So, this week is going by slowly for me. Not too much to report.
I'm looking forward to the weekend - Matt and I are going to Michigan for a few days to visit his family. They've rented a lakehouse. We're heading there Saturday morning and coming back Tuesday sometime.
Erin is going to court tomorrow in Skokie, IL. Last year, this guy (Timothy Jones, according to the subpeona) kept stealing from her mailbox (mainly those checks that credit cards send you so you can transfer balances or buy big purchases). This guy (and his girl accomplice) were allowed to cash quite a few of the checks and it was just a big mess for Erin. The credit card company wouldn't stop sending the checks to her and kept giving her hassles when the charges would come in. Plus, her mailbox was in a secured area that you had to have a key to access... I have no idea how the guy was doing it. I don't think she was the only one he stole from either. Now, he's been arrested and his trial is tomorrow. Erin has to testify at the trial. I can't wait to hear how it goes.
That's all I got for now. : )
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Mission accomplished... barely
So, I had a mission that I was going to get those stupid Skybridge parking garage people to rent me a spot. I had been dealing with this guy named Todd who did not respond to my emails, phone calls, in person visit... not exactly a model employee. I found out that the parking company didn't think he was all that awesome either, because he got the boot.
Anwyay, the other day, I stopped in and asked the guy that works the cashier booth who I should call about parking... I got a brand new name (Joni) and phone number. I started thinking... here we go again.
I called her this morning and I was shocked... she actually answered her phone! She told me I could come in and sign up for monthly parking around 10:30am this morning. I jumped on it and left work for an early lunch to do just that.
Things seemed to be going along swimmingly until I tried to actually use the new sensor card to get into the garage. It did not work. Of course, why would it?!?
So, I went back to the garage office and Joni was gone. She had left to go grab lunch. I figured she'd be back in a few minutes, so I waited. A half hour later, still no Joni. I called and left her a message that the sensor card wasn't working, but she hadn't gotten back to me. (Btw, she knew I was going to try it out immediately because I told her so. She told me to give her a few minutes. I wasn't taking any chances - good thing I did that!) I decided to park my car back on the street. Big surprise... no spots on the street. Someone had snagged mine before I was even out of it 2 seconds. So, I had to go back to the garage and take a ticket to get in. I thought I'd stop off at the office on my way back down to the street.
Luckily, she was in there and a manager was there now, too. He was able to get my sensor card working (she had entered something wrong in the computer), but they couldn't figure out a good way for me to check that the sensor card was working without driving my car out of the garage and back in. So, I did that.
After all this crap (and lots of wasted time), there wasn't even a proper parking spot left in the garage. People had double parked and what not. I ended up parking right next to a wall where I had to shimmy my way out without rubbing up against my dirty car or the dirty wall... all while wearing white pants. Awesome.
And as icing on the cake, my cab driver on the way back to the office was a complete jerk. I told him I wanted to go to Wacker & Monroe. When we got a couple blocks from Wacker, I asked him to make a left on Wacker and I would get out on the right hand side. He got mad at me and told me that if I had wanted to go to 71 South Wacker (the actual street address), I should have just said that in the first place and not just Wacker & Monroe. Huh? I asked him why it mattered? He wouldn't have taken a different route, so why does he care? He said that there is a big difference between the two. Again, huh?!?! Lots of people give the street corners and not the exact address. Whatever. There goes your tip, dude.
All I can say is that I'm happy I finally have a parking spot.
Anwyay, the other day, I stopped in and asked the guy that works the cashier booth who I should call about parking... I got a brand new name (Joni) and phone number. I started thinking... here we go again.
I called her this morning and I was shocked... she actually answered her phone! She told me I could come in and sign up for monthly parking around 10:30am this morning. I jumped on it and left work for an early lunch to do just that.
Things seemed to be going along swimmingly until I tried to actually use the new sensor card to get into the garage. It did not work. Of course, why would it?!?
So, I went back to the garage office and Joni was gone. She had left to go grab lunch. I figured she'd be back in a few minutes, so I waited. A half hour later, still no Joni. I called and left her a message that the sensor card wasn't working, but she hadn't gotten back to me. (Btw, she knew I was going to try it out immediately because I told her so. She told me to give her a few minutes. I wasn't taking any chances - good thing I did that!) I decided to park my car back on the street. Big surprise... no spots on the street. Someone had snagged mine before I was even out of it 2 seconds. So, I had to go back to the garage and take a ticket to get in. I thought I'd stop off at the office on my way back down to the street.
