In the promised land
I haven't had the energy to talk about my weekend. It was rather fruitful, if tiring.
Saturday night I went to Kohl's. I bought a lot of stuff. Mom, knowing my financial constraints, allowed me to take what I'd pay for rent (which is rather minimal compared to what I'd pay if I had even a cheap apartment) and spend it on new clothes. Between a gift card and "lowest prices of the season!" (AKA 55% off on some stuff), I spent a decent amount and still have enough left over for two pairs of shoes. Unfortunately, that's because I could not find a single pair of shoes I even wanted to try on, let alone consider buying. Ah well. I got two pairs of pants, including a black pair that I had to buy because they had the most fabulous fit EVER. I've never had a pair of pants fit me that nicely. I wore them to work today. I also got a few tops. My big buy? (TMI alert, guys.) Bras. I bought myself five new bras. I did them first, figuring that would be the most painful part of the whole evening. However, the last time I went bra shopping I found a brand and size (Maidenform 38B) that works for me. All I had to do was grab the same style I already had and voila! Alas, that trick did not work with other styles even in the same brand, but that's okay. My need has been fulfilled, and, um, I shall appear to have a chest most days.
I spent a long enough time at Kohl's that I was tired when I got home. The clothes are still in the bag with their tags on. And I didn't get a chance to do much of anything Sunday, as it was wedding shower day. Yes, time to go to Zion. Anticipation, excitement, and nervousness came along for the ride. The drive really wasn't that bad. It's nice to see that Lake County still has some unsullied land. I probably drove through the same amount of fields as I did subdivisions and industrial areas. There was only one place where my directions were a little off, but the roads were clearly marked and I was able to get back on track. The other problem? Well, it came with the directions to the wedding. See, Jenny's church is in the center of town. Its founder was the man who created Zion itself. It's on a circular road named Dowie Memorial Drive. There are four spoke-like roads leading from the center, but they all have different names. On the wedding directions, the north road was labeled Bethel. That's actually the name of the south road. The north road is actually Bethesda. Now, being the map geek I am, I noticed that as I plotted my route and made a note to look for either street. I still missed it, but that's because it wasn't what I expected. More in a minute. All told, though, it took me less than two hours to get up there, and I drove 62 miles on the way there. I did a total of 136 round-trip.
Now, I'd never been to Zion. I'd seen maps of it before and had noticed the spoke-like roads and the big park in the middle. Somehow I imagined that, at the circular road, there was a town square or something, and the spoke roads were these main drags. Nope. They're little side streets. That's how I missed Bethesda the first time around; I saw the street sign as I was passing the street. Whoops. And that circular road? The only thing inside of it is the church. That's it. The circle is surrounded by a square, all right--and it's just a park. Shiloh Park, to be exact. I mean, there's a golf course in the northwest part of the square, and the northeast part appeared to be the home of Zion-Benton High School, but all told...it's just a really really big park. Interesting. Since I was early, I decided to drive around for a bit. I found Jenny's house, which is only a few blocks west, and then I drove around the park. In doing so I found a few ponds that had ducks and geese and seagulls (this is maybe a mile west of Lake Michigan). And then I saw...dear God, what *are* those things? Apparently Zion has mutant ducks. They were freaking huge. In this area, we're pretty familiar with Canadian geese, which aren't little...and these things were bigger than the geese. Whoa. I had to pull over and take a picture. Eh, I still had like 20 minutes; what the heck. There were some families feeding the fowl, so I was amused while watching the kids feed the geese. Down a path, a grandma and a little boy had bread; these two geese walked right up to them! Crazy. And then there was this kinda fat squirrel (must be related to the fat Naperville squirrels) who ended up in a garbage can and made a racket; I peeked in on him and totally freaked him out. Nice. :)
I made it back to the church at 1:55 and promptly had no idea where to go. I started walking to an entrance when a girl said to me, are you a relative of Jenny's? Um...no...but I was once in the paper as *being* her. Turns out the girl was a fellow teacher of hers. She was dressed nicely, if a little casually; I was in a dress and heels. Between that and my gifts, it was pretty easy to discover that I was there for the shower. We ended up walking in together and we talked for a bit...then she found someone else she knew and I didn't see her again. Eh, that's cool.
Now I have to tell you the story of how I became Jenny. Yes, we have the same first name. She was a grade ahead of her sister Betsy and me in school, even though she's nearly two years older than me. The curse of having a December birthday, I suppose. As seniors in English and World Lit (yes, the same class I just mentioned in my Hello, Dolly! entry), Betsy and I studied Crime and Punishment, AKA the book with evil Russian names. We ended up doing a mock trial based on the book for class. The day before Thanksgiving, we went over to the courthouse and did the whole thing. It was big enough that the local paper came by and did an article. Jenny got interviewed, but somehow my name got attached to her quote, and I was labeled as "Mrs. S's college-age daughter." Ever since then, I've been an adjunct member of the family. Betsy was basically my best friend during my junior and senior years of high school, so at times I really felt like I was a member of the family as well. I started off as more Betsy's friend, but I've actually kept in better touch with Jenny. Anyway, so it was no surprise when Mrs. S saw me and said, there's my other daughter Jenny! :) Yeah, I'll let her get away with calling me that.
