You know those days where no matter how fast you hurry you just get farther and farther behind? That was my Thursday. I had something at work that was supposed to start at 10:30 a.m. that I knew would take roughly a half hour, theoretically freeing me up by 11:00. This was, of course, important because I "needed" to be able to leave work by 11:00 to do lunch with a colleague and then get to another obligation in a town about an hour away that started at 1:30 p.m. When I returned from that little jaunt, Shad and I "needed" to leave by about 4:30 p.m. so that we could travel for three hours to a concert that started at 10:00 p.m. While I realize that this isn't the very tight, every minute planned schedule that some people operate on a day to day basis, this was pretty packed for me. And it all went wrong.
My 10:30 didn't start until 11:00 so it didn't finish until 11:30. My colleague was waiting for me in my office (rather impatiently, I might add!) and off we went, only to turn around about five miles outside of town because we needed to trade vehicles. By the time that we get into the town where the 1:30 appointment is it's 12:20 or so and what was supposed to be a nice leisurely lunch with even more colleagues has turned into grabbing food from Popeye's and wolfing it down. We arrived promptly for the 1:30, which of course didn't get started until more like 2:15 and then, instead of taking the 15-20 minutes that I assumed it would take, went more like 45 minutes. A quick trip back had me home at 4:00, but we didn't actually leave town until 5:00 or so, which meant that our planned romantic dinner at the concert venue turned into the drive-thru at Arbys and a turkey sandwich that I ate as I drove. The concert? That's definitely another "Shad and Susan" story for the ages!
The concert was at the House of Blues in Chicago. We were very excited to see one of the newer artists on Jack Johnson's label, Zee Avi, in the smaller venue of the HOB called the "back porch." I was hoping for a jazz club-like atmosphere where we could sit at a table, maybe have a drink, and chill out while we enjoyed Zee's music.
As you have already gleaned from past posts, I'm a country mouse. I consider myself to be a very good driver and I really enjoy driving, but not necessarily in downtown Chicago and most definitely not when I'm not sure of where I'm going. We finally find the HOB and locate parking which, because I was getting frustrated and just wanted to be out of the stupid car, we ended up doing at the HOB. Valet parking. $16 minimum for one hour or less, more for longer. Not to expose my backwoodsishness, but I don't know that I've ever valet parked before, ever. As we're dropping off the car, the attendant asked what we're there for and when we say "a show" he looked a bit, well, befuddled. I justified this to myself by saying that the performed was fairly new and probably a bit unknown, thus off the radar.
As we entered the HOB the souvenir area was right inside of the door. It was about 9:10 p.m. or so and the doors didn't open until 9:30 so we had some time to kill. Plus, we had coupons for $10 shirts, so what better way to waste time than to pick up some mementos of what was sure to be an awesome night, right? I saw, but did not buy, this fantastic magnet. The sentiment is spot on for how I feel most days.
As Shad asked about an ATM, I took a closer look at the concert schedule but could not find Zee's name. The placard outside of the back porch had a name on it, but it was not Zee's name. The closest working ATM was a few steps outside of the HOB, so as we left to go to the ATM I asked Shad if I could take a look at the tickets. I looked, then asked him to look. At the date. He did and said "Yeah, it's the 26th." I'm sure you can see where this is going - our tickets were for the 26th all right. Of September.
I of course thought that this was hilarious! It kinda capped off my day in which nothing had gone as planned, but it was truly a "no harm, no foul" situation. After all, I got to spend time with my favorite boy, I got a cool HOB t-shirt, and now I have something else to look forward to doing with him! Pretty much win, win, win as far as I was concerned, and I immediately recognized that this (mis)adventure would become a part of our history. Shad didn't take it so well at first, there was a little self-blame, etc., but I think the ride home with great music and the "OMG I'm so tired that I'm loopy and saying off-the-wall stuff" conversation that we shared at about 2:00 a.m. made it a little better. At least he can tell the story and smile now!
So as not to have a three page long post, I shall end there and pick up again later with Friday, which turned out to be "Appreciate Susan" day. What a wonderful surprise!
Until then, my friends, keep your powder dry. Mostly because wet powder gets all clumpy, I guess...
*** Not that you probably care, but I always spell-check my posts. Strangely enough, "backwoodsishness" is not in Blogger's dictionary. "Colleague" and "souvenir" both are, thankfully. ;) ***
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