Luckily, she was in there and a manager was there now, too. He was able to get my sensor card working (she had entered something wrong in the computer), but they couldn't figure out a good way for me to check that the sensor card was working without driving my car out of the garage and back in. So, I did that.
After all this crap (and lots of wasted time), there wasn't even a proper parking spot left in the garage. People had double parked and what not. I ended up parking right next to a wall where I had to shimmy my way out without rubbing up against my dirty car or the dirty wall... all while wearing white pants. Awesome.
And as icing on the cake, my cab driver on the way back to the office was a complete jerk. I told him I wanted to go to Wacker & Monroe. When we got a couple blocks from Wacker, I asked him to make a left on Wacker and I would get out on the right hand side. He got mad at me and told me that if I had wanted to go to 71 South Wacker (the actual street address), I should have just said that in the first place and not just Wacker & Monroe. Huh? I asked him why it mattered? He wouldn't have taken a different route, so why does he care? He said that there is a big difference between the two. Again, huh?!?! Lots of people give the street corners and not the exact address. Whatever. There goes your tip, dude.
All I can say is that I'm happy I finally have a parking spot.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Happy Anniversary
I missed my parents' anniversary - it was July 8th. Terrible daughter! I thought I'd go ahead and wish them a happy anniversary even though it's a few days late. Sorry guys!
Happy 36th Anniversary Mom & Dad!!! : )
Happy 36th Anniversary Mom & Dad!!! : )
Float trip
Friday morning, I woke up and felt like a train had run over me... twice. This reminded me that I am not 21 anymore and can't recover from a big night out like I used to be able to. What was I thinking?!?!
Packing was NO fun. I was just throwing stuff in bags and hoping I wasn't forgetting anything important. Lucky for me, I'm a dork and kept a list of stuff that I wanted to take in a spreadsheet, so I looked at that later just to be sure I had everything. Of course, Matt told everyone about my spreadsheet and they had a field day with that. Thanks, hun. ; )
Packing for a camping trip is much easier when you are driving and not flying and have to check a bag. We had all the essentials, though, and it helped that we were borrowing a tent from Crystal.
The flight was rough... hungover on a flight is always a bad thing, but when the flight is also a bumpy one... not a good combo. Matt was not enjoying it at all. He was lookin' pretty green and was really happy when we finally landed.
We got our rental car, which ended up being a Mazda 5 sport (kind of like an SUV/car). It was definitely bigger than the mid-size economy car I had reserved. It worked out great for the trip. We could have slept in that car if we needed to. Let me just say that the people working in the Hertz counter at the StL airport were about the worst in customer service. We were in a line of about 7 people waiting for a register to open up to process us so we could take the bus to get our car. When we got there, two cashiers were working. When we were about 3 people back in line (which was still growing), one of the cashiers just stopped taking customers. The woman at the front of line says "are you ready for me yet?" and the guy says, "nope, I'm going on lunch" and just left. Nice. He couldn't have spent the extra 10 minutes to help the other cashier get through the rest of us? We just all looked at each other like "is he for real?"... yep, he was.
We drove from the StL airport to Steeleville, MO (about 2 hours). Since our flight had been delayed about an hour and it took forever to get the rental car, we were now driving smack in the middle of rush hour. Awesome.
We had no cooler or food really because we had flown, so we stopped off in Cuba, MO to stock up on supplies. We went to the biggest grocery store we could find. It was called Mace. When we got out of the car, it was SO hot and humid. Matt and I were both thinking that we were going to boil sleeping in a tent. We bought two Bud Light styrofoam coolers and loaded them up with beer, pop, ice, and snacks for the weekend.
We met up with JJ and Jerry for dinner at The Feed Store Bar & Grill (or as Matt kept calling it, "the Feed Bag"). The place was very local, but the food was really good. They had some fun stuff on the walls and the chairs at the bar were made out of tractor seats.
We made it to the campground just as it was getting dark. Luckily, Tara and Crystal had already started setting up me and Matt's tent. The thing was huge! We nicknamed it the Mansion. It was a 7 person tent and I could stand up and walk around in it. So awesome!
We got all set up with our air mattress and lanterns and such. I had bought a battery operated ceiling fan knowing the tent was going to feel like a sauna. That thing came in super handy on Friday night when it was really hot. Just circulating air around helped cool the tent down tons. Of course, it was supposed to hang from the top of "any tent"... except ours, apparently. The fan and tent were both made by Coleman, too, so this made no sense to us. But Matt was able to tie the fan to the top of my suitcase and point it directly at us.
