Weekend in Bloomington + birthday cake
So last weekend, WWE came to Bloomington. As I've mentioned in this LJ before, my mother's been suffering from gluten intolerance and various other things, trying to get her diet sorted. We were initially planning on going to Bloomington together, making a day of it like we did when WWE came to Bloomington back in June. Except that the universe conspired against it. As said, she's not feeling the best still and her diet's iffy at best. Then the weather forecast happened. We went from light snow to freezing rain, back to snow. Then they announced it was going to be the worst~ snow storm of the winter on Sunday, anywhere from 4 to 10 inches.
So Mom dropped our plans, said I could try going with my brother. Except that he decided, depending on the weather, they might not be going either. Um. Well. Except that it was my birthday week. And I've never been the type of person to base my plans on weathermen. That's just asking for disappointment. Besides, I'd been looking forward to seeing WWE on my birthday week for months by now. So having my plans pulled out from under my feet on the Thursday before just wasn't working for me. When Mom said if my brother wasn't going, then I couldn't go either, it just cemented it for me.
I'm pretty good at thinking through my problems so it became kinda clear what I was going to have to do pretty early on, way back when the worst issue was Mom not knowing if she'd feel well enough to come with me (Which she literally only changed her mind on the Monday before the event, just to change her mind yet again three days later). I had it all sorted weeks ago-- take the bus to Bloomington, call a taxi and go stay in a hotel till the event, then spend the night and go back home on the next available bus. Well, the weather did alter my plans, somewhat needlessly. After Mom and I argued it out a lot (With her commenting that my 'stubbornness was going to be the death of me' and she wanted me to live to see my next birthday... um?) we "agreed" that I would leave on Saturday and spend an extra night at the hotel, to beat the weather.
Of course, the bus was about half an hour late, and I met this 59 year old marine who started off cussing out one of the bus drivers for disrespecting him, but he eventually calmed down and we talked a bit after I checked to see how late our bus was going to be. He became perplexed that I was single, and told me how beautiful I was. Heh. I ended up sitting with him once the bus did come, because every other seat was taken, and we were on the way to Bloomington. Apparently he was back on his way to Afghanistan for another tour. He slept most of the bus ride there, and I had to poke him awake to let him know it was my stop. I went into the bus station to figure out my taxi and he came in too to talk to one of the station workers for whatever reason, yelling out to me when he went back to the bus to take care of myself.
Then my next adventure started. I had collected three different taxi company numbers from Google, but... when I called them, one kept taking me to a voicemail service, and the other two were unavailable or disconnected. Um. Hm? Google? So I was starting to freak out, eventually decided to go ask the man at the Amtrak ticket station if he could point me in the right direction of a working taxi company. Thankfully, he guided me to a touchpad machine that had all kinds of information, and I was able to get a working number from there. Finally. I was getting scared, haha. That taxi company told me it'd be a half an hour, and there was a Subway nearby, and now that I had a taxi I was feeling hungry. So I ordered a sub and had just sat down with it when the taxi driver called to say my taxi had arrived, a good 20 minutes early. Nice.
Made it to the hotel, got my room, and then unpacked stuff I would need for my event between talking to Mom and eating my sub, and spent the rest of the night randomly checking out the window and writing a couple of pages before I began working on my signs. That big snow we were supposed to get? Didn't start until midnight, and it was pretty light, though it became more blustery later on. By morning, we'd only gotten three inches but I had other problems.
While alternating between watching Toonami and working on my signs, I was sitting next to the heater part of the time.
The room felt cold, but I assumed it was because I was on the ground floor, and the windows were huge. Except that in the course of lettering my signs, I realized the heat wasn't shutting off. And intermittently, the fan would kick in. So around 12:30, I began playing with the heater, because I knew I'd be going to bed eventually and I didn't want it running nonstop. But no matter what I did, it continued running. When I shut it completely off, the heat would shut off, but the fan would continue running, blowing cool air into the room. Well. So I had to skip Blue Exorcist completely and go talk to the front desk, which had a nice woman working, and we chatted for a bit about the move she was in the process of, and my WWE plans, while she switched me to a different room on the second floor. Once I got in there, the difference was obvious. It was nice and warm, and I was much more comfortable in there.
