(no subject)
Monday evening we were throwing around ideas for the week. We're here in Florida with my Aunt Clare and Uncle John, and two other coupples and their kids. One of the other cuples wanted to meet up with some friends during the week. But the friend was parinoid of rain on Tuesday, so he wanted to do an outdoor event and decided to do it on Monday. This changed our cupples plans for the week. Which then changed our plans for the week. They wanted to go to Bush Gardens. My aunt and uncle didn't want to go there. So my uncle John offers to me, perhaps if we have time, we could drive (4 hours) to NASA. Ok, I'm super excited about it, but I don't want to force anyone into driving and seeing something they don't want to see or do. So I stay calm and quietly say yes, I would like to go. Ok, the next part is to look up the address for NASA so we can use mapquest to get directions. Cool.
So I go to the NASA web page. I had been there a few months earlier, poking around. The launch dates at that time were Feb 15th, and April 30th. No where near the time we'd be staying here. Oh well.
But when I went to look up the directions, the web page was refreshed and up to date.
In big giant letters on the web page read "NEXT LAUNCH IN 30:15:25". As the seconds ticked on, the numbers changed. My mind churned, "Ok, so if 25 is the seconds, and 15 is the minutes, then 30 is the hours. .... 30 HOURS UNTIL LAUNCH?!?!" So trying very very hard not to jump out of my skin, I calmly managed to convince my mother, aunt and uncle to come with me to NASA (aka, drive me to NASA).
30hr, 15min and 25 seconds later.....
Oh my Lord.
I was actually crying that day as we walked through the visitor's complex and saw most of the sights.
It was a moment of Narvana.
We left there after the launch, and waited in the parking lot for 1 an 1/2 hours in our car due to traffic. Then another hour on the highway at a virtual stand still position. Then all the hotels were booked solid. Then we were lost. Then we found the right road again, but couldn't find a hotel room.
At 6:30am, we finally got into a hotel room and fell asleep. Got up at 11am, ate, shopped for an hour and then got back on the road. By the time we got back to our rented house in Venice, Florida, it was time to get back on the road and drive out to a hockey game we all had tickets for.
When we got to the game, most of us began drinking. See, my uncle, and his guy friends we went with, are all drinkers. So pass the beer around! My aunt and I were sick, because we had stayed up the previous night eating hot dogs (etc.) from the park. So my uncle, in his infinite wisdom, ordered us hard liquor. "Just take sips and it will clear your chest." ..... Yes, that's a good excuse for the first drink.... But the third?
So my mom was pretty much sloshed. Not to mention, she couldn't say the word 'sloshed'. - case in point.
So she starts shouting, "GO BEARS!!!"
"Um, mom? 1st off, the two teams tonight are the Lightnings and the Islanders. 2nd off, the Bears are from Chicago, which is the opposite side of the country and thus wouldn't play here. 3rd - the two teams tonight are from Tampa Bay and New York. 4th - the two emblims on the jerseys are a lighting bolt and the other team has NY in big letters. Where do you see a bear on either one? 5th, and most important - the Bears are football, this is hockey."
"Oh, then which town are we in?"
"Tampa."
"GO TAMPA!!!"
Now this is pretty funny, because my mom NEVER drinks. And last week, she got a little tipsy, but was very low key about it. Tonight she was loud.
Then, she had this cup of peanuts. She wanted to get rid of the shells, but keep the unopened nuts. So she decided to take them all out of the cup and then place the shells at the bottom, and the good ones on top. But she was doing this one at a time. Riffling through the cup until she found a good one, and then placed it on top of the cup. This happened over and over.
Each time she did it, however, she messed up the cup, and had to start over. But she was kinda drunk, so I thought I would help her. I told her to dump the whole thing in my hands and pick out the good ones. So first she picked out the bad ones, and put them at the bottom of the empty cup. Then she picked out the good ones, and put them on top of the bad ones. Then she went back to the nuts in my hand and picked out the bad ones and put them in the cup. Followed by the good ones.
"Mom?"
"Hm?" she said, blinking excessively.
"What the hell are you doing?"
"I'm putting the good ones in the cup.... Or was it the bad ones?... Hm, I'm not sure which now...."
"What is going on?! Gah!!! Give me the cup!!"
Then she didn't like my system of peanut separation, so she just put the empty shells on my knee when I wasn't looking.
It was so funny. It was such a fun night.
Tampa won 8 to 4 against the Islanders. Awesome game.