On Friday night, the only people camping were Matt & me, Crystal & Tara, JJ & Jerry and Mark & Erika. The rest joined us Saturday morning before the float.
No one had bought any firewood for Friday night, so Jerry gathered up some stuff and he and Matt proceeded to get a fire going. Matt was determined that we would have an awesome fire. He was a little obsessed. But he did a great job! MVP of Friday night!
The area we were camping in was the "loud area" and people are allowed to play music and be annoying-ly loud until 1am. We paid $5 extra to camp in this area. On Friday night, this was definitely the case. We sat around the fire and had some drinks and sweated. It was a scorcher still. I'm not exactly sure what time we all turned in, but the noise around us didn't stop until about 1:30am. And the campers in the spot next to us were loud and high. We were getting whiffs of it every once in awhile and I was having flashbacks to Amsterdam.
In the morning, we got up and packed our coolers for the float trip. We (Matt, me, Jerry, JJ and Crystal) were sharing a 6-person raft. We had lots of beer, vodka, water, orange Propel (that stuff mixes really well with Absolut Mandarin vodka - my drink of choice), jello-shots, and snacks. We had bought Lunchables (per Crystal's suggestion) and those worked out great. They hit the spot and were totally waterproof.
We bought these cool koozies that go around your neck... they worked out so well on the float!
We started the 6-mile float around 10:30am. I think there were almost 30 of us in the group... mostly lawyers that worked with Tara or had worked with Tara before. A few people took canoes, but most were on 6-person floats. I think that was definitely the way to go... not as much possibility of tipping over and pretty relaxing. The day went along with us floating down the river for a little bit and then stopping off at different points along the way for snack/drink breaks. The river was SO crowded, so every stop was like a party with lots of other people stopped as well. It was kind of like Spring Break... tons of drunk people, some girls flashing for beads or beer, beer bongs, a blow-up doll, etc... you get the picture.
Some highlights (and lowlights) from the float part of the trip...
- At one stop, there was a spring feeding into the river from nearby caves and it was ice-cold. We all walked up to where it was and you couldn't keep your feet in for very long. Now that I think about it, this must have been where the water for the showers in the woman's restroom came from... because they were FREEZING! ; )
- Matt tried to drown me. Not really, but I made the mistake of breathing under water when he dunked me and I inhaled/swallowed about half the river. Disgusting, considering all the people that had been using the river as a bathroom all day long. I also ended up with a bottom full of rocks because it was more shallow than we both expected. Jerry had dunked Matt about 5 seconds earlier and it was lot deeper there.
- Matt almost drowned. Again, not really... but WAY closer than I came to it. Actually, he was hanging onto the raft and floating along and we hit some faster moving water and the raft turned so he was in front of it. Then the water got shallower and he hit bottom and was draggin' a55 along on the rocks (ouch!). He eventually stopped when he hit those rocks, but the raft kept wanting to go forward over the top of him. At first, it was all fun and games (ie, we were laughing at his misfortune), but then I saw the look on his face and realized he was not having any fun, so we jumped out and hung onto the raft so he could get out from underneath it.
- Crystal drank a beer out of a plastic bat and then did a few spins around the bat and totally wiped out on the rocky beach. Ouch! Here's another girl doing the same thing...
Step 1. Drink a beer out of a bat
Step 2. Spin around the bat the number of seconds it took you to drink the beer
Step 3. Try not to wipe out!
Step 4. Hit the beer can with the bat (she didn't get around to this step!)
- Fried chicken is good (wet or dry). Someone brought a ton of fried chicken along for the float and at every stop it was devoured. At one stop, someone from a different group stole one of the tubs of fried chicken right out of the canoe (how terrible is that!) Even after the downpour (and back at the campsite later that night), people were still diggin' into the chicken.
- We saw a huge black snake swim by us. No clue what kind it was, but after that we were a little more hesistant to just jump right in the river.
- About an hour away from the end of the trip, the sky turned an ominous shade of grey and the thunder and lightning started. Not looking good. Yep, a few minutes later, total downpour. I'm talking about the kind of rain that hurts when it hits you. And it was ice-cold. We kept paddling through it, though. I think our logic was that if people in metal canoes were still going ahead with all that lightning, we'd be fine in our raft. At this point, I was wishing I had my rain jacket, but at the last minute in the morning I threw it back in the tent and decided not to bring it (well, it was after everyone scoffed at me for considering to take an umbrella and rain jacket along on the float).
