Sorry I am so late posting this blog, but I had to do the first round of snow removal this morning so the good doctor could get out of the driveway. He declined the salt (I offered), so he slid down the bottom half of the driveway onto the road, because an inch of snow came down while I was shovelling. Fortunately, there weren’t many people out there driving, so his semi-controlled slide ended up fine. We don’t even start down our driveway until the road is free of other vehicles. But that will be a blog for next week, as there are sure to be more snow adventures. 

Last weekend, we went to visit the college kiddos, partly because Tessa forgot to bring some stuff to school, and partly because it seemed like a good idea. If we make a trek to Indianapolis, we like to see some live theater while in town, so we bought tickets to the Indiana Repertory Theater for Fahrenheit 451. Tessa’s new roommate was adventurous enough to join us. The play was amazing, as always for that theater! Travis, Tayden and I decided to park at the garage for our hotel and walk the half mile to the theater. Tessa and her roommate, Kyla, were supposed to meet us at the parking garage. I am completely unsure how this is possible, but Tessa led her poor roommate (who was driving) to the wrong garage despite having the address and a picture of the front of the garage. Tessa has always been directionally challenged. Apparently now, her challenge can override google maps. Tessa didn’t figure out her mistake until they were on the seventh floor of the parking garage. At that point, I told them to park and walk to the theater, using Kyla’s phone as a point of reference, so maybe Tessa’s bad direction aura wouldn’t override the map app. Once we arrived, a whole group of our party was directed to the wrong side of the theater, where they proceeded to incorrectly inform other patrons that they were in our seats. Great start to the day! We finally figured it out and apologized. 

During the intermission, we all decided we had to use the bathroom when they sounded the “three minutes to sit down” bell. This is generally a hectic idea. I knew that the women’s bathroom was right out the back entrance of the theater, so I quickly exited that way. Trent followed. And continued to follow… until he was almost in the sink area of the restroom. Apparently, Tayden screaming, “TRENT, THAT’S THE WOMEN’S” over and over finally sunk in. A horrified Trent jetted out of there before anyone was the wiser. In his defense, the whole setup is a bit confusing. Well, not to Tayden.

The theater was likely relieved when the show was over and we left. Since it was tough to gauge when we would be done at the show, we had time to kill before our dinner reservations. So, we went to the mall, where we encountered an absurdly long Chick-Fi- A line. Seems there was a huge volleyball tournament in town… and everyone wanted Chick-Fil-A. I know it’s pretty good, but is it “wait an hour” good? No! The girls and I went to the Bath and Body Works while the boys went into a shoe store. While there, I noticed a nice lotion sample and pumped some into my palm… except it was a foaming hand soap sample. Seriously!!! Who puts out foaming hand soap as a sample? There was no sink! After my hand was full of sticky, foam soap, I noticed the sample cardboard pieces that you probably use to sample the SMELL of the soap, but still. Stupid. The sample… and me! Then I had to wander around trying to get the sticky soap off my hands, so I found some actual lotion and over-used it in an attempt to dilute the soap. It sort of worked. We quickly bought a couple candles and exited the store because I was at risk of peeing my pants because I was laughing so hard at my own stupidity. 

Thankfully, we needed to get to the restaurant. Due to the volume of people at the mall, the elevator was taking forever. So, I decided we should take the stairs. I actually called them creepy stairs before I knew that they were creepy stairs. And they were super creepy… and dark. They were dark enough to necessitate using a phone light to go down the stairs. I backed out, but Tayden wanted to use them. Once the doors closed behind you, there was NO handle to get back out where you entered. After discovering this, I had to stay at the upstairs door while Tayden went to the bottom with his flashlight to see if he could get out there. When he got out, we all followed. But there was a whole set of stairs opposite the ones we were using that couldn’t be accessed unless you climbed over both railings. They ended opposite the floor landings. WHAT? Where did they go? Were there handles to get out? We were creeped out enough to just get out of there, so we did not explore the alternate reality. 

When we finally got to the restaurant, it was a relief. The server handed me an iPad as the menu and said something to the effect of “the wine by the glass is further along” which made me flip the iPad (in a lovely thick leather case) over to look. Holy cow! My kids had a field day with that! “Seriously Lamb! On the back of the iPad?” Alright, it was stupid, but that was the theme of the day. Turns out there were a number of tabs and the wine by the glass was the tab below the wine by the bottle. I guess that is the same as further along! 

After all that, the rest of the trip was fairly normal. Well, Tessa left her overnight stuff in Kyla’s car when Kyla left to return to school (perhaps an overnight in a hotel with the Haldemans would be too much for anyone). And Tayden had to use mattress pads that I brought for Tessa as his blanket because he didn’t want to share the pull out sofa sleeper with Tessa. We had brought our sleeping pad, but no blankets. Fortunately for him, Tessa had requested that we bring sheets and mattress pads for her school bed. I am unsure how she forgot sheets, but I didn’t ask. After all, she is my daughter. Oh, and I had a panic attack when the bathroom lights in the hotel wouldn’t work in the middle of the night. But I found the master switch by the door to the room. Good thing too, because it apparently turns off the heat, and it was getting a bit chilly. 

All’s well that ends well, so the trip was a success. We may need to use a different name next time we buy online tickets to that theater. Fortunately, Travis left a nice tip at the restaurant, so we will likely be accepted back. I didn’t take any group photos, which works out good for Kyla because she can remain anonymous. Have a great week everyone!