The Weekend

July 18th, 2005 | Filed under Ideas

As previously mentioned the girlfriend and I spent the weekend in the Hutch, however that is not the half of the story.

Friday
I had a super busy day lined up at work, requiring me to stumble into the office at the ungodly hour of 7:30 (not before grabbing some Milton’s before hand…had to our fix). After spending the day hurrying up and waiting I announced to the office that I head out in order to get the lovely Childs/Shipley wedding rehearsal that night.

I raced over the girlfriend’s place to pick her up and pack all of our stuff, and then head out of town leaving plenty of time to make it back to H-town. However, when I glanced at the right front tire I noticed there was a rather sizable crack in the rubber. Not really wanting to have a tire explode in the middle of Topeka, we opted to take the girlfriend’s car.

So, we ran over the Kwik Shop grabbed some gas and snacks and were ready to make the sweaty (no AC in the car) trip back “home.” Now, the girlfriend’s car is a wonderful 1983 Volvo GL (which I’ve been told stands for “good luck”) that was lovingly restored by the girlfriend and her uncle. While it has been a great little car to her around town, Friday was not the day for it. Right around mile marker 320 on I70 the car lost speed and rpms and proceeded to stall out. You might be asking why I knew it was mile marker 320…well that’s because I had the pleasure of walking the 1/2 mile to find out where in the world we were. All I knew was that we were between Topeka and Junction City….in the middle of the barren wasteland that is the “Great American Desert” (also known as the Kanza prairie).

Actually to be fair, I really do enjoy that piece of country but I was a little more than annoyed with it on Friday due to the fact that it was ridiculously hot! So after much deliberation the girlfriend and I found a wrecker company via information on her Sprint telephone. This was the first time in a long time that I haven’t been completely disappointed by Sprint (are you listening Gordo?). The girlfriend called and what sounded liked a nice gentlemen in Manhattan (I take back all of the nasty things I’ve ever said about you, as you have my girlfriend’s car held hostage) told us he could be there to tow the car in around twenty minutes….

…Forty-five minutes later he shows up in what was quite possibly the scariest tow truck ever. The only reason I didn’t take a picture of it was that I was afraid the truck might fall apart and that the owner of it might kill me. All in all it was a delightful ride back to Manhattan complete with no seat belts in the cab, shitty country music on the radio, and the driver smoking all the way there. Needless to say I was actually glad that the girlfriend’s car broke down with me along.

Once we got to the mechanic, life resumed into a certain amount of normalcy, although come to think of it a kid from the girlfriend’s class did show up to pick up his car from the mechanic while we were there. Needless to say Hutchinsonians are everywhere. Fortunately, the beautiful Manhattan mall was just across the street, so we elected to spend the afternoon inside the moment to consumerism while we awaited the girlfriend’s mom to come pick us up. I know, I know, how lousy is it that a twenty-two year old guy needs his girlfriend’s mom to pick him up..but hey, who else are you going to have get you at four-o’clock on a Friday???

To make a long story short, we got back to Hutch around 8:30, just as all the rehearsal stuff was ending. I was glad to be back, but more than a little displeased that I had missed round 1 of the wedding weekend.

Saturday
I got up early Saturday morning to grab some tapes and practice the songs I was playing in the wedding, met up with vocalist, practiced some more and then ran over the church to finish up getting ready to video tape the event. The ceremony was lovely, very much Emily and Frank, although a certain nitwit playing guitar allowed his guitar to slip way out of tune and sounded like a completely idiot…but that is besides the point.

We spent the rest of the day hanging out, eating, and lounging around with good friends, many of whom had yet to meet the girlfriend. We finished out the day with the reception which was a blast considering we closed the place down at 12:30 am after drinking and dancing the night away. See my post from that morning as to my feelings on that one. Once again, it was great to see everyone and check out the photos page for some great photos of people building things on rock ‘n roll.

Sunday
Was pretty laid back, although my brother’s new puppy, named Hank after the latest starbucks commercial (which I actually do like) woke me up at 6:30 am. While the little guy is probably the cutest canine in history, he didn’t allow me much sleep at all. After some Church, and lunch with the brother, we caught a ride back with Gordo and his lady friend to finish out a whirlwind of a weekend.

The only real bummer was that I didn’t get to see my parents…oh well I’ll see them next weekend.

Although the girlfriend’s car is still stuck in Manhattan. Eh, that means we have go back there again. That’s something like 3 times in 3 weeks….I think that is most I have ever been there…lets hope it isn’t habit forming.