- Drunk people do lots of dumb (& funny) things. Rafts can be made into slides, trampolines, etc. Trees sticking out of the river can be used as if they were a bull ride. A group of drunk guys thought it would be awesome to carry their raft up on top of a hill and use it as a slide to propel them out into the river (which was pretty shallow at that point). Lots of people stopped to watch this scene and I'm pretty sure everyone thought nothing good was going to come of this... but they lived and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. I can't even remember all the other stupid stuff I saw people do.
Erika doing a beer bong
Some girl using a blow-up doll as her raft
Flip the raft over and it's a slide
This had disaster written all over it - drunk guys, raft on top of a hill, shallow water
Jumping off the cliff
Some other random pics from the float...
After we finally made it to the end of the 6-miles ("just around the next bend"... yeah, right!), we boarded the bus back to where we had started. The bus driver drove really fast... like she was driving a race car at the Indy 500 or something. But we made it back alive and the breeze felt nice!
We showered and headed back to the campground. Well, I showered. Matt used this weekend as an excuse not to shower. The river was like a bath for him or something, I guess. Good thing I had the Febreeze in our tent! The women's showers were freezing, as I mentioned before. But for some reason, the guys showers were still hot. What's that about?!? It felt really nice to rinse off. It was 50 cents for about 3 minutes, so I went through $1 because it takes forever to rinse shampoo & conditioner out of my hair.
Back at the campsite, Matt was already working on starting the fire for the night. He's obsessed, I tell you. But, this night, he had some competition for Master of the Fire duties. A friend of Crystal and Tara's was also obsessed with fire and even brought her own fire gloves to work on the campfire. Matt nicknamed her "Mitts" because of the gloves. He and Mitts kept the fire burning all night for us.
Matt found a stick and we cooked our hotdogs (Hebrew National... best dogs ever!) over the fire. Everyone else used the grill. After the first round of dogs on the fire, we used the grill, too. It was hot (for Matt) standing over the fire! Everyone had brought so much food and we snacked lots and drank the rest of our beer/vodka drinks. We even made s'mores. I forgot how much I love those things!
Being in the "loud area" on Friday night was much louder than it was on Saturday night. I guess everyone was passed out from the all-day drinking and floating. I think our group was the loudest on Saturday night, which isn't really saying much because we weren't really that loud.
We sat around the fire chatting, listening to music, etc. Because it had rained earlier, it was actually very comfortable... almost chilly. Much nicer than Friday night.
A lot of people turned in early. Matt and I were part of the final four left up. Mainly because I think he was enjoying watching the fire. He told me he wanted to stay up until it went out. I vetoed that... that thing was not going out until morning. It was a good fire!
Sleeping on Saturday night was so much better. We woke up in the early hours of the morning and were freezing cold. We had been sleeping on top of the sleeping bag on Friday night. Matt was using our second sleeping bag as a pillow because only one pillow made the cut into the suitcases. But, Sat night, we had to get inside the sleeping bags and share the one pillow we had... it was that cold.
On Sunday morning, we packed the car up and took the tent down.
We went with Jerry & JJ to grab some brunch at the Huddle House (same as a Waffle House). We were starving.
Matt & I drove back to the StL airport and dropped off the rental car. We were able to get on an earlier flight going back to Chicago, which was super because the flights were all delayed. We got home a few hours earlier than we would have originally. We were both so worn out after the trip... we slept like rocks Sunday night!
Matt & I had a ton of fun and are hoping to do another trip like this again next year! Thanks to Crystal and Tara for organizing everything!
For more pics, click here.
My friend Crystal also has a write-up of the trip on her blog.
Packing was NO fun. I was just throwing stuff in bags and hoping I wasn't forgetting anything important. Lucky for me, I'm a dork and kept a list of stuff that I wanted to take in a spreadsheet, so I looked at that later just to be sure I had everything. Of course, Matt told everyone about my spreadsheet and they had a field day with that. Thanks, hun. ; )
Packing for a camping trip is much easier when you are driving and not flying and have to check a bag. We had all the essentials, though, and it helped that we were borrowing a tent from Crystal.
