The Good and The Bad
Yesterday should have been more enjoyable than it was. I was off work so that I could attend the May Crowing Rosary at St. Michael Academy and then James and I went right from there to the Channel 93.3 concert.
But for most of the day I was terribly miserable and super pissy.
When I got to the Academy someone asked me to use their $1,000 camera to take photos of her and her son… during the entire ceremony. I was not hot to do it, but I was put into such a position as I was pretty much unable to say no. As the kids started lining up outside of the church, by classes, some of us parents went into the church to find seats. The principal (NOT one of my favorite people anyway!) comes and chases us back out into the sun to wait. For what? No one knew, even the other teachers didn’t know what was going on.
We finally got to go into the church… we kinda sorta in a way processed (but not really, and not WITH our kids). Anyway, once inside the Rosary started and even though we were reflecting on the Glorious Mysteries, I got really down and sad. Recently I’ve lost two people whom I loved and during the Rosary my mind went this way and that and the next thing I knew I was crying. Ugh.
I was able to kinda play it off, but still I was feeling mopey.
After the Rosary was done we all went BACK out into the sun for a song and the presentation of the flowers to Mary. Then headed over to the hall for fellowship and food. I sat with some of my favorite people, so that was a super bright spot for me. But then about half way through the light meal, the principal came and sat right in front of me.
(There is a driving pain in the back of my left eye right now just for thinking about this all!)
I played nice-nice with her while she was there, then school was over and it was time to head to the concert.
James was to change from his school uniform and into the clothes I packed in the car. But I forgot PANTS for him. Ugh. I drove home like a mad man, calling Mary on the way asking her to please grab James’ pants off of the dryer and bring them to the curb for us. Of course she said she would. But when we got there she had grabbed the wrong pair. So James jumped out of the car to go get them. A minute later, “Mom, they’re still in the washer!” “No they’re not. They’re on top of the dryer.” “Nuh uh. They’re in the washer.”
Fuck.
I jumped out of the car, freaking out not a little bit, but a LOT.
They were on the dryer.
Back into the car we jump. Me hot, stressed and crammed for time and James hot and hungry. On the 54W I panicked and called Mary, “What road do I take to get there?” “Olympic Parkway.” “Ok, thanks!”
Well, if you’ve been to Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre, you know that it’s NOT Olympic Parkway, but Main Street (off of the 805S). Down, down, down I go East on Olympic Parkway. All the way to. The. End. I called Mary again. She said she’d call me back. She did. Found out from a friend who was also going to the concert that it was Main St.
Back to the freeway I sped. Literally, sped. South one exit to Main Street. We got there about 20 minutes past the 3:45pm “sharp” that we were supposed to be there for the Soulja Boy meet and greet and the free food (dinner!).
The Channel 93.3 intern guarding the VIP room said to come back at 5:30pm (thirty minutes PAST the start of the concert!!). At that point James was STARVING. He’d not eaten in over 5 hours. We went to the burger stand and although they had signs saying they took credit cards they said the phone line was down and they could only take cash and pointed us to the $3 per transaction ATM. Um, how, pray tell little snack bar worker is the ATM phone line working and not yours? Hum? Lying Bastards.
I took some cash out and went back to stand on line again so that I could be bent over and raped. Two regular hot dogs (not the “super” dogs), two colas and ONE order of fries… $32! What the fuck? Ok, whatever. My kid is hungry.
This entire time we were in direct sun and it was HOT, loud, crowded and just not going right. Seemed like everything that could go wrong DID.
Oh also… the mustard jug wasn’t dispensing right and they had no mayonnaise for the dogs. Whatever, fuckers.
We stood on line at a couple of spin for free junk booths. Hats, key chains, posters, etc. Again, in the direct, HOT, sun. We gathered up all our junky shit and went to our seats to see Soulja Boy (who started late, BTW). He rocked and I kinda forgave him some. After he was done we got up and headed back to the VIP lounge place for the meet and greet and the free food we didn’t need/want.
More standing in line in the sun. Ok, check in, then stand in line again. Ok, go in, then stand in line again. Ok, ONE photo…make it count. Which I didn’t, because my phone ATE THE FUCKING PHOTO OF JAMES AND SOULJA BOY. What the hell?
I wanted to go home, take a cold shower and cry into a beer. I was pissed, hot, tired, stressed and sad. Ugh.
We didn’t go home; we tried to make the best of it. And we did.
We caught the last two songs of Lady Gaga. Moved to seats five row back of our own (for more space) and then Flo Rida came out and rocked. He was good. It was still hot and we were still in direct sun, but he rocked it out and made it a little more bearable.
As he was finishing up the sun dropped over the horizon and the temperature dropped with it. As the temperature went down, my mood went up by the same degree. I got less and less miserable and my desire to go home in tears went away. After Flow Rida did his thing, out came All American Rejects. The temperature was low enough to dawn our sweat shirts. I was darn near to feeling good about things again.
Off went All American Rejects and out came Black Eyed Peas. Things were perfect and they rocked the fraking house.
After the show we sat and waited while we let the other folks empty out the parking lot a bit. When we got to the parking lot, about 30 minutes after the show was over. The lot was STILL packed and no one was moving. We just sat in the car and chilled out. About 30 minutes after THAT folks started moving and so I turned the ignition and we started to fight the good fight to get out onto the main road.
We got home at just after 11pm. Mary was already asleep. I knew I had James’ uniform ready for in the morning, so it was straight to bed for the both of us. My neighbors partied (as they always do) until about 3am, so I got a couple hours of restful sleep (from 3am to 7am).
So, yah. Yesterday ended up turning out pretty much ok, but getting to that point was for the shits.
