175th Birthday Spectacular!
Or, how to make me feel 17 again.
This was a special weekend in my town--the town turned 175! Yay! We are the oldest city in Kane County, so naturally the place turned into one big party for the weekend. I think there's still stuff going on tomorrow as well. Anyway, the stuff from Friday and Saturday, either I wasn't interested or I couldn't make it, but I'd planned on coming today for a few weeks now. There was supposed to be a community picnic from 1-6, and then mom saw that there was going to be a "cake walk" (i.e., bake sale), and since she had cookies from 1-3 she gave me money to pick up something sweet. Alas, I got caught up with the tub (as did my fingers--I almost thought I'd have to ice the ones on my right hand), and between that and having the water off, I couldn't leave before 2:30. Well, at that point I decided to just wait for mom; we got there around 3:15.
Alas, either I misread something or it was printed wrong, because what lasted from 1-6 was not the picnic; it was this display of old manufacturing equipment near the Riverwalk. What we discovered once we hit the tent was a pie-eating contest (where I only saw the remnants of the pies on the eaters' faces, not the actual eating) and then longest beard/longest braid contest. Few people already had braids when they started; several girls had their moms braid 'em up while they sat there. One guy was even entered, and he might have won had he done a French braid and not a regular braid starting from the nape of his neck. The girl who won had a 23" long braid. The only dude to enter the beard contest had a beard that was 14" in length, I believe, and he started growing it in 1976. Whoa. Eventually this guy with a goatee decided to challenge, and his goatee was determined to be 1-3/4" long. Well, at least there was a competitor. :) Also, the goatee guy had been in the pie-eating contest, so the lady doing the measuring joked about him having whipped cream in his hair, like it would have added more length.
There wasn't much going on for a while, so mom and I took a walk around the Riverwalk. The river is back to being fairly low--the dam didn't have water on it except at the edges, for instance. What a difference a year makes. When we got to one of the lookouts, I told mom that it had been closed off last year due to high water; it's multiple feet lower now. Amazing. We stopped at McDonald's for a bit and then around 4:30 went to the bridge reopening ceremony. They've been in the process of replacing the old 1911 bridge for over a year now. It's still not done, but it's functional, so what better time to officially open it but now? The ceremony lasted half an hour; I got some picture of the mayor and Bill Foster, Hastert's replacement.
From 5-9 there was something called Best of Batavia, featuring what could be called $2 taste portions at the local restaurants. Mom and I ended up at one of the Thai restaurants, where mom promptly tried to go in a locked side door. The people in there were pretty nice and let us in that way. We were the first people to come along, though, and the lady who waited on us must not have realized we were there for the sampler and not for a full meal, even though we were holding the flier and mentioned it. By the time the next people came in, though, they were ready, and they ended up getting decent business. The owners were so new in town that one of the workers, a young girl, even asked if this was a yearly thing. Um, no, but maybe it should be. It was kind of fun going around to the different places. Their sampler was this plate of peanut noodles that we shared, plus Thai iced coffee or iced tea. Mom had the coffee, I had the tea, and both were good. The tea was sweeter and had an unusual flavor, but it was tasty. I'd get it again.
Now, the next part is where I was basically transported in the Way-Back Machine to high school. See, I liked this guy. We were in band together, I'd often go see his band play, yada yada yada. However, the last time I saw him was nine years ago. Fast forward to maybe a couple of years ago; he's back in town and owns his own music lesson studio. He's civic-oriented and has been involved in lots of performances around town, but I'd never before gotten a chance to see one of his groups play until tonight. At 5:30, his steel drum bands played for the Bridge Bash. Part of me wanted to satisfy my curiosity and see him in person. When mom saw that he'd be there in the paper, she was like, we're not staying for that. And then, in the Thai restaurant, she was hurrying me up so we could go watch! Holy crap. Who are you and what have you done with my mother? And, as it turns out, we didn't need to rush; it took like 15 extra minutes to get all the drums set up. There were two groups, made up of junior high and high school kids. They were really good, especially considering they've only been playing since January. I don't know. It was a little weird seeing him again, especially because he doesn't look the same as he used to (though I have seen pictures of him so I did know what he looked like), but at the same time it was kind of nice, too. I also got to see his parents, who looked pretty much the same (but I didn't talk to them); Breea, another person from high school who works with the guy; and one of my former Company X coworkers, who was there with his wife and adorable 9-month-old son.