The flight was rough... hungover on a flight is always a bad thing, but when the flight is also a bumpy one... not a good combo. Matt was not enjoying it at all. He was lookin' pretty green and was really happy when we finally landed.
We got our rental car, which ended up being a Mazda 5 sport (kind of like an SUV/car). It was definitely bigger than the mid-size economy car I had reserved. It worked out great for the trip. We could have slept in that car if we needed to. Let me just say that the people working in the Hertz counter at the StL airport were about the worst in customer service. We were in a line of about 7 people waiting for a register to open up to process us so we could take the bus to get our car. When we got there, two cashiers were working. When we were about 3 people back in line (which was still growing), one of the cashiers just stopped taking customers. The woman at the front of line says "are you ready for me yet?" and the guy says, "nope, I'm going on lunch" and just left. Nice. He couldn't have spent the extra 10 minutes to help the other cashier get through the rest of us? We just all looked at each other like "is he for real?"... yep, he was.
We drove from the StL airport to Steeleville, MO (about 2 hours). Since our flight had been delayed about an hour and it took forever to get the rental car, we were now driving smack in the middle of rush hour. Awesome.
We had no cooler or food really because we had flown, so we stopped off in Cuba, MO to stock up on supplies. We went to the biggest grocery store we could find. It was called Mace. When we got out of the car, it was SO hot and humid. Matt and I were both thinking that we were going to boil sleeping in a tent. We bought two Bud Light styrofoam coolers and loaded them up with beer, pop, ice, and snacks for the weekend.
We met up with JJ and Jerry for dinner at The Feed Store Bar & Grill (or as Matt kept calling it, "the Feed Bag"). The place was very local, but the food was really good. They had some fun stuff on the walls and the chairs at the bar were made out of tractor seats.
We made it to the campground just as it was getting dark. Luckily, Tara and Crystal had already started setting up me and Matt's tent. The thing was huge! We nicknamed it the Mansion. It was a 7 person tent and I could stand up and walk around in it. So awesome!
We got all set up with our air mattress and lanterns and such. I had bought a battery operated ceiling fan knowing the tent was going to feel like a sauna. That thing came in super handy on Friday night when it was really hot. Just circulating air around helped cool the tent down tons. Of course, it was supposed to hang from the top of "any tent"... except ours, apparently. The fan and tent were both made by Coleman, too, so this made no sense to us. But Matt was able to tie the fan to the top of my suitcase and point it directly at us.
On Friday night, the only people camping were Matt & me, Crystal & Tara, JJ & Jerry and Mark & Erika. The rest joined us Saturday morning before the float.
No one had bought any firewood for Friday night, so Jerry gathered up some stuff and he and Matt proceeded to get a fire going. Matt was determined that we would have an awesome fire. He was a little obsessed. But he did a great job! MVP of Friday night!
The area we were camping in was the "loud area" and people are allowed to play music and be annoying-ly loud until 1am. We paid $5 extra to camp in this area. On Friday night, this was definitely the case. We sat around the fire and had some drinks and sweated. It was a scorcher still. I'm not exactly sure what time we all turned in, but the noise around us didn't stop until about 1:30am. And the campers in the spot next to us were loud and high. We were getting whiffs of it every once in awhile and I was having flashbacks to Amsterdam.
In the morning, we got up and packed our coolers for the float trip. We (Matt, me, Jerry, JJ and Crystal) were sharing a 6-person raft. We had lots of beer, vodka, water, orange Propel (that stuff mixes really well with Absolut Mandarin vodka - my drink of choice), jello-shots, and snacks. We had bought Lunchables (per Crystal's suggestion) and those worked out great. They hit the spot and were totally waterproof.
We bought these cool koozies that go around your neck... they worked out so well on the float!
We started the 6-mile float around 10:30am. I think there were almost 30 of us in the group... mostly lawyers that worked with Tara or had worked with Tara before. A few people took canoes, but most were on 6-person floats. I think that was definitely the way to go... not as much possibility of tipping over and pretty relaxing. The day went along with us floating down the river for a little bit and then stopping off at different points along the way for snack/drink breaks. The river was SO crowded, so every stop was like a party with lots of other people stopped as well. It was kind of like Spring Break... tons of drunk people, some girls flashing for beads or beer, beer bongs, a blow-up doll, etc... you get the picture.
Some highlights (and lowlights) from the float part of the trip...
