holding down the fort: an adventure in chatting with everyone, nearly missed movies, & an 80's sound track

Coach taught a class in Oklahoma City over the weekend. I held down the fort. 

On Friday, I visited my dad. We video chatted Curly after his PT session. It was a beautiful 65 degree day, so we sat on the patio of the rehab place - him in the shade, me not in the shade. Dad had a million questions for Curly. She was doing her hair, because she'd just gotten out of the shower.

Dad:  why are you pulling on your hair?

Curly:  I'm putting gel in it?

Dad:  What?

Curly and me in unison:  Gel. Like hair gel.

Curly:  You probably used a lot of hair gel back when you had hair. 

Rae got invited with a group to a friend's house Saturday night. Friend lives a mere 42 minutes away. None of the other invited kids live anywhere near us. Eek. (a pitfall of going to a private school). This after Rae had a volleyball tournament that was 3o minutes away - opposite direction from Friend's house. I thought about saying No, but decided that Kay and I would go to the movies at a theater nearby Friend's. 

When I told Rae she could go to Friend's while Kay and I did something in the area, 

Rae:  Can you tell me what I'm missing, like what are you and Kay doing?

My take away from that:  Rae might value spending time with me over hanging with friends. It's a sort of punch in the arm, right?

Anyway, Rae opted to hang with her crew, and Kay and I went to see Heart of the Beast with Brad Pitt. It was rated PG-13 and not for sex (which works), plus the 6:25 showtime seemed doable. 

The girls and I went to 4:30 mass. I'd not done the driving math, and when I paused between prayers to do said math, I wondered if maybe we should leave after communion, but we'd arrived 5 minutes late after I sped all the way from the volleyball tournament and I always sit near the front (late or not), because I cannot receive the host - only the wine and sometimes they run out of wine, and I don't like to run the risk of those who take the wine backwashing the host into the wine goblet . . . so we stayed until the end of mass. 

We ran into everyone and their brother, no - what I mean is, we ran into MY brother, Mike, who'd just visited my mom and didn't have time to get to mass near his home. Then we ran into Ray and Michael, the father with his son, who has a cognitive disability. (I've shared how Reg is buddies with Michael - they have the same birthday and Reg takes him the track to prep him for Special Olympics, and Reg replies to his Happy Hump Day texts without fail). We've not been in town for a several weekends, so we've not stopped to chat with them in ages. We were getting in our car and a couple who help out at the youth ministry group appeared, ready and willing to chat about how Kay's school day takes place in the empty school building at the same parish where their son, a recenly ordained priest, works.  

Following our social time after mass, we got home and I sprung the 'HERE'S THE PLAN' on the girls - which included Rae taking a quick shower, and them grabbing dinner from the crockpot and hopping in the car. I loaded my gf dinner in a thermos to eat at the theater. GPS had us arriving at Friend's house at 6:35. The movie was 5 minutes away. I banked on 20 minutes of preveiws. 

Who guessed that I don't go to the theater often?

Driving 27 miles away to hang out for the night is far. At one point, we drove over a hill and looked out on a large prairie, and I told the girls I thought we might be in Wyoming. I played 80's hits on spotify and sang along, daring them to even think about touching the skip button. 

After we dropped Rae off, things started to go sideways. My GPS refused to show the driving directions. I had to hold my phone and stare at the blue lighthouse like dot - the one it shows when you're walking and you have to spin around to see which way to go. Am I alone here? I assumed the theater was at the mall that we'd just driven past, so it wasn't all that challenging to find, but functioning GPS has me spoiled. 

Me:  Hey, there's a Von Maur here. Good to know that living in the boonies doesn't mean they don't have access to good shopping

We pulled around the Von Maur building, and there was the theater . . .  Boarded up. Parking lot totaly empty. WTF?!

Kay:  Maybe it's around back.

I took this pic after the movie. When we saw this boarded up side - it was still sunny out.

Me:  It's NOT around back - see, it's boarded up (she says as she continues to drive around back).

There we discovered a packed lot and a whole new theater. And what is wrong with the OG building? So wasteful. Totally weird. We ran inside. The kiosk wouldn't sell us tickets to the 6:25 show, so the ticket guy told us to talk to the consession people. We got our tickets. 

Me:  Do you think the previews are still playing?

Teen employee:  No, it's been playing for like 10 min. (Bubble burster).

We raced to theater 16. Kay insisted I was going to the wrong theater, but I was right. The one she was pointing at was the same movie, playing at a different time. Who's the rookie now, eh?

We sat in our seats in the front row (not the upfront front where you get whiplash). I googled what we missed and had her read it, but honestly there's very little dialogue in the whole production. Safe to say, we didn't miss much. The movie was intense at times, but not much of a movie - unless you're into watching a man and his dog fight off wolves and a bear and deal with injuries, etc. I surprised Kay and pulled one of my cookies from the freezer out of my purse as a treat. 

Afterward, we killed an hour in Von Maur, then went to get Rae. I told funny stories on the way home, and all in all it felt like they had a fun time. Kay thanked me for spending the evening with her. 

Sunday included some deep house cleaning, as I wanted to make myself feel accomplished since I didn't get to go to Omaha with Tank and Reg for parents' weekend. Reg said one of his friend's moms is super energetic and chatty and she wants to meet me. "She's just like you." I take that as a compliment. Since this mom is from Omaha, I feel like I won't have to wait till next parents' weekend to meet her. Maybe we can visit for a b-ball game. 

Kay was helpful with the deep cleaning, but dished out quite a bit of attitude. Just so we're clear that it wasn't all movies and cookies and 80's songs. I remained calm (which isn't always my knee jerk response), but pointed out that she was welcome to toss her attitude out the window. Me thinks she likes to be helpful, but only if it's her idea/her approach and not if it includes doing things to specifications, like reorganizing bins of hats and gloves and sunscreen in the mudroom so that they fit in the overhead cabinet vs sticking them in hard to reach spaces above the cabinets while in disarray. She insited they wouldn't fit in the cabinets. I knew they would. One guess who was right. 

Delish- I added
veggies to the sheet pan.

In other news, I tried a new recipe (chili honey chicken and sweet potatoes) Friday night (yes, we ate at 7:30, why is that relevant?) that Suzanne shared on her blog. It was a big hit. Mini and I played Code Names with the girls after dinner, and Mini only called one of her sisters an idiot once, but everyone laughed - well, Mini didn't but I'm not counting her. 

My dryer is broken, but GW got fixed AGAIN. I've not even shared that she wouldn't start - sat in the garage for weeks, but Coach got it to start Thursday evening and we drove it to the shop. Just a battery. My baby is home! Nevermind that I bloodied and bruised myself loading several of the carseats into the minivan last week, so I could take four littles to the library on a rainy day. *sigh*

Also, Sunday night Mini and I stumbled on a show 'Rooster' with Steve Carrell. Love it. 

*****

What's new in your world? See a good movie? Start a new show? Have you ever been so late to a movie that you missed the first ten minutes? New dinners? Is 80's music your jam while you drive? Would you drive 27 miles one way for your kid to hang with friends? Have you organized a mud room or other space recently?