Now here's where it gets interesting. You have to understand: When I like someone, that's it. Nobody else enters the picture until it's clear nothing will happen between me and the guy and I've had several years to kind of separate myself from the situation. With this particular guy, it didn't happen until my senior year of college. So I haven't really liked him for about a decade, but I'd liked him for about seven years there. That was a third of my life at the time. And while I've long since gotten over him, and even moved off his replacement, part of me still remembers that time from 14-17 where parts of my life revolved around him. And it was so well-known among my friends, it was almost a joke. Actually, I take that back, it *was* a joke, and I'm really, really thankful he did not come to my graduation party, because my two closest friends got me this slew of gifts that partially played off that whole situation. And, of course, my mother knew all about it, but she would pooh-pooh it, which always made me feel great. I mean, I've always had my insecurities, and I was pretty awkward for a while when we moved out here; it would have been nice if my mom would have said something nice relating to me and the guy I liked. But she was always kind of making fun of me. Like my friends, she never believed that he had any interest in me. I, personally, thought he did, and my copious journal entries from that era have weird little tidbits that back me up. Just go with me on this. Nobody else did, but I know what I experienced. So fast-forward to today, where I'm with my mom on the bridge and we're trying to watch the steel drum band. The stage was set up on the west end of the bridge, which was unfortunate, because the sun was behind them the entire time. The players were very difficult to see. Mom and I started off on the sidewalk where it was shady, but as the sun moved the shade shifted, and after a while we ended up sitting on the curb where we were in full view of him. There weren't a whole lot of people around at that point--a decent audience, but small enough that you could pick out individual faces--and after a while I noticed he kept glancing in my direction. Well, he was wearing sunglasses so I couldn't see his eyes, but like his head was totally facing us. Afterward mom even commented on that, like, did he see us? Do you think he recognized us? He kept looking at us. Uh, yeah, I'm pretty sure he saw us. She said something about how I was there with my mom, like that was lame or something, and I was like, yeah, and his parents were there videotaping the whole thing like they did in high school. We're both equally lame here. But I know he *did* see me, which I didn't tell mom. Because it was so sunny, I had a hard time looking at the stage, but I did, and at one point when he was looking at me I gave him a smile, and I could see him like shake his head and glance down and I think he kind of smiled--shades of "Hard Hearted Hannah" all over again. I know you don't know what that means, but ask and I'll explain it. And after that he did keep looking over at me, but I was trying not to look, partially because of the sun, and partially because, I don't know. It was a little weird. So then when I eventually took mom home, she was telling me she'd been eavesdropping earlier when his mom, standing nearby, was talking to some other ladies--sounds like he's single and has a hard time meeting people because his school is open until 9. That got mom all excited and she was like, oh, you two should get together, you'd be good together, he'd probably make a good father, I'd always liked him for a son-in-law. Uh, what? No, seriously, what have you done with my mother? She NEVER EVER EVER expressed ANY of this to me years ago, you know, when it mattered. In fact, she was pushing me toward John-o, who was a friend of mine and a sweet guy but not someone I ever liked romantically. In fact, I had several friends (the two that embarrassed me at the party, in fact) who both liked John-o and probably would have killed me if I suddenly liked him as well. I seriously could not believe what she was saying, and was like, why didn't you say any of this when I *liked* him, and mom was like, because he didn't like you back! *sigh* So, yeah, that was kind of annoying, to be perfectly honest with you. Also annoying: All the liquids I had, which included both the tea and water at the Thai place, and about half of mom's tea from McDonald's, finally kicked in toward the end of the steel drum performance, and I had to book it out of there as soon as they were done. I felt kind of bad, because part of me wanted to talk to the guy, but I was about five minutes away from having an accident. And, I ended up having to use a port-o-potty, too; I tried the regular public bathrooms but they were locked. Oh well. He was still around when I got back, talking with parents of some of his students and some other people, but he left with all his equipment and I didn't see him after that. What sucked for him: His business is two blocks down the road, but because he was set up on the west side of the bridge, and his business is on the east side, and the bridge was closed, he had to go all the way up (down?) and around to get back there.