Jenny wasn't the only sibling with something big happening to her this year. Betsy had her first child, a little girl named Rachel, on the day I started my new job. Yeah, I think I can remember that date. ;) This baby is possibly the quietest kid ever. At the end, everyone was like, the baby hasn't made a peep! And she was certainly passed around to enough people. All she did was look around with her big blue eyes and take everything in. Or she stretched out her long, long limbs. She even has these long, skinny fingers. We figure she's destined to play piano. I got to hold her at the end of the party when everyone was cleaning up. I felt kind of bad, like I should be helping, but I had to remind myself that I was helping by watching the baby. Of course, it was while I was holding her that she started to fuss--that was, when she was awake. She took a couple of cat naps during that time, too. Turns out she only fusses when she needs her diaper changed. Ah, well, I was sort of wondering about that. Her actual Aunt Jenny took care of that. I'm only her "third Aunt Jenny," according to Mrs. S. (There must be a cousin named Jenny hiding somewhere in there.)
There had been a small group of people gathered around tables when I arrived. I sort of thought they were grabbing food. Nope--they were doing the main project, making stepping stones for the couple's garden. I was confused at first, like a few other people, because I thought we were making the stones for ourselves. Nope. But that's cool. It was actually an interesting project. I made two of them. The first was simple, with a J in the middle. I'm a J, Jenny's a J, and she's marrying a John. It works. The second one I'll call Christmas abstract, as it involved red and green stones. They should turn out pretty nicely. I actually worked on one with John's mom, Mrs. P, who seems like a nice lady. She did not enjoy some of the comments that were made once Jenny started opening the gifts and she came across a griddle with a handle--it was called stuff like a "husband-conditioning device." There were a few clever ones that came out before Mrs. P was like, um, that's my son you're talking about! And John was there, too, for part of it...but luckily not the part where Jenny opened a few pink boxes from Victoria's Secret. Victoria didn't have too many secrets left to tell in those boxes. Poor Jenny--she blushed down to her dress. Yeah, there'd better be gift receipts with those.
I think the shower ended at 4:30. I came away with a geranium, won by placing second in one of the games (given their last names, figure out the first names of the TV couple and the show they were on), as well as another potted flower from a table's centerpiece. It took probably an hour and a half to pack up everyone's cars. The shower was done as a tea, complete with formal tea settings, so that meant there were a lot of dishes to clean and pack up. It was around 6 when we finished. By then it was chilly outside--hooray for cooler by the lake--but we discovered one of Betsy's tires was low. Her dad had a portable compressor and filled her tire. In the meantime, the baby got hungry, so Betsy pulled her out to feed her. We--her parents, her mom's friend Sue, Jenny, John, and I--all stood around waiting for the baby to finish. Betsy was like, go, go, it's not like I'm alone. But no--we refused to leave. It was probably around 6:30 when we all finally left the church. Betsy and the baby went home, Mr. S went to Jenny's to work on something, and the rest of us went to John's house (where Jenny will move once they're married) to wait for him and to get the tour. Strangely enough, I'd actually passed the subdivision on the way up there. It was totally on my way home. Very cool. That was good, as by the time Mr. S made it to John's house it was about 8 and I was totally bushed. The rest of them ended up going off for Chinese, but I knew I'd never make it home if I went with. I got home around 9:20.
Oh, but Jenny couldn't resist one dig as we were leaving. See, at Betsy's wedding ( one of my first entries here!), I sort of stole the bouquet from her. I apologized not too long later, as, well, she *is* Betsy's actual sister and really should have caught it. At the time, Jenny (who had yet to meet John) said something like, I don't base my life around flowers I have or haven't caught. Of course, she has the last laugh as she's getting married before me (unless something TOTALLY unexpected happens between now and June 16th...but considering I can't even get an email from a certain person, well, ha; I'd be more likely to shave my head than get married). So as we're walking down John's steps and saying goodbye, she made the comment that she'd aim for me. We then had to explain the story to John, who I think was vaguely amused by this. Oh, Jenny's response about not getting the bouquet? She must not have wanted it badly enough. Anyway, so Betsy had gotten this nifty car mirror as a baby gift--a way to watch the baby while driving without turning around--so we started joking that Jenny was going to use the mirror during her bouquet toss. Ha. That's awesome. I shall take whatever help is given to me.