- At one stop, there was a spring feeding into the river from nearby caves and it was ice-cold. We all walked up to where it was and you couldn't keep your feet in for very long. Now that I think about it, this must have been where the water for the showers in the woman's restroom came from... because they were FREEZING! ; )
- Matt tried to drown me. Not really, but I made the mistake of breathing under water when he dunked me and I inhaled/swallowed about half the river. Disgusting, considering all the people that had been using the river as a bathroom all day long. I also ended up with a bottom full of rocks because it was more shallow than we both expected. Jerry had dunked Matt about 5 seconds earlier and it was lot deeper there.
- Matt almost drowned. Again, not really... but WAY closer than I came to it. Actually, he was hanging onto the raft and floating along and we hit some faster moving water and the raft turned so he was in front of it. Then the water got shallower and he hit bottom and was draggin' a55 along on the rocks (ouch!). He eventually stopped when he hit those rocks, but the raft kept wanting to go forward over the top of him. At first, it was all fun and games (ie, we were laughing at his misfortune), but then I saw the look on his face and realized he was not having any fun, so we jumped out and hung onto the raft so he could get out from underneath it.
- Crystal drank a beer out of a plastic bat and then did a few spins around the bat and totally wiped out on the rocky beach. Ouch! Here's another girl doing the same thing...
Step 1. Drink a beer out of a bat
Step 2. Spin around the bat the number of seconds it took you to drink the beer
Step 3. Try not to wipe out!
Step 4. Hit the beer can with the bat (she didn't get around to this step!)
- Fried chicken is good (wet or dry). Someone brought a ton of fried chicken along for the float and at every stop it was devoured. At one stop, someone from a different group stole one of the tubs of fried chicken right out of the canoe (how terrible is that!) Even after the downpour (and back at the campsite later that night), people were still diggin' into the chicken.
- We saw a huge black snake swim by us. No clue what kind it was, but after that we were a little more hesistant to just jump right in the river.
- About an hour away from the end of the trip, the sky turned an ominous shade of grey and the thunder and lightning started. Not looking good. Yep, a few minutes later, total downpour. I'm talking about the kind of rain that hurts when it hits you. And it was ice-cold. We kept paddling through it, though. I think our logic was that if people in metal canoes were still going ahead with all that lightning, we'd be fine in our raft. At this point, I was wishing I had my rain jacket, but at the last minute in the morning I threw it back in the tent and decided not to bring it (well, it was after everyone scoffed at me for considering to take an umbrella and rain jacket along on the float).
- Drunk people do lots of dumb (& funny) things. Rafts can be made into slides, trampolines, etc. Trees sticking out of the river can be used as if they were a bull ride. A group of drunk guys thought it would be awesome to carry their raft up on top of a hill and use it as a slide to propel them out into the river (which was pretty shallow at that point). Lots of people stopped to watch this scene and I'm pretty sure everyone thought nothing good was going to come of this... but they lived and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. I can't even remember all the other stupid stuff I saw people do.
Erika doing a beer bong
Some girl using a blow-up doll as her raft
Flip the raft over and it's a slide
This had disaster written all over it - drunk guys, raft on top of a hill, shallow water
Jumping off the cliff
Some other random pics from the float...
After we finally made it to the end of the 6-miles ("just around the next bend"... yeah, right!), we boarded the bus back to where we had started. The bus driver drove really fast... like she was driving a race car at the Indy 500 or something. But we made it back alive and the breeze felt nice!
We showered and headed back to the campground. Well, I showered. Matt used this weekend as an excuse not to shower. The river was like a bath for him or something, I guess. Good thing I had the Febreeze in our tent! The women's showers were freezing, as I mentioned before. But for some reason, the guys showers were still hot. What's that about?!? It felt really nice to rinse off. It was 50 cents for about 3 minutes, so I went through $1 because it takes forever to rinse shampoo & conditioner out of my hair.
Back at the campsite, Matt was already working on starting the fire for the night. He's obsessed, I tell you. But, this night, he had some competition for Master of the Fire duties. A friend of Crystal and Tara's was also obsessed with fire and even brought her own fire gloves to work on the campfire. Matt nicknamed her "Mitts" because of the gloves. He and Mitts kept the fire burning all night for us.
Matt found a stick and we cooked our hotdogs (Hebrew National... best dogs ever!) over the fire. Everyone else used the grill. After the first round of dogs on the fire, we used the grill, too. It was hot (for Matt) standing over the fire! Everyone had brought so much food and we snacked lots and drank the rest of our beer/vodka drinks. We even made s'mores. I forgot how much I love those things!
