Weekend Busy-ness

Friday:

• Clean up the house (tidy, dust, hide crap, vacuum/mop floors, do dishes, etc.)
• Grocery shop
• Meet extended family for dinner 45 minutes from home (good food, but VERY noisy, and no shades on the windows with sun glaring in)
• Attend h.s. football game near (sorta) dinner site (they lost 47-7, and the cheerleaders did it again, this time using the same cheer as mentioned in the previous post, but this time they did it during the prep time for a kickoff...no quarterback on the field, idiots)
• Shift belongings of one set of family members from local rellies to our car
• Drive home trying to stay awake and make coherent conversation
• Make yet MORE semi-coherent conversation till we all dropped from exhaustion at midnight

Saturday:

• Find out that the U2 show is not sold out, really; also it costs $45 to park near the concert venue
• R & B decide to go to the concert with us
• Use Google maps to find restaurant sort of near venue; contact the rest of the people we're going to with and set meet-up time of 4:30 at restaurant
• Leave for concert (which starts at 7) around 2:30.
• Stop at Beast's dad's to drop off this week's meds and clean laundry
• Stop at bank for money
• Get slowed down by traffic
• Receive first call from Katherine at 4:30; they are at restaurant. She is not happy that we'll be late, but so is Alan's brother-in-law
• Arrive at parking lot and use the porta-potty. Receive second call from Katherine informing us that Alan's bro is there (we are now officially 30 minutes late for the meet-up time at the restaurant)
• Start walking. There is no direct way to the restaurant, so we have a tour of much of the lakefront as we truck through the early arrivals for the concert.
• Katherine calls again at about 5:20. I can barely speak we are walking so fast. "We're on our way, moving as fast as we can!" She responds, "It's VERY busy here!"
• Finally, at 5:30 we call--still not at restaurant--and ask if it's really likely that we'll get fed and back out in time for a 7:00 show including a the 40-minute walk back to the venue. No. Katherine, Alan and S meet us and we find a Jimmy John's instead; they run out of bread as we reach the counter to order
• Every restaurant we pass is jammed, so we throw in the towel and go back to the stadium to eat, arriving at about 6:30. Massive money is spent buying hot dogs and brats
• We find our seats
• The stage is weird, massive and looks like the Press Your Luck stage-set
• Snow Patrol takes the stage at 7. VERY good
• Beast goes and buys a pretzel, a hat, a T, and a program
• Alan goes and buys coffee for Katherine
• After an hour, U2 takes the stage. Aside from some sound/balance issues, they are excellent for 2+ hours. I love these guys
• Push out of stadium and stream toward parking lot
• Finally get to the highway home at about 12:15

Sunday:

• Arrive home after an hour of driving through massive fogbanks
• Sparky goes immediately to bed but the rest of us have a short discussion about the concert
• Bed around 3 a.m.
• I'm up by 8
• James arrives at 12:30
• I cook tacos
• We have a wonderfully relaxed afternoon watching football, talking, eating, and hanging out
• James leaves
• The rest of us head to church for our youth group meeting
• ...which goes pretty well
• Home again: Beast watches Packers/Bears game, Sparky goes to bed, the rest of us stay in the kitchen talking till halftime
• B & R head to bed; I head to bed; everyone is beyond exhausted; even Beast comes to bed relatively early

Monday:

• I'm up at 6:30
• Sparky leaves for school at 7:30
• I leave to volunteer at his school library at about 7:50
• Return home at 9:30
• We pack everyone into the car--again--and drive to the Middle-Sized City to the Northeast to drop R & B at bus station (easier than driving back down to GIANT City Directly to the East)
• Drive back in time for Beast to drop me off for a massage at 2
• Beast picks me up and we go to Sparky's JV football game (they lose again)
• We go to dinner
• ...and come home to a normal house

We have massive stuff to do this week too, but at least there are a few days before the next round of company arrives. And they won't stay with us, so the house doesn't have to get cleaned again for awhile. Thank God.