My Weekend of FUN! (update alert since this morning!)

Well folks, I actually had a weekend off.  That is sort of an unusual occurrence for me because I choose my work weekly and usually choose a day off during the week so that I can work overtime. With Purdue being out for break, the possibility of overtime was slim, so I decided to take a much needed weekend off and have some FUN.  I will give you a recap of my most wonderful weekend shared with family and friends. So, I will start with Friday after work. I worked an early straight and was off at 2:00. (Just in time, because the mall traffic was beginning to get CRAZY!)

I’ll start out with an update from Mayor Tony and the head of the construction crew regarding the stop line at 9th and Union which is causing so many problems.  It turns out that no one made an “executive decision” to paint the line wrong (so I apologize for assuming that), but rather, the crew was following plans that were wrong.  The project manager for the construction company finally traced it back to that and has agreed to reimburse the city for any expenses associated with fixing it. A very nice side effect of this was the response from the Mayor to this person.  I’ll just copy his email rather than summarizing his words:

“Tim,

Thank you very much for looking into this so quickly and I sincerely appreciate your no-nonsense take responsibility attitude it is truly appreciated, It is a trait often missing these days. Thanks for everything Merry Christmas.

Tony”

So I emailed the Mayor and thanked him for keeping me in the loop and praised his response to the construction guy.  Really, this kind of stuff is pretty easy to fix when everyone just explains exactly what the problem is without being hostile.  The outcome is: it will be fixed, probably after the holidays, because so many people are on vacation at this time. Fine by me, I completely understand it is a busy time of year for everyone and I am happy it will be resolved.  UPDATE ALERT RIGHT HERE:  The lines at the intersection are now fixed! Happened between 10:00 and 11:00 a.m!  By the time I started receiving texts and pics from fellow excited bus drivers, they were well into it.  When I arrived at the intersection in the course of my route 30 minutes later, it was all fixed! Merry Christmas to all drivers and Merry Christmas to Mayor Tony and everyone else involved in this most welcomed fix! And THANK YOU ALL!

Later Friday, ‘R and Ram came over for dinner and we exchanged Christmas gifts.  Their gift to me will be most awesome!  It is a learning experience gift, so we must all coordinate our schedules to be off at the same time to do it, but it is very much something I look forward to!  They also helped me wrap my parents’ Christmas gift.  Or rather, they wrapped it for me.  I was confused about how to do it because the box is so big. I had the paper and bow picked out, just couldn’t figure it out. Task accomplished most efficiently and expertly (it looks great) by two visionary gift wrappers!  Thank You ‘R and Ram for that!  You have no idea how much energy I had already wasted trying to figure that out!

Saturday was quite the full day!  I got off to a bit of a late start, mainly because I was busy bantering with ‘Y on Facebook all morning. It was fun though!  It worked out just fine, because I was going over to Moon’s to have lunch and she had made the miscalculation to go to Wal-Mart for milk and bread on the Saturday before Christmas. So she was a bit behind too!  We had a most wonderful lunch with her son and Moon is quite an excellent cook.  I also conned some leftovers out of her!  She needed to grab a couple more gifts from the mall, so we headed out to that madhouse after eating. I was okay with this because last Sunday I had shopped with her at Sam’s and knew she was a most efficient shopper.

So after choosing a parking spot on the outskirts so that we didn’t have to drive up and down a bunch of full aisles, we headed into Macy’s. Neither one of us ever shops there, (I think I have only been there twice ever) so we were a little lost, but stumbled upon one item she was looking for, that is, until I checked the price tag.  Here’s how that went. The item was a seemingly simple winter sock hat.  So I check the price and say, “$48 for a fucking sock hat! Are you serious?”  Moon responds, “Well, it is 50% off!” To which I say, “$24 for a fucking sock hat is still at least $15 too much!” To which she responds, “Probably why neither one of us ever comes in here!”  So obviously the outcome (besides us laughing our asses off at how ridiculous the price was) was to ask a clerk how the hell we get in the mall so we can go to Kohl’s.  Kohl’s was crazy busy and we got her items, decided to use the back registers where there was no line, and exit out the back door and hike across the parking lot to my car, rather than weave back through the madness for a closer door. Made perfect sense to both of us!

Later Friday, mom picked me up and we went to a 50th wedding anniversary celebration for some family friends.  That was great seeing people I haven’t seen in a long time and I also ran into my hairdresser and got her holiday schedule. (I am due for a haircut this week.)  Highlights of this event were learning how to make a proper entrance into the women’s restroom.  One of the grand-daughters of the celebrated couple and her friend, demonstrated to me that when one enters the restroom, one must do a high-kick and then spin. So we practiced that a few times until I had it down pat.  Prior to entering the restroom, I had persuaded Polo to give me $20 to do a little gambling. So the girls asked me what I was doing and I said I was getting ready to gamble.  They asked what that meant.  I said, “Basically, it is when you donate money to the club and have a little fun in the process.”  Then exits from the stall area one of my parents’ friends and she says, “So you got money out of Polo, huh?” I said, “Yep!”  I walked out $40 ahead, btw, so thanks Polo!  During this evening, ‘Z texted me and asked if I wanted to come over the next day (Sunday) and watch football. Absolutely!

So ‘Z texts me Sunday morning and asks if I want him to come pick me up.  I say that would be great and he suggests a drive in the country, to which I completely agreed was a most wonderful plan!  The country drive turned into a 5 hour adventure and we had an awesome time.  We saw two bald eagles (the Black Rock nesters), 8 deer, several funny cows (I got pics), and some yet unidentified bird that was completely cool looking.  It also performed a magnificent act of projectile pooping as we watched and we were both amazed (as well as amused) at this feat. We also laughed our asses off because neither of us had ever seen anything remotely like that!  We also visited a bunch of old cemeteries and he took me to all the cool bridges and scenic areas around there.  He grew up in that area and was the most awesome guide.  One thing we could not do was something referred to as the “car wash”, which apparently involves driving your vehicle into a creek and coming out on the other side.  With all of the rain and melting snow, the creek was high and raging, so we opted to save that experience for another day, rather than possibly die.  So by the time we got back to his house, the Colts game was over and we were uninterested in either of the late games, so we opted for a nature documentary.  Truly, that was a great improvisation of a day of supposed Sunday football. Thanks ‘Z, I had a great time!

Well, that concludes my weekend recap of FUN. I completely crashed when I got home and had a great night’s sleep.  Today I work another early straight and then will be heading out to Miller & Lite’s house for a fun-filled overnight stay because none of us work tomorrow. (see their pseudonyms as to WHY I am staying overnight!)  Everyone enjoy your holidays with family and friends and be safe out there. I’ll catch you all after Christmas!