Monday, August 14, 2006

Travelin' Thru

I woke up Friday morning with lots of presents from my parents to open. My mom, being the awesome woman that she is, had sent me home last month with bags of presents, so that I'd have stuff to rip open on my birthday. Even though I turned 26 on Friday, I am actually only 8 years old because I still find a great satisfaction in ripping wrapping paper. It's just so FUN.

So after much procrastination (which involved oohing and aahing over all the clothes I had forgotten my Mom bought me last month, playing with iTunes, and wondering how many pairs of shoes I could possibly pack), we left for Chicago. We decided to stop and get some fast food on the way out for lunch....only to get a phone call while line. And who was the phone call from? A florist! There were flowers at my house! My parents proved how awesome they are again and had surprised me with a beautiful bouquet!



Aren't they just so pretty?



So then. FINALLY. We left. It was road trip time! Alex drove and let me have full reign with the camera, God bless him.









And yes that IS my old school iPod working like a champion. One of Alex's co-worker's worked his magic (read: slammed it around) on it and got it to work again. I LOVE bored computer programmers!

At one point, I decided that I wanted to put my sunglasses on and so I reached back to grab my purse. It wasn't on the floor and so I thought maybe it was in the back seat. Nope. Maybe it was in my backpack. Not there either. At that point, I started FREAKING out. Where in the world was my purse??? I immediately began hyperventilating and babbling about purses and where's and why's and how's. Alex went into super sweet awesome boy mode and forced me to think rationally. We pulled over and tore the car apart. There was no purse. Nowhere. We were 2 hours from home and my purse was not in the car.

Now, look again at that very first picture. There I am holding my purse and grinning/smirking/wishing-Alex-wouldn't-put-me-in-the-shot-and-passive-agressively-letting -him-know-that like an idiot. Why put such an unflattering picture of myself on the internet for all the world to see? Because there was evidence that I was holding my purse! Right there! In plain sight! But apparently, the excitement of flowers and last minute pillow-and-backpack-grabbing made me forget my purse when we left my apartment for the second time that day.

Alex was fantastic about the entire thing. While I spiraled into a crying, cursing mess, he kept his cool and started making phone calls to friends and family members to see what we could do about getting my ID and check card FedEx'ed to the hotel. He also had me call my doctor's office to call in 2 of my prescription pills to a local pharmacy. One reason for my major meltdown is that I am on anti-depressants and can't stand to go a day without them. I tried one time in college and it was absolutely horrible. It was my only litte piece of hell on earth and while it was memorable, not something I wantd to experience again...particuarly during my spectacular Chicago/Birthday extravaganza. I knew that without them, I'd be in the fetal position and sucking my thumb while Alex patted my head and said, "It's gonna be okay," all the while thinking, "Somebody get me out of here and away from the crazy girl!" (Side note: The receptionist at my doctor's office was a total beeyotch, ya'll. She was so pissy about helping me out and then got huffy when I told her I only needed 2 pills. Seriously, maybe she should get ON the happy pills.)

Fortunately, it all worked out okay. The fantastically kind lady at the Wal-Mart pharmacy in Somewhere, Indiana was just lovely. She was excited because she was a Leo like me and even cut the obnoxious plastic tag off of the $5 sunglasses I (read: Alex) purchased to replace the ones I left in my purse. Alex's older brother overnighted my ID, checkcard, and insurance cards to the hotel. So things were going well and it looked to be smooth sailing for the rest of the day.

And then we reached the city. There, we learned that Mapquest is a bitch.

But it was okay, really. Because after surviving the great purse meltdown of 2006, I was happy.



Tomorrow: IKEA! Trains! Museums! Angry bus drivers! Endless amounts of walking!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just so everyone else doesn’t go and text Cora late at night like I did… the nice, large, shiny ring on the left hand in pic #5 (the self-portrait in the rearview mirror) was a birthday present from her mom. Sigh!

Anonymous said...

Whew! That was going to be my first question Phil! Glad to hear I hadn't missed out on any big news.

Cora said...

Ah yes, the very pretty (and very fake!) ring my Momma gave me to celebrate my 26th year. It does look suspiciously like an engagement ring, doesn't it? Poor Alex!