Ohio Travels; The Journal

Let me preface that this is a good old fashioned journal type thing that I kept writing in while my sister Mindy, the kids and I traveled to surprise my Grandmother for her 80th birthday. So it's kind of all over the place, but these are some of the highlights and lolights....have fun reading, it was a blast living it. Pure adventure, laughs, stress, and comedy. This is filled with short stories and random thoughts and ideas along the way. Some makes sense and some does not.

Day one-we leave at 6:45 am to drive one hour to the Airport for an early flight to Ohio.

This morning: Worked myself up into a major panic with a fake smile on my face knowing I was getting on a plane. Very nervous, don't like the idea of being in the air so high off the ground. I think I was born like that; don't like roller coasters either.

The Claim Ticket:

The SkyBus woman at the counter coming here gave me these sticky labels like computer labels. It was odd. For what I said? And my sister laughed. Non traveler she said! She looks at the now defunct SkyBus woman and says, "don't worry I'll take care of her" like I'm a baby or something!!! This does not help my mental processing, it maddens me! I still don't know what the silly stickers are for. So my sister explains to me that they are for of all things....baggage claim! Yes, of course, WHY? Do we need to give these stickers to someone to get our bags off the go roundy thing? No. Why do we need these things I still don't get it but I quietly put them somewhere-I'm sure we'll never need them I say to myself. Whatever. Flash forward. We get off the plane and we get sidetracked, bathroom and bath and body works (shopping in the airport of course~!). By the time we go get our luggage, well of course, ....its locked up. We are last ones to the go roundy thing and guess what? We have to present the now defunct sky bus woman with da da da da.......the claim ticket which I have now carelessly lost. Yep. I panic, sweat on my brow, things go flying out of my purse......can't find it. Dang it! FINALLY the woman tells me an ID will do. What? Why didn't you tell me seven hours ago when you clearly saw me panicked and things flying out of my purse???? What a nice lady. Not.

OK out of order but back to the departing airport.....

As we were going to board the plane, my sister informs me we have to TAKE OUR SHOES OFF too. What? For what? Such silliness, stickers and shoes off, good grief! Liar I said. The man checking our stuff laughs at me and says "not kidding". What if your feet smell I'm thinking? Smelly feet galore I guess. Yes, I forgot, it's because of tighter security, right right. I took them off. Bare feet and all. Along with every other person there. Clearly I'm not a seasoned traveler. Rush rush do this stand there wait, put your S in this box, don't smile, get going now!! Don't boss me I was thinking when I looked at that Air Security person, don't rush me mister I'm too busy puttin' my flippin' shoes back on thankyouverymuch. Phew.

The flight was tense for me, I cried silently while my sister and the Oldest and my niece sat behind me. She tried to rub my arm during take off and I shrugged her off. Don't touch me! Argh! Let me get over myself....I'm too independent for my own good I think. Flight was fine, it helped to grade a paper or two of hers for her kids and it diverted my very thin attention. Side note--We are on SKY BUS. The attendants were jovial and quite humorous on the PA system with each other; clearly a very laid back (and now defunct) company. ****Little did they know it was their last day with the company. Ironically, they pointed out on the PA system that one of them on the crew was having their last day and "moving on" after that day to something else. Kind of funny, don't you think, since it was ALL of their last days? I find it hilarious. ***** When we deplaned it was straight onto the Tarmac. Not into the terminal. Odd I thought but then with SkyBus, you get what you pay for. And we were not paying a lot for that muffler.

We get our rental car, and we're off. ---Thank goodness for the GPS in a state we've never driven in or even been in since we were little little. We are driving down the road. We pass the mall area. Syd says out loud, "I love Dicks". To this we cannot breathe we are laughing so hard but so silently in the front seat with tears from laughing. Note we were not shocked out of our pants and angry because we SAW the Dicks Sporting Goods immediately and knew what she meant. Of course she means Dicks Sporting Goods but the Oldest knows this word from the bad kids at school so his eyes bug out of his head not putting two and two about DSG the store. We DIED. And then Syd says as a kicker (who btw is completely oblivious to what she just said oh how I love this innocence) "very interesting" in a Oriental type accent when she saw us cracking up silently and then at some point not so silently. Do you know us? We are completely incapable of silent laughing for long. It's nearly impossible. We are loud laughers. I almost peed my pants. Done. I was so done. We laughed and laughed.

