#141 He Doesn't Need Me to Drive

Spoiled is quite the understatement when choosing words to describe the life my husband has created for me.  Over this entire summer, we have collected somewhere near sixty hours of driving time in our travels.  Do you want to know how much of that time I have been in the driver's seat?

Two hours.

T w o.

Again I say, spoiled.

What makes me really spoiled is when Hubby takes me somewhere we've already been....without complaint, with my younger brother, and with driving the entire way.

I suppose I should repay him by never making fun of his fantasy football obsession and watching every Sunday night game with him.

The latter might be pushing it.

But he so deserves it.

Third Stop: Jamestown, NY- I Love Lucy Museum

http://www.lucy-desi.com/attractions/lucy-desi-museum/

Though I Love Lucy was a show of the fifties, my brothers and I grew up alternating between recorded video tapes of Lucy, The Three Stooges, and The Marx Brothers.  

To us, it might as well have been 1950.

Not a one of our friends ever knew what we were talking about when we told them of the shows we watched, but it didn't matter.  It was something we shared and something that still today when we see it we think of home, we think of falling asleep in the living room, and we think of each other. 

This is of course part of the reason I simply couldn't refuse the chance to take Jonathan to the Lucy Desi Museum in Jamestown, NY.

After several hours on rainy highways, we needed nourishment immediately upon entering Jamestown.

With its Lucy memorabilia displayed on shelves, in frames, and on counter tops, Babalu Cafe fit the bill to start our day filled with Lucy.  Used to the lunch break time restraints of the workers in this tiny industrial town, our waitress made sure to inform Hubby that the burger he ordered would take twenty minutes to make.  I could appreciate recognizing that lunch rush diners are most often in a hurry.  

I also appreciated the prices.  No one wants to pay over ten dollars for a sandwich at lunch time, even if they are in Lucille Ball's hometown...that's just silly.  For the three of us, our total bill was under $25.  The only addition I would make to the Babalu Cafe is what Jonathan asked for the minute I told him where we were going for lunch: tables made out of drums.* 

I became a "Cast Member" on this visit.  For a $50 donation to the Lucy-Desi Center for Comedy a few of the perks I received were:

•  Membership card and certificate
• Unlimited free admissions for myself and one guest
• 15% discount on all gift shop purchases
• Lucy-Desi Center bumper sticker
• Lucy-Desi Center Member tote bag
• Laughs, Luck...and Lucy: How I Came to Create the Most Popular Sitcom of All Time written by Jess Oppenheimer

 My membership basically paid for itself because Jonathan and I spent ridiculous amounts in the gift shops.  Regardless, I had planned to become a member this time because I Love Lucy was such a part of my childhood that contributing to the lasting memory and preservation of all things I Love Lucy seemed the thing for me to do.

*Think of the first episode of the Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour: Lucy Takes a Cruise to Havana

There are two different entrances to the museum.  Visitors can either begin on the Lucy-Desi Museum side or the Desilu Studios side.  On both our visits, we started on the left at the Lucy-Desi Museum.  This section is a collection of memories and pieces of Lucy and Desi's childhoods, adult lives, and lives together as a married couple.  While there is some mention to I Love Lucy on this side of the museum, it is not the highlight.

Towards the end of the museum is a room playing a video about the Lucy Festival held every August.*  In the back of the room is a movie projector that was in Lucy and Desi's Beverly Hills home along with a sketch of the layout of their movie room.  Their setup was pretty high tech for the time this must have been used during.  They had a projection room that the projector was hidden in to block out the heat it produced and its noise.  The heat was taken up through chimney stacks that were connected to the top of each projector.  A screen came down from the ceiling when movies were to be viewed.

*We missed going to the Lucy Festival by only a few days!

At the end of the Lucy-Desi Museum you can sign their guest book.  Here is what Jonathan wrote:

Desilu Studios is dedicated to all things I Love Lucy.  I didn't notice any major additions from the time Hubby and I had gone alone.  More than likely, finding new pieces for the museum requires hunting down people who knew Lucy and are willing to part with something of hers or something that was used in her show. 

On this visit, I saw this: 

In case you can't read that tiny print, in 1981 the mayor of Los Angeles proclaimed October 15th to be "I Love Lucy Day" in honor of Lucille Ball and in recognition of the talents of the cast members of the greatest television show of all time.

I think I'll be participating in that holiday from now on.

