Wednesday the 15th was my first official day of vacation. I had no plans on traveling anywhere and no big plans for the holidays because holidays just aren't that big of a deal for my family. I was just planning on living life as if I didn't have to work a 9 to 5. Let me tell you...it was magic! I don't need to sleep in until noon every day, but getting up before I'm really ready is hard to do, so being able to wake up on my own was truly amazing. I was never in a rush to get ready for my day and I had all the time in the world to relax. I had plenty of time to finish up my Christmas shopping (though with all the crowds it wasn't something I was particularly excited to do) and finally get to the DMV to get my license replaced. Only...I put that off for the first few days of vacation.
I know, I know! I should have gone at my first opportunity. I should have gotten up early on Wednesday morning, and headed straight to the DMV. But....I really, really wanted to sleep in and really mean it for the first day of vacation. So I did.
Seems like all I did was take care of my car. Well that's just simply not true. Wednesday night, before all the car mess, I met up with someone I knew in high school but hadn't seen since. Good ole Facebook, connecting people all over the world. Er...something like that. We had a brief message exchange on Facebook and a couple of failed attempts at hanging out before this finally worked out. We decided to meet at the Delta on Woodstock. At least I knew the food was going to be good.
Let's be clear about something here, dear readers. This was not to be a date. This was 2 people getting together as friends just to hang out. That being said, I'll continue my story.
I was late, of course and he called to make sure I was on my way while I was indeed on my way. I got a parking spot on the street in front of Delta, the last spot left on this block. Score! D was at a table in plain view from the door which made finding him easy. He looked basically like I remembered him. I sat down and started to unravel myself. Purse, jacket, scarf. We made some small talk and things seemed awkward for a couple of minutes. Once food was ordered (White trash meatloaf for me thank you very much) the conversation settled into an easier rhythm as we tried to catch up on our lives after high school. He had moved, gone to college, started dating boys and suddenly there was a bond. Stupid boys was it. I got to tell some dating horror stories and hear some new ones for a change.
The check comes and D asks the waiter to split it for us. The waiter comes back after only a minute and looks at me. "Yours is $8.95." He looks at D and says "Yours is the rest." Back to me now "You only ordered one thing." shakes his head and walks away. HAHAHAHAHAHA!
After we were done stuffing our faces with deliciousness, we headed to my car with no real plan in mind. Now there were plenty of parking spaces on the street. And much closer to the restaurant. Where were all these spots when I got here?
I toss my leftovers in the trunk so that it won't reek of meatloaf inside the car for days, watch D test his blood and give himself an injection with tools found in his handy diabetes pack...that is eerily similar to a fanny pack...And we're off! I head towards downtown and try to think of something we can do or somewhere we can go. We pass by Rimskys, a favorite of both of ours, and see the lights are on and it is indeed open! I thought it was only open on weekends so this was a nice surprise for sure. D is hoping to hop on the piano like he used to when we were in high school. There was a performer already there though so his plans were foiled. We grabbed a couple menus and a table and waited (far too long) for our server. The service there is something I expect and accept from them. I accept it because the chocolate pot de creme is the most amazing thing in the world and when it melts on my tongue it's like I've been transported to heaven for a moment. So of course, I order that. And a mocha. And some vanilla ice cream. Because I am a pig. D gets water. Now I feel like a bigger pig. And I so don't care. As soon as my order comes out I dig in. Bit of chocolate with a scrape of ice cream and a sip of mocha to wash it all down. Mmmm, sooo good. D laughs at me. Oh...right...I am in public. Whoops. Apparently it looks like I'm having a serious moment with my chocolate pot de creme. D offers to leave us alone. Har har.
The customers thin out and the performer starts packing up. I can see D getting antsy. He's basically yearning to play the piano. He asks the other tables if they mind some piano music and before they even answer he's at the keys making beautiful noises. I look around for the waiter to get the check, since I'm finally done. He's no where to be seen. Great...But I do see a couple getting up to leave. The only reason this interests me is because the man is a big man...a round man...wearing suspenders. They're crooked and 2 of his belt loops are broken. His partner seems to have lost something...so I get the pleasure of watching suspender man crawl around under the table. Fun.
It looks like other people are waiting for the same thing I am. The guy at the table closest to the door marked "employees only" gets up and pokes his head through the door in search of the waiter. Bold move. And it works. I expect that will make it easier for me to get waiters attention. I expect wrong. Waiter disappears before checking on anyone else. D offers to go find him the same way that guy near door did. Eventually the waiter brings the check out and we can finally leave. I've never had to wait so long to give someone money. Sheesh. Still totally worth it.