So in the last 48 hours, we have all slept around 5 hours, witnessed a shuttle launch, drove for over 12 hours, went to a hockey game and drank quite considerably.
And now it's 1am and we're all still up watching Ocean's 13.
Somehow, no one needs sleep.
It's amazing what happens when you don't have stress.
Oh, and I swear I thought I saw a dancing Taco at the hockey game..... But I was drinking, so I'm not exactly sure.
So I go to the NASA web page. I had been there a few months earlier, poking around. The launch dates at that time were Feb 15th, and April 30th. No where near the time we'd be staying here. Oh well.
But when I went to look up the directions, the web page was refreshed and up to date.
In big giant letters on the web page read "NEXT LAUNCH IN 30:15:25". As the seconds ticked on, the numbers changed. My mind churned, "Ok, so if 25 is the seconds, and 15 is the minutes, then 30 is the hours. .... 30 HOURS UNTIL LAUNCH?!?!" So trying very very hard not to jump out of my skin, I calmly managed to convince my mother, aunt and uncle to come with me to NASA (aka, drive me to NASA).
30hr, 15min and 25 seconds later.....
Oh my Lord.
I was actually crying that day as we walked through the visitor's complex and saw most of the sights.
It was a moment of Narvana.
We left there after the launch, and waited in the parking lot for 1 an 1/2 hours in our car due to traffic. Then another hour on the highway at a virtual stand still position. Then all the hotels were booked solid. Then we were lost. Then we found the right road again, but couldn't find a hotel room.
At 6:30am, we finally got into a hotel room and fell asleep. Got up at 11am, ate, shopped for an hour and then got back on the road. By the time we got back to our rented house in Venice, Florida, it was time to get back on the road and drive out to a hockey game we all had tickets for.
When we got to the game, most of us began drinking. See, my uncle, and his guy friends we went with, are all drinkers. So pass the beer around! My aunt and I were sick, because we had stayed up the previous night eating hot dogs (etc.) from the park. So my uncle, in his infinite wisdom, ordered us hard liquor. "Just take sips and it will clear your chest." ..... Yes, that's a good excuse for the first drink.... But the third?
So my mom was pretty much sloshed. Not to mention, she couldn't say the word 'sloshed'. - case in point.
So she starts shouting, "GO BEARS!!!"
"Um, mom? 1st off, the two teams tonight are the Lightnings and the Islanders. 2nd off, the Bears are from Chicago, which is the opposite side of the country and thus wouldn't play here. 3rd - the two teams tonight are from Tampa Bay and New York. 4th - the two emblims on the jerseys are a lighting bolt and the other team has NY in big letters. Where do you see a bear on either one? 5th, and most important - the Bears are football, this is hockey."
"Oh, then which town are we in?"
"Tampa."
"GO TAMPA!!!"
Now this is pretty funny, because my mom NEVER drinks. And last week, she got a little tipsy, but was very low key about it. Tonight she was loud.
Then, she had this cup of peanuts. She wanted to get rid of the shells, but keep the unopened nuts. So she decided to take them all out of the cup and then place the shells at the bottom, and the good ones on top. But she was doing this one at a time. Riffling through the cup until she found a good one, and then placed it on top of the cup. This happened over and over.
Each time she did it, however, she messed up the cup, and had to start over. But she was kinda drunk, so I thought I would help her. I told her to dump the whole thing in my hands and pick out the good ones. So first she picked out the bad ones, and put them at the bottom of the empty cup. Then she picked out the good ones, and put them on top of the bad ones. Then she went back to the nuts in my hand and picked out the bad ones and put them in the cup. Followed by the good ones.
"Mom?"
"Hm?" she said, blinking excessively.
"What the hell are you doing?"
"I'm putting the good ones in the cup.... Or was it the bad ones?... Hm, I'm not sure which now...."
"What is going on?! Gah!!! Give me the cup!!"
Then she didn't like my system of peanut separation, so she just put the empty shells on my knee when I wasn't looking.
It was so funny. It was such a fun night.
Tampa won 8 to 4 against the Islanders. Awesome game.
So in the last 48 hours, we have all slept around 5 hours, witnessed a shuttle launch, drove for over 12 hours, went to a hockey game and drank quite considerably.
And now it's 1am and we're all still up watching Ocean's 13.
Somehow, no one needs sleep.
It's amazing what happens when you don't have stress.
Oh, and I swear I thought I saw a dancing Taco at the hockey game..... But I was drinking, so I'm not exactly sure.