But I found this kind of bizarre-- when I was exploring the first room, I found a lone AAA battery in one of the drawers. In the course of my unpacking stuff for the WWE event, I had left my camera and eight AA batteries on the bedside table. Of course I had to repack in a hurry to switch rooms, and when I once more unpacked everything on the second floor room, ... I had seven batteries. And it was the only thing I was missing. Suspicious that that room randomly steals people's batteries, haha.
But I digress, worked on my signs for awhile longer (nothing more sobering than working with markers and glitter pens in a room you have a $50 security deposit on...), went to bed at 3:30. ... My luck, I had been playing with the clock radio, listening to music while I worked, and I had accidentally turned the alarm on. It went off at 6 AM and scared me half to death. But when I woke up and saw that barely more snow had fallen since I was last awake, I felt much happier about the whole situation and finished my signs then before I fell back asleep for a couple of more hours. Once I fully woke up, I went down to look for a soda machine-- but alas it was busted, so the best I could do was a couple bottles of water from the front desk. Went back to my room and passed time watching America's Funniest Home Videos.
Around 2:30, I called my taxi company just to be told they were really busy, and couldn't get a taxi to me until 4:15. Which sucked, a little, I wanted to be there sooner-- but it was so cold, I decided not standing outside looking for arriving superstars wasn't that big of a loss, so I accepted it and, not wanting this situation to repeat itself, also booked my taxis for the trip back to the hotel, AND for the trip to the bus station in the morning so I could go home. Everything was going fine until Mom got wind that the taxi wasn't coming until 4. She started calling and texting me to cancel my taxi and call another taxi company, do this, do that, which added to my anxiety as it was, seeing my taxi company was the only dependable one I'd found... I was about to freak out in the hotel lobby, where I was using their computer to pass the time, so I collected my stuff and went back up to my room, where I told her to stop it, .and passed more time with America's Funniest Home Videos (which is apparently is all that's on on Sunday afternoons? Haha) until closer to 4, when I went back to the front lobby to wait.
My taxi arrived ten minutes early and we were off. Ironically enough I arrived at the arena about the same time as my brother and his girlfriend, who had decided at 12:30 to come after all. I had just gotten a soda and turned around to see him just a few feet away, heh. So we talked a bit, agreed to meet up after the event, and I went to the merch table while they went to their seats. I lost my ticket in the process of getting my program but oh well. =/ Made it to my seat about ten minutes before the event started.
The cage overhead for the night's main event
Chimel was our ring announcer.
The first match was Dolph Ziggler vs Damien Sandow and... one would think, after years of having this camera, I would remember which settings are best for a WWE event. But whatever, at least I recalled by the second match!
It became pretty clear here that people in my section were going to have a problem-- strobelights over the ring were aimed right in our direction, so any time there were entrances or poses being done in the ring, these lights were blinding us and making taking pictures impossible. It shut off during matches but still, a bit of a pain. Ziggler won.
The next match was Zack Ryder vs Rusev.
Rusev won via submission but I was happy to see Zack, and he got a little offense in. =/
AJ Lee came out next with Tamina Snuka, announcing that she was not defending her diva's title tonight.
Natalya came out then
And defeated her with the sharpshooter, which confused me for a minute until I remembered it was a nontitle match.
Sheamus and the Usos vs the Wyatts were next.
Sheamus and the Usos won and this abomination happened:
After a short intermission, they came back to.. R-Truth... hosting a dance off between Xavier Woods and Jinder Mahal. Yay?
The closest I've gotten to seeing Heath live since 2010 >.>
Xavier's entrance video was pretty ridic, but I approved of his glimmery jacket. I more than likely was the only one cheering for Jinder, but eh. Xavier won the dance off, then Jinder challenged him to a match and he won that one too in about a minute.
THen my favorite part of the night began: Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns vs Big Show and Kofi Kingston, with Dean Ambrose at ring side.
Ambrose got into some trouble, almost getting dragged into the ring by Big Show by his head, and not long after that, Big Show and Kofi won when he chokeslammed Seth.
