awaiting a weather window to do a 5 day sail to the Canary Islands. The sail here was great except for the treacherous pass. Who knew a 44 foot boat could surf standing waves? Certainly not me! We are nestled into this marina where on a windy day you can see massive waves smashing over the break wall. Our boat now has a thin layer of salt all over it.

Can I just start by saying that I love my Mom…BUT after day after day of high school mathematics with her…there are moments when I question that. It’s not just the extreme algebra, it’s the fact that were doing it crammed up on her bed using a “stick on the wall” white board.

Mom and I went out shopping for table clothes today in this cute little town. You may not know this but mom has OCD when it comes to table clothes. If you move it just a slight bit she freaks out and has to put it into the perfect spot again. Obviously this is hard to do on a constantly moving boat so off we went to find “the perfect” table cloth (I don’t even know what that means). 

After 2 hours of wandering and one interesting experience at a bank machine, we finally made our way back to the marina. An unsuccessful hunt. Mom wanted to poke her head into one of those little nautical stores and what’s the first thing we see? The PERFECT table cloth. We figured it all out and measured the table and bought it. Mom got so excited that she started to sing, “You make me feel so brand new” at the top of her lungs. I obviously pretended to not know her. 

We got back to the boat, put it on the table and with a look of disgust mom realized it was not the PERFECT table cloth. The colors on it had bled and of course mom freaked out. She looked so sad putting the old table cloth back on the table.

Mom's list of qualities she wants in a tablecloth.
1. Plastic top
2. Heavy
3. Sewn edges
4. Sticky or felt bottom
5. Nautical pattern with dark color
6. 1 ½ m by 1 m

11 comments:

  1. What a wonderful writer you are Millie! I laughed all the way through your shopping experience. I could totally picture it. Maybe we should all buy you mom table cloths for Christmas.
    I'm glad you guys are through that crazy pass and aren't going back.

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  2. Millie - I think you handled the pass the best way. If you don't see it, it isn't happening lol.
    I can picture you Mom with the shopping thing too.
    Enjoy your time there - as it sounds like youo are doing
    Love
    Grampa G and Cheryl

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  3. Lol. Sarah and I are doing on math on my bed and we don't even have a white board. Are you FOILing quadratic equations? We are :) Fun fun fun!

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    1. Hey we bought this 3m sticky back white board sheet. It is really awesome. You should get one. We use it almost every day for both Amelia's and Alex's math and physics.

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    2. hahaha we are doing all different aspects of algebra including determining the number of x intercepts of a quadratic function by inspecting graphs, factoring and calculating the discriminant. i miss grade 8 :(

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  4. It sounds like an awesome shopping trip. Most women love shoes but I love tablecloths ! Wish I could have been there. Your description of it was hilarious. I could just picture it. To bad Julie didn't get the perfect one after all. As for the passage it sounds terrifying. Hope the 5 day trip is an easy sail. Can't wait to hear all about it. Love trese

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  5. I also love a good tablecloth, it must be genetic. Loved the blog laughed as I pictured the shopping trip and was scared as I pictured the waves and your surfing adventure. You have a talent just like your mom for writing. When we get together at Christmas we shall go for many shopping trips..

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  6. No matter how picky your mom is, when it comes to table cloth shopping I am sure Jennifer beats her hands down.

    Women be shopping.

    -Rob

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  7. Millie I would shop for cool stuff with you and your mom can take K and C table cloth shopping
    Jennifer

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