Now I need to get myself a dress. I keep thinking of something blue for some reason.
Saturday night I went to Kohl's. I bought a lot of stuff. Mom, knowing my financial constraints, allowed me to take what I'd pay for rent (which is rather minimal compared to what I'd pay if I had even a cheap apartment) and spend it on new clothes. Between a gift card and "lowest prices of the season!" (AKA 55% off on some stuff), I spent a decent amount and still have enough left over for two pairs of shoes. Unfortunately, that's because I could not find a single pair of shoes I even wanted to try on, let alone consider buying. Ah well. I got two pairs of pants, including a black pair that I had to buy because they had the most fabulous fit EVER. I've never had a pair of pants fit me that nicely. I wore them to work today. I also got a few tops. My big buy? (TMI alert, guys.) Bras. I bought myself five new bras. I did them first, figuring that would be the most painful part of the whole evening. However, the last time I went bra shopping I found a brand and size (Maidenform 38B) that works for me. All I had to do was grab the same style I already had and voila! Alas, that trick did not work with other styles even in the same brand, but that's okay. My need has been fulfilled, and, um, I shall appear to have a chest most days.
I spent a long enough time at Kohl's that I was tired when I got home. The clothes are still in the bag with their tags on. And I didn't get a chance to do much of anything Sunday, as it was wedding shower day. Yes, time to go to Zion. Anticipation, excitement, and nervousness came along for the ride. The drive really wasn't that bad. It's nice to see that Lake County still has some unsullied land. I probably drove through the same amount of fields as I did subdivisions and industrial areas. There was only one place where my directions were a little off, but the roads were clearly marked and I was able to get back on track. The other problem? Well, it came with the directions to the wedding. See, Jenny's church is in the center of town. Its founder was the man who created Zion itself. It's on a circular road named Dowie Memorial Drive. There are four spoke-like roads leading from the center, but they all have different names. On the wedding directions, the north road was labeled Bethel. That's actually the name of the south road. The north road is actually Bethesda. Now, being the map geek I am, I noticed that as I plotted my route and made a note to look for either street. I still missed it, but that's because it wasn't what I expected. More in a minute. All told, though, it took me less than two hours to get up there, and I drove 62 miles on the way there. I did a total of 136 round-trip.
Now, I'd never been to Zion. I'd seen maps of it before and had noticed the spoke-like roads and the big park in the middle. Somehow I imagined that, at the circular road, there was a town square or something, and the spoke roads were these main drags. Nope. They're little side streets. That's how I missed Bethesda the first time around; I saw the street sign as I was passing the street. Whoops. And that circular road? The only thing inside of it is the church. That's it. The circle is surrounded by a square, all right--and it's just a park. Shiloh Park, to be exact. I mean, there's a golf course in the northwest part of the square, and the northeast part appeared to be the home of Zion-Benton High School, but all told...it's just a really really big park. Interesting. Since I was early, I decided to drive around for a bit. I found Jenny's house, which is only a few blocks west, and then I drove around the park. In doing so I found a few ponds that had ducks and geese and seagulls (this is maybe a mile west of Lake Michigan). And then I saw...dear God, what *are* those things? Apparently Zion has mutant ducks. They were freaking huge. In this area, we're pretty familiar with Canadian geese, which aren't little...and these things were bigger than the geese. Whoa. I had to pull over and take a picture. Eh, I still had like 20 minutes; what the heck. There were some families feeding the fowl, so I was amused while watching the kids feed the geese. Down a path, a grandma and a little boy had bread; these two geese walked right up to them! Crazy. And then there was this kinda fat squirrel (must be related to the fat Naperville squirrels) who ended up in a garbage can and made a racket; I peeked in on him and totally freaked him out. Nice. :)
I made it back to the church at 1:55 and promptly had no idea where to go. I started walking to an entrance when a girl said to me, are you a relative of Jenny's? Um...no...but I was once in the paper as *being* her. Turns out the girl was a fellow teacher of hers. She was dressed nicely, if a little casually; I was in a dress and heels. Between that and my gifts, it was pretty easy to discover that I was there for the shower. We ended up walking in together and we talked for a bit...then she found someone else she knew and I didn't see her again. Eh, that's cool.
Now I have to tell you the story of how I became Jenny. Yes, we have the same first name. She was a grade ahead of her sister Betsy and me in school, even though she's nearly two years older than me. The curse of having a December birthday, I suppose. As seniors in English and World Lit (yes, the same class I just mentioned in my Hello, Dolly! entry), Betsy and I studied Crime and Punishment, AKA the book with evil Russian names. We ended up doing a mock trial based on the book for class. The day before Thanksgiving, we went over to the courthouse and did the whole thing. It was big enough that the local paper came by and did an article. Jenny got interviewed, but somehow my name got attached to her quote, and I was labeled as "Mrs. S's college-age daughter." Ever since then, I've been an adjunct member of the family. Betsy was basically my best friend during my junior and senior years of high school, so at times I really felt like I was a member of the family as well. I started off as more Betsy's friend, but I've actually kept in better touch with Jenny. Anyway, so it was no surprise when Mrs. S saw me and said, there's my other daughter Jenny! :) Yeah, I'll let her get away with calling me that.