Being in the "loud area" on Friday night was much louder than it was on Saturday night. I guess everyone was passed out from the all-day drinking and floating. I think our group was the loudest on Saturday night, which isn't really saying much because we weren't really that loud.
We sat around the fire chatting, listening to music, etc. Because it had rained earlier, it was actually very comfortable... almost chilly. Much nicer than Friday night.
A lot of people turned in early. Matt and I were part of the final four left up. Mainly because I think he was enjoying watching the fire. He told me he wanted to stay up until it went out. I vetoed that... that thing was not going out until morning. It was a good fire!
Sleeping on Saturday night was so much better. We woke up in the early hours of the morning and were freezing cold. We had been sleeping on top of the sleeping bag on Friday night. Matt was using our second sleeping bag as a pillow because only one pillow made the cut into the suitcases. But, Sat night, we had to get inside the sleeping bags and share the one pillow we had... it was that cold.
On Sunday morning, we packed the car up and took the tent down.
We went with Jerry & JJ to grab some brunch at the Huddle House (same as a Waffle House). We were starving.
Matt & I drove back to the StL airport and dropped off the rental car. We were able to get on an earlier flight going back to Chicago, which was super because the flights were all delayed. We got home a few hours earlier than we would have originally. We were both so worn out after the trip... we slept like rocks Sunday night!
Matt & I had a ton of fun and are hoping to do another trip like this again next year! Thanks to Crystal and Tara for organizing everything!
For more pics, click here.
My friend Crystal also has a write-up of the trip on her blog.
Friar Tucks
I had all intentions of making it an early night on Thursday night, knowing that Friday morning I had to get up early and pack for my camping/floating trip. In hindsight, this was a bad idea.... (note to self: always, always, always pack before going out). Lesson learned.
Anyway, I blew off the Bastille Day race I had signed up for because I haven't run since the Corporate Challenge. That race didn't go so well, so I decided to just skip this one, too. Good thing because it rained.
Matt and I met up with Tina (from TP) and Destiny (also from TP, but now works out in LA). Destiny was in town for the weekend visiting. We had a few drinks at Rivers with them and then Colin, Stephanie, Eric and a friend of theirs showed up and we had a few more drinks.
After Rivers, we cabbed it up to Friar Tucks for Fubar's annual karaoke event. I think there were over 60 people that showed up this year. We had more drinks and sang a few songs. I think we may have even done a shot or two (big mistake, by the way!) The 'early night' turned out to be almost 2am... oops. But it was a ton of fun... here are some pics (Erin had control of the camera for a while, so we have lots of them!)
For even more pics, click here.
Yesterday, TP threw a surprise shower in the office for John & Erin, who are getting married in a couple of weeks in Detroit. We had cake and champagne... the cake was soooo good! Can't wait for the wedding! : )
I have been on a great Wii bowling streak lately and I have no clue why. But the other night Matt kicked my a55 at bowling and of course, he took a picture of the final score for me to post here (as I have been known to post a pic or two when I beat him). I forgot until now that it was on my camera, so here it is.
Anyway, I blew off the Bastille Day race I had signed up for because I haven't run since the Corporate Challenge. That race didn't go so well, so I decided to just skip this one, too. Good thing because it rained.
Matt and I met up with Tina (from TP) and Destiny (also from TP, but now works out in LA). Destiny was in town for the weekend visiting. We had a few drinks at Rivers with them and then Colin, Stephanie, Eric and a friend of theirs showed up and we had a few more drinks.
After Rivers, we cabbed it up to Friar Tucks for Fubar's annual karaoke event. I think there were over 60 people that showed up this year. We had more drinks and sang a few songs. I think we may have even done a shot or two (big mistake, by the way!) The 'early night' turned out to be almost 2am... oops. But it was a ton of fun... here are some pics (Erin had control of the camera for a while, so we have lots of them!)
For even more pics, click here.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Cake
Yesterday, TP threw a surprise shower in the office for John & Erin, who are getting married in a couple of weeks in Detroit. We had cake and champagne... the cake was soooo good! Can't wait for the wedding! : )
Matt wins
I have been on a great Wii bowling streak lately and I have no clue why. But the other night Matt kicked my a55 at bowling and of course, he took a picture of the final score for me to post here (as I have been known to post a pic or two when I beat him). I forgot until now that it was on my camera, so here it is.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)