We meet our cousins and we go ambush our Gramma and Aunt D at Perkins. I absolutely cannot believe I did not have my camera handy for that moment. To video it or take a picture of her face, their faces. I think my Gramma had no clue. I have my doubts if my Aunt D knew or not, but matters it does not. ---But how weird would that be, to walk up, haven't seen them in a couple years and instead of smiling and hugging, I'm videoing? Odd bird. Maybe glad I didn't. Phew. We had a nice lunch, she asked why were there, my Aunt knew but she did not, the surprise part was the next day and she was oblivious. :) Insert evil laugh. :) So we said we were there to simply say, "Happy Birthday". I think she bought it. She was too busy being happy to see us to question much I guess. We are stinkers. We go back to the hotel and let the kids happily swim while we all sit around the pool catching up. Much fun. This night we are going to surprise my Uncle at the bowling alley where he works. I'm bowling!

My sister calls the GPS a "Never Lost". ??? I like it. Sold.

Did you KNOW it was so flat in Ohio? I am ignorant. I see this quickly.

Now we are driving 40 minutes to a bowling alley to surprise my uncle-wait it turned out to be an hour.... This, could be a book. We are having adventure. Plus I drove by myself to a store in a place I do not know!!! Something called Meijers? Not too far from the hotel but still.....Its the small things. Really. So proud that we are doing this little thing without the boys. We don't need our hubbies for EVERYTHING. Just SOME things. Ahem..... BTW both of the Littlest' ears are infected. My poor honey-and I'm all the way here. But he's got it. He so does.

My sister beat me in bowling. She got a 136 and I got a 124 and I don't like it! Here's a picture of me after I got a strike; uh the ONE time I got a strike...wait I think I had two. Yep, I had two. I had a margarita (sorry Hol) and the kids had a blast, and my sister organized everyone's shoes because clearly, very clearly, she's a nut like that. :) Who cares? Shoes were everywhere, we all had our beautiful bowling shoes on, and she just lined them up, paired them up, I even took a picture after she did it. I'll refrain sharing it here. Just imagine a picture of rows of lined up organized shoes. That about sums it up my friends. Me, not so organized, her very organized. I'm ok with that. I kind of like it that way really. Fur real yo.

It's night time, it's late. We get back to the hotel very late. The kids are laughing maniacally in the back seat, deliriously tired I suppose. We get them cleaned up, as my sister calls it, "jammified" and in bed. We do the same. It was 1230 am when I laid my head to sleep on that pillow. I'm solidly and firmly in "la la" land when my cell phone rings!! I fly out of the bed and grab it fast, it's my honey. Dang that's a loud ring. I'm ready to chew him out (and still did I think) when he tells me what my ears could not comprehend, "SKYBUS is now closed for business, no more flights, you have no way home." Eh? Surely you jest. I look at the clock, wildly thinking, look at the sleeping kids and my frowning sister who is absolutely glaring at me, back at the clock I look to remove my locked eyes from her mean looking ones :) and I am silent. Thinking. Processing. I go to the bathroom turn on the light and close the door not to wake the kids. I harshly whisper to my husband, 'but what are you talking about and why are you telling me this now what can I do now at 130 in the morning, I'm utterly exhausted' type thing I'm sure I said. I need my sleep I'm CERTAIN I said. I decide my sister needs to know at this very second since I do (I mean why should I worry alone?) and I go out and whisper to her what he's told me. Add this to the list my friends, this really happened. We are now stranded in Ohio. Clearly we thrive off drama and we went to bed thinking this, it's mandatory you know, it helped us to think this way. OMG, we have no way home, we're stuck here forever with these two kids. What oh what shall we do? Save me, save me. I'm sure it did help us to think this way. It didn't last long as the last thought I had in my head before numbly falling asleep was 'well, I'll just drive home with this rental car we have'. That helped me fall asleep quicker. I feel certain it did. But still.. I heard my sister tiptoe off to the bathroom and call her honey. Beleive me, I didn't know it then, but we were about to have one stressed out Saturday morning before my Gramma's surprise party. And man, did we...

....to be continued when I have another chunk of time......soon...I promise...and I know you're waiting with bated breath.....so I'll hurry faster.....just for you.....