Back in the car I find out that D has never been to Wonderland. Well, now that is just unacceptable. I drive to Wonderland. And find another pretty kick ass parking spot on the street out front. Lucky rock, you're serving me well! We go inside, grab a bundle of nickles each and I decide to take a different approach this time. Let's pick a prize that we want to win and try to get enough tickets to get it. D picks a "fountain" that looks something like this:
Oh...you want to see what I drew anyway? Um...alright...but remember...I'm a 5 year old inside.
Back to the story... Our goal is the fountain! At 3000+ tickets, it won't be easy but having a goal is a good thing. At least, that's what I'm told. We head to the room towards the back of the building and start trying to choose a game to play. Anything that gives tickets is what I'm going for. Until I spy the claw machines. The claw machines with ball pit balls in them. Those balls are worth 30 to 60 tickets. There is one machine with big spiky bouncy balls and those are worth 80 tickets each. I know I can get the smaller ones, but I've never gotten one of the bouncy ones. In fact, I've only seen one person get one of those before. Not that I spend so much time at Wonderland that I think I know everything about everything. Just sayin... I go for the ones I know are a sure thing (and after spending almost all of my 5 dollars I walked away with 4 worth 60 tickets each and 2 worth 40 each. Basically I kick ass at that claw machine) and D tried for the harder ones. And got one! Holy crap! High five for that! He sticks with it a gets a few more. Worth 80 tickets each people! We have to peel ourselves away from the machines before we're out of nickels completely.
We walk around and try a few more games and then head to the other room of games closer to the door. I make a quick stop for a couple more bucks in nickles. Play a couple of the new games they've added since the last time I was there and a couple rounds of ski ball (I suck at that game). After spending the last of my nickles we decided to cash our tickets in. He has a few hundred and I have just over 400. Not enough for the fountain, but plenty to get other cool things. I take my time and look around at all they've got. Out of the corner of my eye I see something shiny... What's this? A magic wand?! I need to see that. Good thing I ask to see it before declaring it mine...because the first one turned out to be broken. The second one was perfect though. The guy behind the counter pushed the button and the wand glowed to life. Red, blue, green, sparkly, shiny, amazing. I was totally in love you guys. In. Love. I had 40 tickets left to spend and grabbed a rubber chicken to finish off my prize getting. D opted to save his tickets for future use by getting these future use-ish tickets.
The packaging for the wand didn't even make it out the front door (because they happen to have a garbage can right in front of the door). I was making light saber sounds and slashing it this way and that. D laughed at me some more. I'm a laughter inducer. We head back to the car and I roll down the window so I can drive with my wand properly displayed for all to see. My car must look like a beautiful, mystical unicorn like creature with its magical, glowing, fantabulous horn/wand/amazingness. Like I said....In love.
We drive around some more looking at Christmas lights and D takes the opportunity to tell me I'm awesome (thank you very much sir) and that he should have asked me out on a real date instead of a friend date.
Uh...
By now it is pretty late and we're already near D's house so we decided to call it a night...after he invited me to in t check out a video game we had talked about earlier. No thanks man.
The next day I met with L for a lunch at Olive Garden. Of course there were children and of course one sat in the booth behind ours. All I could hear was a very loud "BLAHBLAHBLAHBLAHBLAH"
Sure do love kids....
N was in town for the holidays from Tennessee and it as been a long time since the last time I saw her so of course we had to get together. Of course, we have a lot of mutual friends so suddenly we had a mini middle school girls reunion. At Olive Garden. She brought her new baby boy and S brought her little girl too. My friends sat and laughed about my relationship with kids. S's girl gave me side eye and N's boy looked at me like I was an alien. Why must they always stare into my soul?! Then I notice kids that are just walking past me, to get to the bathrooms I'm standing near, are doing to soul looking thing too! Even older kids. All kids can sense my evil and they stare at me to keep me in line. That's what's going on. Except I'm not evil so I have no idea what's really going on.
We had a nice dinner and it was really good to catch up and hang out with these girls that I've grown up with for most of my life. Half of it at least. It's crazy to me to see how different all of our lives are and how similar I once thought we all were. We're still similar of course...but of the 5 of us at dinner, 2 had kids. One was married. Only 2 of us are single. Some of us have changed our looks a lot and the others hardly at all. What makes us all choose different paths? How do we start from the same point and end up in so many different places? Obviously, going to middle school isn't starting from the same point. We all had lives before that, that shaped us and helped each of us come to the places we are now in life. Anyway... That's what I remember pondering at one point.
I know that more happened, and that there was a lot of funniness and good times, but this is what I have written down as of now, so this is what you get.
Stay tuned for Vacation part two: Car troubles!
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