Grandma Steeno's 90th Birthday Party plus CrazyJohn takes the 'L' and the Metra... all in one day!
Let's talk my weekend, shall we? Good... cuz I know you're not doing anything. Saturday morning, I drove from Chicago to Fond du Lac, Wisconsin... only being slowed in traffic in Chicago for about 40 minutes while going roughly 8 miles. Remember that Rant a while ago about being in traffic and wanting to see something... just something that's the reason behind the traffic? Okay... well there was definitely a reason behind this traffic. When I got to the front on the jam... there were three of those construction trucks with the arrows (you know the ones) taking up the left two lanes... and there was a crappy looking car in between the trucks... and that's IT. There were three trucks and a car... and that's IT! The trucks weren't even DOING anything... they were just driving in the left two lanes... causing a traffic jam. It's like Chicago is purposefully creating traffic! Son of a bitch!
Anyway... when I got to Fond du Lac, my dad and sister met me at the hotel. They were happy to see me and I, oddly enough, was happy to see them. I basically had enough time to park my car before being magically whisked away to the Hardgrove's house. For those of you who haven't been following this story from the beginning, Kathy Hardgrove is my father's little sister... hence Mr. Mike Hardgrove married into the family. The Hardgroves are my godparents... and live in the same town as my grandma, so they take care of her. I've also had the feeling that my Uncle Mike not only thinks I'm spoiled (and have been spoiled my whole life), but he also thinks that I've corrupted both of his sons since we were all younger. >sigh< So I always feel judged by them... fun, huh?
Anyway... Grandma, my Uncle Dan and Aunt Nancy, their daughter Tanya, her husband Dwayne, their daughter, my Uncle Jim and Aunt CeCe, their son Michael, and the Hardgroves and their daughter Beth, and son Ben (complete with fiancee) were all there. >phew< Holy bunch of people, Batman! Too bad I don't like people, huh? Right... so... we had a quick lunch and then my immediate family and I went shopping. I only have two pairs of shorts and I'm on my way to Vegas this week... so I had to get new shorts (hooray for new shorts! Hooray for Ken! Stupid Ken >Shakes fist... is then confused by how that mood swing just occurred<)
After shorts were purchased, we got ready to go out for Grandma's birthday dinner. Now Fond du Lac, Wisconsin is not a bustling metropolis like, say, Big Rapids or Albion... but there ARE 46,000 people in Fond du Lac. You would THINK that there could be a better place to go for Grandma's birthday than the Sunset Supper Club. But, apparently, you'd be wrong. This brings me to another interesting part of the day... everyone seemed to be "fussing" over Grandma so much that no one was actually talking to her. I saw her a couple times sitting by herself or right next to a few people, but still not talking to anyone. There were a couple of times I slide over to talk to her, or I sat down across from her to talk... but I wasn't spending all of my time on her, either. I mean, the whole day was like that... it made me really sad.
So, whatever, there's a group of 17 of us and we're trying to get a room at this "Supper club" and they can't reserve us a room because there's a bigger group coming in... and they want us to eat and get out (basically) because we're not a big enough group to fuss over and we're taking up valuable floorspace. I don't know... but they didn't treat us very well. If you want a funny mental picture (than you're name's probably Laura) and have I got the one for you: It was taking forever for us to get seated... so my Grandmother, complete with her cane, went up to the hostess to complain. Heeheehee... I didn't see her shaking the cane at anyone, but it's my guess that she might've.
So... stupid meal, went back to Hardgroves, said goodbye... went to hotel, said goodnight. Ta da for Saturday!

Sunday...
I had to say goodbye to my family... again. Gah! This always happens and it always happens too quickly. I want to get sick of them and be happy to leave. But, alas, such was not the case. I had to jet, though, as I was supposed to be meeting Dave to head to Aurora, IL to meet Keith. It was a huge time-crunching ordeal... as Keith and Dave kept calling me from the road to see if I was going to make it back in time to catch the Metra out there to Aurora. Anyway... so I drive real fast (not REAL fast... but fast) to Chicago... jump out of my car, walk swiftly to the L stop (Sedgwick and North... you know the one... the Brown line)... take the brown from Sedgwick to Quincy, meet Dave, walk three blocks to Union Station, find the ticket counter, get tickets, find the train and board the train... all in the matter of about 60 minutes. This was no small feat, as I've never >gasp< taken the L before. But I just did what everyone else was doing: I asked for change from strangers. No... that's not what I did... I just followed my nose.
Whatever (I can never get a straight answer out of myself... it's so frustrating!)... the Metra ride was about an hour. Then Keith picked us up and we went to his house. He's got a cute little pad (in a transitional state, of course) and he showed us around. He. Is. Awesome. At. The. Guitar. AWESOME. He played Dave and I a couple songs he had been working on and they were great. Keith is tres awesome. So we just hung out during the afternoon and tried to write skits and songs and figure out whether we're going to use our creative genus for good or evil. And that was pretty much my Sunday. I'm always busy... >sigh<... always busy.