So this year was epic; i was turning 30! I'm not 30... I can't be 30... I definitely don't FEEL 30 (i don't think i look it either...) How did this happen!? Where did the time go? It snuck right up on me. What am i DOING with my life?!
I was a little sad that I'm "so old" and feel like i'm not doing much so I wanted to just get away. Go somewhere awesome and have a good time. I actually REALLY wanted to go to Hawaii. I've never been and thought, why not now?! Perfect thirty year old celebration. I found tickets out of Vegas for $410! That is AMAZING!!! But for some reason, I felt we shouldn't go there. We toyed with the idea of going to DC and Orlando but nothing really felt... I don't know. I suggested maybe going to the temple open house in Kansas City, then driving up to Nauvoo and on up to Chicago. To be honest, I was hoping for Disney World cause I'm a kid like that, but was feeling that she didn't wanna do that... we finally decided on Nauvoo.
Jessica bought her ticket and mine wouldn't go through. ? I've never seen that before. I selected my ticket, put all my info in, including my credit card information, clicked "buy", it'd process (please wait while your payment is being processed) and then i'd get "we're sorry but we're unable to process your purchase at this time. please try again later." ? Wait, WHAT? I've NEVER seen that before. Usually it's like, "thank you for your purchase, here is your confirmation number" or "you forgot some vital information" or "you put in the wrong credit card number" but... "we're sorry. try again LATER"!? So i tried it over and over but ALWAYS got the same outcome.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN!? I've NEVER seen this before. I refreshed the page. Started completely over. Tried a different website. They ALL said the same thing. ?! ALL i could conclude was, maybe the universe didn't want me to go. I immediately thought, "what if there's going to be a terrorist on that plane and that's why it won't let me purchase it!?". I told my sister i'd try again the next day and try different flight times. If it didn't work, maybe I wasn't supposed to go? But she had already purchased her ticket... So i felt bad bailing... But i tried again the next day and to my disbelief, it failed again. I promised her i would try once more but I really didn't know what to think.. I changed the flight, in my final attempt and it went through!! But seriously, all i could think was, "i sure hope that other flight isn't going to crash or something and that's why i couldn't get on it...."
but i seriously watched the news for it.
No plane ever crashed, thankfully. I guess I'll never know why I wasn't supposed to be on that flight. That or I just kept asking and God changed his answer, like he did with Martin Harris and those translations... I really hope it wasn't that! haha. I just assume if I wasn't supposed to go, I wouldn't felt some sort of impression...
Anyway, ON WITH THE STORY!
My finace and his dad dropped me off at the airport EARLY in the morning. As i was going through security, they caught that my license had expired in 2008! My renewed one has the same photo. @#$%^&!!!
I have to have ID when i go visit my brother in juvie (I'll have to update you on that in another post) so i'm constantly taking my ID out of my wallet... (you can't bring ANYTHING in there with you.. so i take it out of my wallet and put it in my pocket) I have NO IDEA where the current one is... and i obviously don't have enough time to drive home and get it. WHAT DO I DO!?
They asked if i had any other form of ID. If any of you know, i have a mini wallet. All my cards are inside a mint tin. There's not a lot of room. I have my ID, walmart discount card, debit card and a credit card. That's it. They asked if i had student ID.. yes, but not here. A costco card? Wait, what.. ??? You'd let me through with a COSTCO CARD!? But i really had nothing. Nothing with a photo. Which... i think was STUPID because HELLO! My I,D!!! had a photo on it! And it looks EXACTLY LIKE ME!! There's just the MINOR DETAIL that it's expired. But you're willing to overlook it if i gave you a costco card? Whatever... LUCKILY, he was nice enough to approve it and let me through, but it was a BIG DEAL.
What will i do on my way home?! This will be tricky. I have NO IDEA where that other ID is...
Anyhow, stopped in Denver, purchased Tina Fey's new book "bossy pants" and laughed right OUT LOUD as I waited for my flight and enjoyed my ritual McGriddle (they're SO GOOD but i realize they're not good for you, so i basically only get them when i'm flying and happen to be in the airport early. But i LOVE THEM!) Landed in Kansas City, Missouri and waited for Jessica. She showed up in her military clothes cause they usually get the hook ups with free 1st class upgrades and things. Uncomfortable to wear those clothes, but totally worth it.
We got our rental car from a sassy black man and headed off to our ghetto hotel. We had to change quick and head over to the Temple.
I actually forgot my camera so we didn't take any photos but on our way back we stopped by and took some. So these are they.
The temple was SO BEAUTIFUL! They had a theme of olive leaves so they were all over the outside and inside. It was a good experience to see it all from an outsider point of view and hear the chaperons share their insights and testimonies.
This nice lady to our photo for us... but unfortunately got more grass and less temple.. bless her heart
as we were driving away..
This was our little rental car. We had all sorts of nick names for it but the only one i remember is snow ball.
We stopped to get gas and i thought this sign was really funny cause it was out in the middle of no where. Jessica took a few photos of it but i said, "I feel like we need to be doing on of THESE by it". haha
Jessica's birthday was the next day. We had been in Nauvoo all day and wanted to go somewhere cool for dinner. We drove into town (wherever we were...) and this looked like the place to be. We took a picture and then noticed... it was SUPER ghetto. Busy but not where we wanted to be. Haha. So we found some hole in the wall mexican place and ate there. It was pretty delicious.
