On Saturday I met up with a couple of my dearly beloved friends and we climbed into our vehicles to head out on an adventure. I was driving and when I went to pull out of the driveway I saw that there was a pizza guy looking to pull out of a driveway across the street. We both pulled out at the same time, met in the middle, and it was very...interesting for my passengers. The people in the car while I am driving don't usually pay attention to what is happening on the outside of the car so, whenever anything except very smooth, straight sailing happens, they are taken by surprise. It's very--shall I use that word again?--interesting.
Down the road we went, blaring the radio and, those of us who could hear over the radio and open windows, chatting up a storm. I use to drive pretty much exclusively in the right lane but I have since discovered that the left lane is full of beautiful things. There are joys in the left lane that are not found in the right lane. So there I was, driving in the left lane and not moving over for the people going at insane speed cause there were about twenty heads cluttering up my rear view mirror.
However, at one point I did look back and to my surprise all the heads were out of the way and there was a police car right behind me with his lights going and his siren was probably going too but I sure couldn't hear it. My thoughts were, of course, "No, no, no! I wasn't going that fast! Why me? Why now?" etc., etc., etc. So, I went to pull over but I saw him gesturing to get into the other lane so I did and he went whizzing past and I went, "Hallelujah!" The relief was very, very great. And why am I admitting this?
Anyways. Traffic came almost immediately to a standstill. We sat there and speculated and got out and looked around and speculated some more. Maybe there was an accident? Hopefully we wouldn't be stuck for long, blah, blah, blah. We were not stuck for long, very shortly in fact. We were only stopped for a couple minutes before traffic started again. We went for awhile and passed fourteen or so police cars and one empty car. More speculation, obviously.
Turned out the police were chasing someone driving a stolen car, a car that belonged to a homicide victim. Wild, right?
Anyways. We arrived at our first destination, a deli that reminded me very strongly of Coldplay's Life in Technicolor music video and Doctor Who. The place was full of figurines, marionettes, dolls, and so on. There was a Noah's Ark going back and forth over our table and model planes under the glass on our tables. It was such a neat place! And kind of creepy Doctor Who-ish. For food I had a Swiss and corn beef melt thing which was terribly messy and some fries that hadn’t been cooked in enough oil or else had been cooked too previously. I should have picked something smaller...I wasn't very interested in the food.
After the food we had a grand old time trying to find where we were supposed to be. (Here I am, admitting more stuff, just that fact that I got a wee bit frustrated with the whole I-can't-find-out-where-I-am-going-and-why-am-I-getting-yelled-at thing.) We got to where we wanted to be eventually and walked quite a ways to the park where we would watch fireworks from.
The fireworks I was going to see are set to music that is broadcasted over the radio. This year they were set to pieces like The Saints Go Marchin' In, America the Beautiful, Chubby Checker, Rocket Man, and Alladin's A Whole New World. The fireworks are nothing without the music (I know from experience) and this year I had the radio right in front of me, playing loudly. It was pretty fantastic.
Fireworks are so cool! I am thankful for the intelligence that God gave to humans, the capability to create fireworks and, with them, make people happy. I don't know about you but I cannot help but be amazed at creation.
Before the fireworks, Bob Segar's Old Time Rock and Roll came on the radio. I am a fan of that song. Don't go all Judgey McJudgerson on me, it's a great song.
After the fireworks I went home and got into bed at about 11:45 but I had a hard time getting to sleep because I had a little headache. The next morning I woke up at 5:54AM. Trust me, it was painful. I got up and finished my PowerPoint because, you know, I hadn't done it at a reasonable time. (Good reason for this: the internet was not working and I didn't think to finish my slides while I was at the library.)
Church was more than usually fantastically fantastic. Oh, me, I am so thankful, so thankful for church.
I love my church's canoe trip and picnic! It is so fun! This year we went with a different campground then the one that we've gone with for as long as I remember. This one had more people than the other one did and a longer wait but I think that I liked it better. The river was wider and had fewer trees in it and we didn't have to get out and go over the bank like we used to.
I was in a canoe with Katelyn and Heidi, Katelyn was in the middle and Heidi was in the back. I am a horrible canoe companion! Dear me, I was so bad to those two! I spent the entire trip freaking out about Katelyn wiggling around and rocking the boat, and freaking out about Heidi's steering capabilities. (Truely, Heidi steered like a pro, minus those two small incidences.) I have issues, as you all know only too well.