There were other yucky, bummer, shitty things that happened in addition to what I’ve shared, but the fact that you’ve made it this far without giving up… well, I can’t torture you with more. ;)
But for most of the day I was terribly miserable and super pissy.
When I got to the Academy someone asked me to use their $1,000 camera to take photos of her and her son… during the entire ceremony. I was not hot to do it, but I was put into such a position as I was pretty much unable to say no. As the kids started lining up outside of the church, by classes, some of us parents went into the church to find seats. The principal (NOT one of my favorite people anyway!) comes and chases us back out into the sun to wait. For what? No one knew, even the other teachers didn’t know what was going on.
We finally got to go into the church… we kinda sorta in a way processed (but not really, and not WITH our kids). Anyway, once inside the Rosary started and even though we were reflecting on the Glorious Mysteries, I got really down and sad. Recently I’ve lost two people whom I loved and during the Rosary my mind went this way and that and the next thing I knew I was crying. Ugh.
I was able to kinda play it off, but still I was feeling mopey.
After the Rosary was done we all went BACK out into the sun for a song and the presentation of the flowers to Mary. Then headed over to the hall for fellowship and food. I sat with some of my favorite people, so that was a super bright spot for me. But then about half way through the light meal, the principal came and sat right in front of me.
(There is a driving pain in the back of my left eye right now just for thinking about this all!)
I played nice-nice with her while she was there, then school was over and it was time to head to the concert.
James was to change from his school uniform and into the clothes I packed in the car. But I forgot PANTS for him. Ugh. I drove home like a mad man, calling Mary on the way asking her to please grab James’ pants off of the dryer and bring them to the curb for us. Of course she said she would. But when we got there she had grabbed the wrong pair. So James jumped out of the car to go get them. A minute later, “Mom, they’re still in the washer!” “No they’re not. They’re on top of the dryer.” “Nuh uh. They’re in the washer.”
Fuck.
I jumped out of the car, freaking out not a little bit, but a LOT.
They were on the dryer.
Back into the car we jump. Me hot, stressed and crammed for time and James hot and hungry. On the 54W I panicked and called Mary, “What road do I take to get there?” “Olympic Parkway.” “Ok, thanks!”
Well, if you’ve been to Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre, you know that it’s NOT Olympic Parkway, but Main Street (off of the 805S). Down, down, down I go East on Olympic Parkway. All the way to. The. End. I called Mary again. She said she’d call me back. She did. Found out from a friend who was also going to the concert that it was Main St.
Back to the freeway I sped. Literally, sped. South one exit to Main Street. We got there about 20 minutes past the 3:45pm “sharp” that we were supposed to be there for the Soulja Boy meet and greet and the free food (dinner!).
The Channel 93.3 intern guarding the VIP room said to come back at 5:30pm (thirty minutes PAST the start of the concert!!). At that point James was STARVING. He’d not eaten in over 5 hours. We went to the burger stand and although they had signs saying they took credit cards they said the phone line was down and they could only take cash and pointed us to the $3 per transaction ATM. Um, how, pray tell little snack bar worker is the ATM phone line working and not yours? Hum? Lying Bastards.
I took some cash out and went back to stand on line again so that I could be bent over and raped. Two regular hot dogs (not the “super” dogs), two colas and ONE order of fries… $32! What the fuck? Ok, whatever. My kid is hungry.
This entire time we were in direct sun and it was HOT, loud, crowded and just not going right. Seemed like everything that could go wrong DID.
Oh also… the mustard jug wasn’t dispensing right and they had no mayonnaise for the dogs. Whatever, fuckers.
We stood on line at a couple of spin for free junk booths. Hats, key chains, posters, etc. Again, in the direct, HOT, sun. We gathered up all our junky shit and went to our seats to see Soulja Boy (who started late, BTW). He rocked and I kinda forgave him some. After he was done we got up and headed back to the VIP lounge place for the meet and greet and the free food we didn’t need/want.
More standing in line in the sun. Ok, check in, then stand in line again. Ok, go in, then stand in line again. Ok, ONE photo…make it count. Which I didn’t, because my phone ATE THE FUCKING PHOTO OF JAMES AND SOULJA BOY. What the hell?
I wanted to go home, take a cold shower and cry into a beer. I was pissed, hot, tired, stressed and sad. Ugh.
We didn’t go home; we tried to make the best of it. And we did.
We caught the last two songs of Lady Gaga. Moved to seats five row back of our own (for more space) and then Flo Rida came out and rocked. He was good. It was still hot and we were still in direct sun, but he rocked it out and made it a little more bearable.
As he was finishing up the sun dropped over the horizon and the temperature dropped with it. As the temperature went down, my mood went up by the same degree. I got less and less miserable and my desire to go home in tears went away. After Flow Rida did his thing, out came All American Rejects. The temperature was low enough to dawn our sweat shirts. I was darn near to feeling good about things again.
Off went All American Rejects and out came Black Eyed Peas. Things were perfect and they rocked the fraking house.
After the show we sat and waited while we let the other folks empty out the parking lot a bit. When we got to the parking lot, about 30 minutes after the show was over. The lot was STILL packed and no one was moving. We just sat in the car and chilled out. About 30 minutes after THAT folks started moving and so I turned the ignition and we started to fight the good fight to get out onto the main road.
We got home at just after 11pm. Mary was already asleep. I knew I had James’ uniform ready for in the morning, so it was straight to bed for the both of us. My neighbors partied (as they always do) until about 3am, so I got a couple hours of restful sleep (from 3am to 7am).
So, yah. Yesterday ended up turning out pretty much ok, but getting to that point was for the shits.
There were other yucky, bummer, shitty things that happened in addition to what I’ve shared, but the fact that you’ve made it this far without giving up… well, I can’t torture you with more. ;)