The three Shield members argued and looked like they were about to brawl when... We're here...
These six brawled and The Shield came out on top... with Bray cornered in the ring.
But Rowan saved him, dragging him out of the ring and The Shield stood united... for now.
Then it was time for the main event-- Daniel Bryan vs Kane in a steel cage!
It's really hard to take pics through a steel cage, haha.
Daniel eventually walked out the winner off of a pin following his running knee.
Many YESSES were had, we were thanked for coming, Chimel promised they'd come back soon, and everyone began to leave. So I returned to the side of the building where taxis pick people up, and gained permission from the security guard at the door to stay inside, but my brother and his girlfriend found me a few minutes later and they offered to drive me back to my hotel, so I canceled my taxi and we made our way there.
After a bit more back and forth with Mom (Where my phone balance was becoming more and more of an issue... who knew failing to find a taxi easily in hour one of a two day trip would have ramifications on the rest of the weekend phone-wise? Haha), I gave up and crossed the path to the Cracker Barrel my hotel was behind. Poked around their stuffed animals and candy a bit before going into the restaurant for a really, really good meal of country fried steak, mac and cheese, hashbrown casserole and corn. I haven't been to Cracker Barrel since when Dad was still with us, so y'know, this was a little bittersweet. But a lot of things involving WWE events are. Eventually packed my leftovers in a box, got some dessert to go, and returned to the stuffed animals, where I got Mom some Minnie Mouse plushie, and got myself this little guy:
By then I was glad to return to my hotel room, where Mom and I talked via the hotel's phone for a few minutes. Once we finished, I needed to begin packing back up and watch Kimmel's Oscar special. Well, I did most of those things. Kimmel was running late because of the award show, and by the time he'd come on close to midnight, I had ate through my leftovers and dessert (less to pack in the morning, yo), and ended up falling asleep half way through his show. Heh, oops. I tried to watch a movie, but dozed off through that too so I gave up and got ready for bed, packing up a few more things, before falling asleep for real around 2.
Alarm went off at 8 and I was up and running; last minute packing, changing my clothes, all of that other fun stuff to make myself somewhat presentable for public. Even called both the bus station and the taxi company to confirm both bus and taxi. Everything was running as planned. One last check of the room to make sure I had everything, and off I was to the front desk to check out. My taxi was to arrive at 9, and my bus was to leave at 10. Check out went really easy, the girl just handed me my security deposit even though I was told housekeeping would first have to check my room. Sooo ok. Go to sit and wait for the taxi and by 9:05 it's still not there, so I ask the girl if I could use the hotel phone, because by then I had two minutes left on my balance and I needed those to tell Mom when I was on the bus. I was on hold with them when the taxi came... of course, lol. So I ran out and we made our way to the bus station.
Of course the bus was 40 minutes late, and I ended up back at Subway, ordering another sub, before going back to wait for the bus, where the parking attendant wouldn't let me wait outside for the bus because it was so cold. What can I say, I was a little anxious by this point to get home, my phone was out of minutes and my iPod had no charge... haha. Mom texted me then that the car wasn't starting, but she was able to get it working less than five minutes later. Pfft, lol. Finally the bus came and it, too, was packed with people, I only just found a seat in the very back of the bus... then this guy, trying to be helpful, took my bag from me and stuffed it in the overhead compartment. It wasn't until I sat down that I remembered. Oh yes, my soda, sub, and everything else was in that bag. And he had trouble getting it up there, how was *I* going to get it back down? But thankfully, when we arrived, and I was struggling pointlessly with the bag, this girl asked if I needed help and her boyfriend stepped forward and pulled it down for me in one movement. Pfft, if I was a foot taller and a hundred pounds heavier... lol.
So got home and... yep, here we are. Survived my first trip to a town mostly by my lonesome, and I think now Mom knows I'm ok when I'm by myself. It only took her ten years of my taking random bus trips to realize this, haha.
Then the day before my birthday, tickets for WWE in Peoria at the end of April went on sale and I got friggin row two seats. Aw yeah! Gonna have an even better view/pics than I had for Bloomington!
And... had this for my birthday a couple days ago:
And more pictures are here