It was really nice to see him, though. I'm definitely glad I finally got to see him after all this time.
After the steel drum band came a rock band at 7:30. We listened to a couple of songs and then mom wanted to see what some of the other places had food-wise. She got chips and guacamole, but as her feet hurt and she wanted to be home by 8, we didn't stay too much longer. I had called dad, as initially we mentioned bringing him home some food, but he'd said not to worry about him. Oh, but one of the places has $2 ribs. That sold him, so after dropping mom off at home, he took the bike and I drove back down there, arriving around 8:30. Alas, the rib place had sold out a half-hour before we arrived, and another place had closed its kitchen, so dad ended up going to McDonald's. This was about 5 minutes before the fireworks were to start at 9 (the reason I wanted to come back). I wanted to see them on the bridge--they were being shot off from Clark Island, south of the bridge--and told him approximately where I'd be. I didn't make it to that spot, though, before the lights went off and the show started. Oh well--it was fine. It was basically like a normal town's 4th of July display. When it finished, I waited where I was, thinking dad might come by to try and find me. Nope--when I finally walked back to my car, he'd moved his bike next to where I'd parked and was waiting for me by the Riverwalk. Um, thanks, but whatever--at least I didn't have to deal with hordes of people by that time.
Overall, it was a nice day. I'm glad I did it and got to experience a once-in-a-lifetime thing here.
This was a special weekend in my town--the town turned 175! Yay! We are the oldest city in Kane County, so naturally the place turned into one big party for the weekend. I think there's still stuff going on tomorrow as well. Anyway, the stuff from Friday and Saturday, either I wasn't interested or I couldn't make it, but I'd planned on coming today for a few weeks now. There was supposed to be a community picnic from 1-6, and then mom saw that there was going to be a "cake walk" (i.e., bake sale), and since she had cookies from 1-3 she gave me money to pick up something sweet. Alas, I got caught up with the tub (as did my fingers--I almost thought I'd have to ice the ones on my right hand), and between that and having the water off, I couldn't leave before 2:30. Well, at that point I decided to just wait for mom; we got there around 3:15.
Alas, either I misread something or it was printed wrong, because what lasted from 1-6 was not the picnic; it was this display of old manufacturing equipment near the Riverwalk. What we discovered once we hit the tent was a pie-eating contest (where I only saw the remnants of the pies on the eaters' faces, not the actual eating) and then longest beard/longest braid contest. Few people already had braids when they started; several girls had their moms braid 'em up while they sat there. One guy was even entered, and he might have won had he done a French braid and not a regular braid starting from the nape of his neck. The girl who won had a 23" long braid. The only dude to enter the beard contest had a beard that was 14" in length, I believe, and he started growing it in 1976. Whoa. Eventually this guy with a goatee decided to challenge, and his goatee was determined to be 1-3/4" long. Well, at least there was a competitor. :) Also, the goatee guy had been in the pie-eating contest, so the lady doing the measuring joked about him having whipped cream in his hair, like it would have added more length.