At the end of Desilu Studios, you can recreate the famous "Vitameatavegamin" scene from the episode "Lucy Does a TV Commercial".  I forced Jonathan to do it.

The museum can be completed in under two hours, and there aren't any glamorous bells and whistles, but if you love I Love Lucy it will certainly find a special place in your heart from the minute you drive into the city of Jamestown.

#93 He Likes to Take Me Shopping

One day, I will get into the habit of writing things I do right after they happen, or as they are happening.

But since I am still a bit of a procrastinator, and because it is only a week after Easter, I thought I'd give you the two-minute version of the last two weeks of my life.

My family's church holds a massive passion play every year for Easter.  Last year, my little-big brother Joel was asked to play Peter, this year he was asked to play Jesus.

Whoa!

Right?

So I had to endure the sisterly torment of watching this happen to him:

But then the overwhelming pride of seeing this:

The production lasted three weeks.  While Joel was up there floating in the clouds, my mother helped sell souvenirs, Jonathan was a permanent member of the audience, and my father parked cars.

I think dad is really rocking that hat, don't you?

Because I am naturally a loving and helpful daughter, I helped him with parking the productions.

Alright, I have to rat myself out.  I helped park most productions.

I'm a fair weather parker.  I do not park when it rains or snows.

Whew, confession is such a reliving thing.

My last day of parking I decided to spice things up and add a few dance steps to my ushering the cars into their spots.  This lead to my receiving a reward from the parking captain, Charlie, for being the most graceful parker, ever.

I'm so proud, I just don't know what to do with myself.  

Parking with the guys led me to do a lot of baking.  They are so appreciative of yummy treats that it is hard not to want to make something for them every single time I see them.  This led to my recent Orange Strainer post: Cadbury Cookie Bars

The morning after Easter, hubby and I woke up at 5:30 am to go on a three day trip, and I cried.

5:30 is an ungodly time of day.  No one should ever have to endure it.

Especially me.

Along the way we stopped for some coffee from McDonalds.  We wondered about this reserved parking sign until we were sent over to that very spot to wait as our coffees were made.

I was tempted at this point in our 7 hour trip to turn right to go to Buffalo for some delicious sponge candy and dessert from The Chocolate Martini Bar.  Despite my temptations, we turned left for our destination of Jamestown, NY.

And found our way to The Lucy Desi Center for Comedy.

As an avid fan of I Love Lucy, this was a must do trip.  Since we were headed five hours into NY for a totally unrelated reason, we added this detour.

The museum was filled with awesome memorabilia of Lucy and Desi Arnaz.

But my favorite part was the Desilu Studios which held everything I Love Lucy related, like this recreated set of the Ricardo's kitchen.  I waited, half expecting Ethel or Fred Mertz to poke their head in from the back porch door.

This fan was from the episode "Redecorating the Mertzes' Apartment".  A minuscule piece to many, it is the fan that blew feathers from furniture Lucy was trying to upholster into the recently painted, wet walls.

There were five murals in Jamestown devoted to Lucille Ball.

This one was my favorite.  It is on an abandoned building which I'm trying to convince hubby to purchase for me.

I'm feeling lucky.

Despite the fact that I was fully prepared to bunk up in the abandoned building for the night, we continued our trip.

It was roughly ten degrees cooler and we were followed by snowflakes the entire time.  We woke up to this little dusting outside of our hotel.

We spent our second day of the trip touring Pathfinder Village, a community for individuals with Down syndrome.  One of my long term goals in life is to create a place similar to this (boy was I disappointed when I realized my idea wasn't completely original) but with a slightly different mission and purpose.

Pathfinder Village was incredible, and I packed my brain with tons of ideas and inspiration.

The village was surrounded by farms, farms, and farms.  We were a solid half hour from any kind of civilization (translation: there were no shopping malls near by), the closest thing being a local pizza parlor and a Chobani factory.

It was a peaceful drive, despite the fact that we were nearing empty on our gas tank and hoping to find a real highway with a rest area to fill up at.

Our last day of this mini vacation was spent shopping at the Woodbury Common Premium Outlets.  Everyday when I wake up in the morning, I thank God that I married a man who likes to shop.

It makes my life so much easier.

And that was the last few weeks of my life.

Alright, that may have been the five-minute version instead of the two-minute, but I did my best.  And just think, this was only my Easter break...can you imagine all the wonderful things I'll have to write about when summer comes?