I was thinking today of a past Thanksgiving that made me laugh. Actually, it was the day before Thanksgiving. It must have been 2003, because Nick was working for Nicor Gas as a meter reader. It's weird to think that it was that long ago that he had that job, but it was! I'm pretty sure he stopped working for them before we were married, which was in 2004, so I think that puts this story at 5 years ago.
We were living in the MLK house and had been for just a year. Erin came up that Wednesday to spend the night and help me get ready for Thanksgiving dinner. Oh, I'm smiling thinking of this already! That Wednesday I must have taken the day off of work, too. It was a horribly snowy, blowy day, and Erin said that she drove up listening to Christmas music. This wouldn't have been so bad, except at some point during the blizzard-like conditions, she listened to that Trans-Siberian Orchestra song that gets all crazy at the end...you know, "Carol of the Bells".
(Note: I just spent like 8 minutes trying to find the title of that song. Know why it took so long? Because I was searching for it as being performed by the Mannheim Steamrollers or Bay City Rollers. That's not right. Every year I forget the name of that flippin' group!!)
Anyway, the combination of the wind and snow and that song's frenzy at the end led to Erin gripping the steering wheel and squinting to try to make out the road. She was exhausted by the time she got here! It was like having your own personal soundtrack playing where the music really matched (and enhanced!) the intensity of driving in the snowstorm!
She got to my house and we went to 2 Pals Pottery to paint Christmas gifts for Mom, I remember. That was fun! It was all warm and cozy in the shop with Christmas music playing and the snow coming down and we were painting pottery! What a down home kind of day! After completing our pieces, we proceeded to drive to Walmart to get the supplies we needed for Thanksgiving dinner. Again, it was still snowing terribly! We finally made it over to Walmart and ran, RAN to the door, only to find a Walmart worker standing at the door yelling to anyone and everyone, "We are closed! We are closed! We have no power!" She was waving her arms all around and yelling out to the masses...it was a production to say the least! You couldn't see or hear her until you got right up to the door, which meant we had to RUN our butts back to the car through the blizzard once more. I remember getting into the car and turning towards Erin and we were both completely wet and windblown and looked like we'd been inside the blizzard or something! Picture red faces, hair all over the place, heavy breathing, and snow like IN your ear. That was us! We immediately died laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation (seriously, it was hilarious the way the lady was screaming out into the blizzard!) and decided we'd go to Jewel instead of Walmart because we did need the stuff for dinner!
As you might imagine, EVERYONE IN TOWN was at Jewel, since half of Bloomington-Normal was apparantly without power, so it made it a fun challenge to park and get through the snow. I think the snow was letting up at some point, because we didn't have quite the insane wind in our faces as we were in the Jewel parking lot. I do remember having a tough time manuvering the cart through the many inches of snow, though! We made it in, got our food, and got home successfully.
To top off our evening, Erin and I decided we'd be nice and shovel the driveway before Nick came home. Nick, as you remember from the beginning of this post, was working at Nicor as a meter reader, meaning he walked from house to house entering numbers from people's gas meters. Poor guy! The city was pulling the mail carriers off the road because of the weather, but Nick and his coworkers had to keep going! He definitely had a long day that day and came home exhausted! Erin and I managed to shovel enough of the driveway so that he could get in (or maybe we did the whole thing? I don't remember). At the time, we only owned one snow shovel, so whoever wasn't using it had to use the regular, metal, dirt-digging shovel, which really isn't meant for shoveling snow!
This might have also been the same year that found Erin, Nick, and I pulling out the hide-a-bed and all piling in to watch TV on Thanksgiving night (Faith Hill concert, anyone? Talk Sex with Sue Johannson?). Plus, I KNOW we hit the Black Friday sales the next morning! That's a whole different story!
That was a really fun holiday! Now that we're all grown up with husbands and kids and other obligations, I don't know if we'll have another time when Erin gets to come up and stay for an extended period of time over a holiday like that, especially where it's just the two of us out having an adventure, but those are memories I'll always enjoy retelling because those were such good times! Love you, Erin!
3 comments:
I can picture the whole thing and it's making me laugh. Of course, I've forgotten most of that. Was that also the time Erin had to drive the car into the driveway or shovel it out of a snowbank or lift it over a curb or something else equally "mighty"? You two have the greatest adventures! I'm so glad. Just wait until you're both trying to play some game with each other via the computer and your kids try to give you big guilt trips for paying attention to your beloved sibling.
The time is coming.
lfym
I love you too! And I'm crying in my office and silently laughing about that day! People are probably wondering about me right now...that was so terribly funny and yes, I think I did have to drive Em's car out back from across the street after we shoveled the driveway (and after we dug it out of the snow) because she all of a sudden got concerned she would push the gas and run into a woman who had for some reason come out of her house to talk to us about shoveling out the car...so I gunned the thing across the street and got into the garage without hitting anyone! And remember how the snow was SO PAINFUL...like it had sleet mixed in with it while we were leaping through the Walmart parking lot! Oh man, good times.
And how awkward that you and me and Nick all watched Talk Sex? I think at one point you even took a shower so it was just me and Nick, weird. Bonding experience I guess!
Was this also the Thanksgiving we decided to put the dining room table together and set up your front room as a dining room complete with "crackling fire" screen saver? God, could we cram a few more activities into one holiday weekend?
Post a Comment