There wasn't much going on for a while, so mom and I took a walk around the Riverwalk. The river is back to being fairly low--the dam didn't have water on it except at the edges, for instance. What a difference a year makes. When we got to one of the lookouts, I told mom that it had been closed off last year due to high water; it's multiple feet lower now. Amazing. We stopped at McDonald's for a bit and then around 4:30 went to the bridge reopening ceremony. They've been in the process of replacing the old 1911 bridge for over a year now. It's still not done, but it's functional, so what better time to officially open it but now? The ceremony lasted half an hour; I got some picture of the mayor and Bill Foster, Hastert's replacement.
From 5-9 there was something called Best of Batavia, featuring what could be called $2 taste portions at the local restaurants. Mom and I ended up at one of the Thai restaurants, where mom promptly tried to go in a locked side door. The people in there were pretty nice and let us in that way. We were the first people to come along, though, and the lady who waited on us must not have realized we were there for the sampler and not for a full meal, even though we were holding the flier and mentioned it. By the time the next people came in, though, they were ready, and they ended up getting decent business. The owners were so new in town that one of the workers, a young girl, even asked if this was a yearly thing. Um, no, but maybe it should be. It was kind of fun going around to the different places. Their sampler was this plate of peanut noodles that we shared, plus Thai iced coffee or iced tea. Mom had the coffee, I had the tea, and both were good. The tea was sweeter and had an unusual flavor, but it was tasty. I'd get it again.
Now, the next part is where I was basically transported in the Way-Back Machine to high school. See, I liked this guy. We were in band together, I'd often go see his band play, yada yada yada. However, the last time I saw him was nine years ago. Fast forward to maybe a couple of years ago; he's back in town and owns his own music lesson studio. He's civic-oriented and has been involved in lots of performances around town, but I'd never before gotten a chance to see one of his groups play until tonight. At 5:30, his steel drum bands played for the Bridge Bash. Part of me wanted to satisfy my curiosity and see him in person. When mom saw that he'd be there in the paper, she was like, we're not staying for that. And then, in the Thai restaurant, she was hurrying me up so we could go watch! Holy crap. Who are you and what have you done with my mother? And, as it turns out, we didn't need to rush; it took like 15 extra minutes to get all the drums set up. There were two groups, made up of junior high and high school kids. They were really good, especially considering they've only been playing since January. I don't know. It was a little weird seeing him again, especially because he doesn't look the same as he used to (though I have seen pictures of him so I did know what he looked like), but at the same time it was kind of nice, too. I also got to see his parents, who looked pretty much the same (but I didn't talk to them); Breea, another person from high school who works with the guy; and one of my former Company X coworkers, who was there with his wife and adorable 9-month-old son.
Now here's where it gets interesting. You have to understand: When I like someone, that's it. Nobody else enters the picture until it's clear nothing will happen between me and the guy and I've had several years to kind of separate myself from the situation. With this particular guy, it didn't happen until my senior year of college. So I haven't really liked him for about a decade, but I'd liked him for about seven years there. That was a third of my life at the time. And while I've long since gotten over him, and even moved off his replacement, part of me still remembers that time from 14-17 where parts of my life revolved around him. And it was so well-known among my friends, it was almost a joke. Actually, I take that back, it *was* a joke, and I'm really, really thankful he did not come to my graduation party, because my two closest friends got me this slew of gifts that partially played off that whole situation. And, of course, my mother knew all about it, but she would pooh-pooh it, which always made me feel great. I mean, I've always had my insecurities, and I was pretty awkward for a while when we moved out here; it would have been nice if my mom would have said something nice relating to me and the guy I liked. But she was always kind of making fun of me. Like my friends, she never believed that he had any interest in me. I, personally, thought he did, and my copious journal entries from that era have weird little tidbits that back me up. Just go with me on this. Nobody else did, but I know what I experienced. So fast-forward to today, where I'm with my mom on the bridge and we're trying to watch the steel drum band. The stage was set up on the west end of the bridge, which was unfortunate, because the sun was