Standin by the wagon in nauvoo. I like this picture cause it's one where i'm like, DANG! i look thin! haha. Gotta love those. We had hoodies on because it was a little rainy that day. I love the rain.
Jessica listening in the Browning gun shop.
Jessica really likes to take candid photos whenever we're together. Haha. This is me listening in the Browning gun shop.
They had a free carridge ride but jessica didn't want to go. But she REALLY wanted to pet the horses. I really like that his name was Chuck. Haha. He didn't like to be petted however.
It was CHILLY
The temple!! I wish I had remembered to bring my recommend... I've been in it before, but it would've been nice to go again.
ta-da!!
Chick-fil-a in Chicago, Saturday night. It was here that i learned that it's owned by a mormon because they're not open on Sundays. I assumed maybe that was just a Utah thing, but no. It's nation wide. She got a salad and yogurt at CHICK-FIL-A! I feel like that's illegal... It's all about that fatty chicken sandwich and WAFFLE FRIES!!
We went shopping the first night we got there but oddly, everything closed at 8pm. ON a saturday night?! So we were just walking around.. and i noticed that slowly, all the white people were trickling away and going back inside and lots of younger black people were coming out. Huh. That's odd. ? We went to the grocery store to buy food for the next day (sunday) and went back to the hotel. We went to the workout room and looked out into the city. There was not a SOUL in sight. ? it was 11pm on the weekend.... It was SO bizarre to me because it looked like NYC but was obviously different because there, the party goes all night. Stuff is open at 2am all the time. It reminded me of that movie with will smith where everyone's dead and he's alone in the city... I guess downtown Chicago is more dangerous than i'd thought. Guess i was glad we were inside....
We totally had a rockin room. One entire wall was a window. It was sweet! Jessica wasn't impressed by it but i thought it was awesome!!
oh HEY!
Sunday. My birthday. Church. I... went to bed with wet hair and we got up late so i had this awesome thing going on. I didn't care too much though cause, hey, i'm never gonna see these people again, right? And like i said earlier, jessica likes to take candid photos. I'm making a face like, "yea... i'm SO GLAD you're taking a photo of me right now...". Then i looked at the photo and it was awesome because i didn't realize this guys BUTT was right there. But the photo makes it seem like i DID know and that's why i'm making the face. It was strangely perfect. Haha
This is another form of the i'm-so-glad-you're-taking-a-photo-of-me-right-now
face
This is... in Chicago on the Millenial mile? Not sure what it's called but a GIANT place for concerts.
This is underneath the infamous "bean" statue. We went right under and looked up. Pretty cool.
Twenty-ten and twenty-nine
aren't we precious?
So i really wanted to take jumping pictures. This was my attempt.
But jessica kept getting me right AFTER i'd landed... So i told her to click the button as i jumped or right before cause it takes a second for the shutter to catch up. This was right before... haha. I look like i'm skiing.
She's definitely the beautiful sister
D.E.D. dead!
wa-CHAAAAHHHH!
There she goes again, with the candid photos again... She was nice to take me to lunch for my birthday.
What better to do in the windy city than FLY KITES!?! This was my favorite thing on the whole trip! We got awesome butterfly kites (she had pink, i had orange). They had super crazy wind though. Very volatile... haha. She had a hard time getting hers up. I could get mine but seconds later it'd commit suicide and come crashing down. Some guy tried to steal our bag as we were flying, even though jessica was literally standing right next to it.
Here i look like i'm in a dog show...
The best of all the shots
We were walking over a bridge and thought, this would be a fun place to fly kites.. But i thought about it and decided it was probably too dangerous because the kite could fall down onto the cars. As we opened the packages and were trying to put the kites together, there was a warning that said specifically "do not fly on bridges over cars". Haha
The next day, we got some famous chicago style pizza (it was like a pie, filled with cheese. too much cheese for me! We gave our left overs to a homeless man) and then got mani-pedis (my first ever. Apparently jessica goes every couple of WEEKS. haha) before we left Chicago for good. We didn't get to see much since we were only there a couple of days but it was fun.
Now a ten hour drive back to Kansas City!! (we split it up into two days) It was really nice to have a laid back, relaxing trip where we could sleep in. I couldn't BELIEVE how much jessica could sleep in! Haha. The military must be workin her HARD. Most of our vacations growing up were like, GO GO GO!!! so it was nice to have things to do, but we could chill and lay around if we wanted. It was nice.
When we got back to the airport, as you may have suspected, i had some trouble about my expired ID. I had asked the fiance to mail my passport to the hotel in Chicago but he didn't grasp the concept that it would need to be done ASAP. Chicago was the only hotel we had planned out, the rest were just random stops. So it was the logical place to have it sent, and we werent going to be there for 4 or 5 days so it would have plenty of time to get there before we did. But... it never came. They asked me the same silly questions (if i had any other form of ID, including if i had any MAIL with me?!) and they went through my entire carry on bag, but luckily they let me on. If they wouldn't, i'd just have to get a hotel and wait for it to be mailed or drive but i was lucky they were feeling nice that day, i guess. Both times, supervisors had to be called. It was awesome.
It was definitely an adventure. Next year, i really hope i feel ok about HAWAII :)
2 comments:
next time. disney world! :D
Great story! I'm glad everything turned out ok!
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