Jenny wasn't the only sibling with something big happening to her this year. Betsy had her first child, a little girl named Rachel, on the day I started my new job. Yeah, I think I can remember that date. ;) This baby is possibly the quietest kid ever. At the end, everyone was like, the baby hasn't made a peep! And she was certainly passed around to enough people. All she did was look around with her big blue eyes and take everything in. Or she stretched out her long, long limbs. She even has these long, skinny fingers. We figure she's destined to play piano. I got to hold her at the end of the party when everyone was cleaning up. I felt kind of bad, like I should be helping, but I had to remind myself that I was helping by watching the baby. Of course, it was while I was holding her that she started to fuss--that was, when she was awake. She took a couple of cat naps during that time, too. Turns out she only fusses when she needs her diaper changed. Ah, well, I was sort of wondering about that. Her actual Aunt Jenny took care of that. I'm only her "third Aunt Jenny," according to Mrs. S. (There must be a cousin named Jenny hiding somewhere in there.)
There had been a small group of people gathered around tables when I arrived. I sort of thought they were grabbing food. Nope--they were doing the main project, making stepping stones for the couple's garden. I was confused at first, like a few other people, because I thought we were making the stones for ourselves. Nope. But that's cool. It was actually an interesting project. I made two of them. The first was simple, with a J in the middle. I'm a J, Jenny's a J, and she's marrying a John. It works. The second one I'll call Christmas abstract, as it involved red and green stones. They should turn out pretty nicely. I actually worked on one with John's mom, Mrs. P, who seems like a nice lady. She did not enjoy some of the comments that were made once Jenny started opening the gifts and she came across a griddle with a handle--it was called stuff like a "husband-conditioning device." There were a few clever ones that came out before Mrs. P was like, um, that's my son you're talking about! And John was there, too, for part of it...but luckily not the part where Jenny opened a few pink boxes from Victoria's Secret. Victoria didn't have too many secrets left to tell in those boxes. Poor Jenny--she blushed down to her dress. Yeah, there'd better be gift receipts with those.
I think the shower ended at 4:30. I came away with a geranium, won by placing second in one of the games (given their last names, figure out the first names of the TV couple and the show they were on), as well as another potted flower from a table's centerpiece. It took probably an hour and a half to pack up everyone's cars. The shower was done as a tea, complete with formal tea settings, so that meant there were a lot of dishes to clean and pack up. It was around 6 when we finished. By then it was chilly outside--hooray for cooler by the lake--but we discovered one of Betsy's tires was low. Her dad had a portable compressor and filled her tire. In the meantime, the baby got hungry, so Betsy pulled her out to feed her. We--her parents, her mom's friend Sue, Jenny, John, and I--all stood around waiting for the baby to finish. Betsy was like, go, go, it's not like I'm alone. But no--we refused to leave. It was probably around 6:30 when we all finally left the church. Betsy and the baby went home, Mr. S went to Jenny's to work on something, and the rest of us went to John's house (where Jenny will move once they're married) to wait for him and to get the tour. Strangely enough, I'd actually passed the subdivision on the way up there. It was totally on my way home. Very cool. That was good, as by the time Mr. S made it to John's house it was about 8 and I was totally bushed. The rest of them ended up going off for Chinese, but I knew I'd never make it home if I went with. I got home around 9:20.
Oh, but Jenny couldn't resist one dig as we were leaving. See, at Betsy's wedding ( one of my first entries here!), I sort of stole the bouquet from her. I apologized not too long later, as, well, she *is* Betsy's actual sister and really should have caught it. At the time, Jenny (who had yet to meet John) said something like, I don't base my life around flowers I have or haven't caught. Of course, she has the last laugh as she's getting married before me (unless something TOTALLY unexpected happens between now and June 16th...but considering I can't even get an email from a certain person, well, ha; I'd be more likely to shave my head than get married). So as we're walking down John's steps and saying goodbye, she made the comment that she'd aim for me. We then had to explain the story to John, who I think was vaguely amused by this. Oh, Jenny's response about not getting the bouquet? She must not have wanted it badly enough. Anyway, so Betsy had gotten this nifty car mirror as a baby gift--a way to watch the baby while driving without turning around--so we started joking that Jenny was going to use the mirror during her bouquet toss. Ha. That's awesome. I shall take whatever help is given to me.
Now I need to get myself a dress. I keep thinking of something blue for some reason.