behind them the entire time. The players were very difficult to see. Mom and I started off on the sidewalk where it was shady, but as the sun moved the shade shifted, and after a while we ended up sitting on the curb where we were in full view of him. There weren't a whole lot of people around at that point--a decent audience, but small enough that you could pick out individual faces--and after a while I noticed he kept glancing in my direction. Well, he was wearing sunglasses so I couldn't see his eyes, but like his head was totally facing us. Afterward mom even commented on that, like, did he see us? Do you think he recognized us? He kept looking at us. Uh, yeah, I'm pretty sure he saw us. She said something about how I was there with my mom, like that was lame or something, and I was like, yeah, and his parents were there videotaping the whole thing like they did in high school. We're both equally lame here. But I know he *did* see me, which I didn't tell mom. Because it was so sunny, I had a hard time looking at the stage, but I did, and at one point when he was looking at me I gave him a smile, and I could see him like shake his head and glance down and I think he kind of smiled--shades of "Hard Hearted Hannah" all over again. I know you don't know what that means, but ask and I'll explain it. And after that he did keep looking over at me, but I was trying not to look, partially because of the sun, and partially because, I don't know. It was a little weird. So then when I eventually took mom home, she was telling me she'd been eavesdropping earlier when his mom, standing nearby, was talking to some other ladies--sounds like he's single and has a hard time meeting people because his school is open until 9. That got mom all excited and she was like, oh, you two should get together, you'd be good together, he'd probably make a good father, I'd always liked him for a son-in-law. Uh, what? No, seriously, what have you done with my mother? She NEVER EVER EVER expressed ANY of this to me years ago, you know, when it mattered. In fact, she was pushing me toward John-o, who was a friend of mine and a sweet guy but not someone I ever liked romantically. In fact, I had several friends (the two that embarrassed me at the party, in fact) who both liked John-o and probably would have killed me if I suddenly liked him as well. I seriously could not believe what she was saying, and was like, why didn't you say any of this when I *liked* him, and mom was like, because he didn't like you back! *sigh* So, yeah, that was kind of annoying, to be perfectly honest with you. Also annoying: All the liquids I had, which included both the tea and water at the Thai place, and about half of mom's tea from McDonald's, finally kicked in toward the end of the steel drum performance, and I had to book it out of there as soon as they were done. I felt kind of bad, because part of me wanted to talk to the guy, but I was about five minutes away from having an accident. And, I ended up having to use a port-o-potty, too; I tried the regular public bathrooms but they were locked. Oh well. He was still around when I got back, talking with parents of some of his students and some other people, but he left with all his equipment and I didn't see him after that. What sucked for him: His business is two blocks down the road, but because he was set up on the west side of the bridge, and his business is on the east side, and the bridge was closed, he had to go all the way up (down?) and around to get back there.
It was really nice to see him, though. I'm definitely glad I finally got to see him after all this time.
After the steel drum band came a rock band at 7:30. We listened to a couple of songs and then mom wanted to see what some of the other places had food-wise. She got chips and guacamole, but as her feet hurt and she wanted to be home by 8, we didn't stay too much longer. I had called dad, as initially we mentioned bringing him home some food, but he'd said not to worry about him. Oh, but one of the places has $2 ribs. That sold him, so after dropping mom off at home, he took the bike and I drove back down there, arriving around 8:30. Alas, the rib place had sold out a half-hour before we arrived, and another place had closed its kitchen, so dad ended up going to McDonald's. This was about 5 minutes before the fireworks were to start at 9 (the reason I wanted to come back). I wanted to see them on the bridge--they were being shot off from Clark Island, south of the bridge--and told him approximately where I'd be. I didn't make it to that spot, though, before the lights went off and the show started. Oh well--it was fine. It was basically like a normal town's 4th of July display. When it finished, I waited where I was, thinking dad might come by to try and find me. Nope--when I finally walked back to my car, he'd moved his bike next to where I'd parked and was waiting for me by the Riverwalk. Um, thanks, but whatever--at least I didn't have to deal with hordes of people by that time.
Overall, it was a nice day. I'm glad I did it and got to experience a once-in-a-lifetime thing here.