I have this thing when I am canoeing. I have an aversion to slipping peacefully down the river. Instead, for me, it is go, go, go. I cannot just hold my paddle and watch the scenery float by. I've tried! I cannot do it! I have to have my paddle in the water. And not just in the water but in and out. I have to be making powerful strokes. It's irresistible! The desire to go forward is too much! The scenery is nothing when up against the thrill that comes with passing up a canoe full of scenery watchers, muscular men, or boys going backwards. ;)
My sisters and I, on account of being so attractive and me making such a fuss, attracted the attention of the under-the-influence tubers. The tubers were very chatty with us and yelled random things like, “Are you racing? Hurry up” and “What are you pretty girls canoeing without any boys for?” Also things like, “You’re canoe is aluminum, I can make it stainless steel!” and “Can you pull us?” It was very interesting, I am still trying to make out the stainless steel comment.
Sunday evening was spent chatting and hanging out or else playing volleyball. Something was in the air that evening, or maybe it was something I ate. Something was different. I wasn't quite the awful volleyball player that I usually am. I feel like this little parade of mine deserves to be rained on. I wasn't very good at all but I feel, inside, that I was better than usual.
Everyone left the picnic so early! I think I stayed until just after nine, maybe? I forget. But, when I left, there was no one still there. I guess everyone had big plans for the following morning. I dunno.
On Monday morning I went to work. Time and a half! Yay! But I only worked a couple of hours because, well, time and a half. :P I was in a parade on Monday! I handed out flyers and did a couple of square dance moves for the parade attendees. I ran out of flyers about half-way-three-quarters of the way down the road. I was pretty sparse with my flyers, too! I did put a couple into the bags of little kids with puppy dog eyes. They were holding out their bags, desperately wanting me to stuff a flyer into them. I caved for a couple of kids but for most of them I knew that a flyer wasn't what they really wanted. The candy was coming.
After the parade we had a rather fantastic potluck lunch. We didn't bring anything for the potluck part, I felt kind of bad about that. Still, everyone had plenty and it was yummy. We ate and sat around talking. We played a couple of yard games. I played ladder ball with Amalie. I was almost beaten by a little girl. It was kind of embarrassing. ;)
The problem with some holidays is that everything is closed on them. This is really great if you work at such a place but not really great if you need somewhere to crash for a couple of hours. We had about two hours to kill when we left the potluck so we went to two stores. One was closed and the other was closing in ten minutes. Walmart was the next stop, some people had some purchases they wanted to make, but after the purchases were made we were all back in the car, sweating, trying to come up with a plan.
We didn't come up with much of a plan but we did end up dropping in on a gas station. This gas station was where we got our hands on a pizza. This is also right about when I realized that my very awesome souvenir cup from seeing Les Mis had a big ugly crack up the side of it. Tear face! But, then, all the more reason to go see Beauty and the Beast! Anyone? Anyone?
I did an awful lot of walking over the weekend. After we killed two hours we crashed a friends’ house and walked two miles with them to the “War Zone,” the very best place to watch the fireworks from. I’d never seen this particular city’s fireworks so I was kind of excited. Heard tales of them over the ages but never participated in the viewing of them. By the time the fireworks started, group had increased to about forty people. Pretty swell numbers, I think. I enjoyed sitting around and chatting before the fireworks started. When they finally did start I lay back on the ground, you couldn’t really watch from any sort of seated position without getting a cramp in your neck. I love being close to the fireworks, fireworks are just not as good if you’re not up and personal. From now on I want to watch Fourth of July fireworks from the War Zone every year. It was fantastic. (Only downside is that I am probably going to need hearing aids by twenty-seven, maybe even sooner.)
Golly, I haven’t even got words. Best night ever. After the fireworks we packed our things up and walked back to our cars. I like a good walk, especially when the street is closed down so you’re not crammed onto the sidewalk. Don’t you hate the fact that most sidewalks aren’t more than three people wide? Anyways. We had a very adventurous time walking back, what with freaking out over the couple making out in the pick-up and singing show tunes. Mine’s a fine, fine life.
1 comment:
Always fun to read your blog.
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