The Mormon Tabernacle Choir new Christmas CD is out. It makes me wistful and a little sad, because I was supposed ot be there last year. But through a series of comedic errors, we....
well you can see if you'd like.
(btw. It's been a year since I started this post. I can't remember why I named it this, but hoping it comes back to me...)
::WARNING::
This is a long post...and I'm biased so you may not find it interesting unless you know me...or my family. Consider yourself warned.
Jessica asked me on Tuesday if I wanted to go to Salt Lake City with the other Siblings and see Natalie Cole sing in a concert with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. YES (!) was the immediate answer and then after making sure Nate was ok with me ditching him for a night with Mr Tonsil-less, I was free to become almost giddy with anticipation.
Thursday, the big night, comes before I know it and after reminding Nate several times to please be home before 5:15 so I can begin picking up my sibs, I'm on my way. I get to Mom and Dad's to get Matthew and Jessica and guess what. Jessica is not ready, and Matthew is not even THERE. So. There's nothing I can do about it...right? Right. So I settle in to wait. Matt finally gets home at 5:30 and begins to get ready...but where are his pants?? He can't find his PANTS! So...I settle in to wait some more. Jessica's grumpy. I'm grumpy. Matthew is grumpy. (btw...Mike is grumpy too...we know because we talked to him on the phone) Adam is soon to be grumpy because we're late. And if there's one thing Adam can't stand....
Finally at 6-ish, we are out the door and on the way to Lehi to pick up Mike. We get there and we're told Mike is...indisposed. So we wait. Matt goes in to get a drink of Milk. Chats with Kasia. Comes back out and we're still waiting. Finally Mike comes out but meanwhile he's decided he's no longer grumpy. (one of these things is not like the others...sing it) We get on the freeway in Lehi and Mike says "OH no. I forgot the tickets". Really? REALLY?? So we get off the freeway at the next exit and turn around, go back, get the tickets, head back north, and get on the freeway to pick up Adam in Draper. We finally make it to Adam's house and guess what?? He's GRUMPY!! (shocking...i know.) Adam says he's so hungry and was promised we were getting dinner first so he didn't eat and we needed to either stop at Little Caesars and get a pizza to share or go through the burger king drive through. We opt for pizza. I run in, grab one hot and ready, and realize Adam and Jessica are in with me. As we head out the door with that hot and ready in our hands, Adam says "Is this all you got? We're going to have to hit burger king too." I'm thinking...there's not an army in here...and it's to hold us over till we get to go to crown burger anyway...but I don't want anyone more grumpy than they already are so in we pile to the mini-van and hit the burger king next door. Adam orders 2 tacos (wait...tacos? Aren't we at burger king??), 1 double cheese burger, and 1 whopper jr. And I may have added a soda for me in there too...and one for Jessica.
We learned a lesson that night. A car full of hungry Johnson's is a car full of grumpy Johnson's. After we ate, we were all of us happy again. :)
NOW (deep breath) we're really off. It's 7. Adam says we'll be just fine. Smooth sailing up to SLC to make it there in time for the 8 o'clock show. Wait a minute...what's up ahead?? TRAFFIC!! 20mph from 106th South to 90th. Awesome. What's that causing the hold up?? A police car. With it's lights on. Not doing anything. On the left side of the free way. Sweet.
Traffic clears, we fly up the freeway. We're going to make it. I get off on the 6th south exit and head toward the conference center. "No. Don't turn there. Go up a couple blocks" as I was going to turn on West Temple. The back seat driver? Adam. "Yeah! Turn there!" another one? Yep. Jessica. I opt for Adam's advice, because he's eldest, after all. So I left onto State Street. Wait. What's that up ahead? Traffic. Crazy traffic. We sit though 3 lights trying to turn left onto South Temple and finally I'm ready to turn left, but then a police man pulls a uturn in front of me and pulls over a car taking 2 lanes in the direction I was turning. And then the light turns red. And I'm sitting there in the middle of the intersection with no where to go. Thank you, officer. At least no one honked at me.
Finally the traffic stop was taken care of and I got to turn and off we headed to West Temple. We finally got there and managed to squeak in a right turn. But there's more traffic because of all of the construction. After slowly crawling along 1 block in 20 min, Adam, Jessica, and I decide to walk/run the rest of the way to the Conference Center and leave Mike driving and Matt navigating and we'd meet up in the center. We were nearly to abravenell Hall at that point. Well...remember how I had a soda. I really needed a rest room. Being 4 months pregnant didn't help. Well Adam and Jessica decide we need to run. And did I mention I was 4 months pregnant and needed to find a rest room? We run across the South Temple intersection and I'm dying. DYING. There were some traffic cops helping the flow of traffic and as we were passing by one of them whacked a car with his light and yelled "WHY DID YOU RUN OVER MY CONE??!?" at the driver in the car. The cones were tiny and not very well lit. I'm not surprised one got ran over. If there's something else Adam can't stand (other than tardiness) it's social injustice. So Adam begins yelling at the cop to calm down. Meanwhile, I yell that I'm going to run into the Family History Library and use the little girls room and Jessica yells she's going to run ahead. Adam's waiting for me (luckily not in hand cuffs) when I exit the building and he grabs my hand and takes off running.
We finally get there. The Conference Center with our little tickets in hand. AHHHHHH! We wait patiently in line. Jessica's texted us she's already inside waiting for us, but not seated. We move up in line and suddenly we're next. And then we're told they're full. No one else ticketed or not will be allowed entrance. Jessica runs up and explains there are already people inside waiting for us. They allow us in to "see if we can find them" but as the concert was beginning, they weren't answering texts or anything else. Sigh. We were too late.
We walk across the street to wait for Mike and Matt at Temple Square. We went to the North Visitors Center and I sit down to catch my breath. We're laughing at all the craziness of the night and suddenly the fire alarm went off. Really? REALLY??? Yep. The flashing lights and sirens. There's no way I'm moving. I'm feeling nauseous (a recurring theme for me when I'm pregnant) and exhausted. And what are the chances the Christus caught fire? I guess the Sister Missionaries figured that was the case because they found us and very cheerfully said "I'm sorry, you'll have to exit the building". Adam commented it was the first time he'd been told to leave by the sunshine brigade. We wait by the entrance of Temple Square for Mike to drive up and get us. To pass the time, we were making up theories for the fire alarm...I think that's where the thieving santa on fire came in...and finally we spot the van...or did we hear the Weezer blasting out the windows before we saw it...
The night wasn't a total loss though. We got to go to Crown Burger. Mmmmm.
There are no other people that I would have had a better time having a horrible night with. It was really so much fun. The only thing that would have made it better is if Kati was able to come...or if we got to actually see the concert. I love my siblings more than words can convey. And I'm so excited I get them forever!
LOL....this is SO funny on SO many levels...
Posted by: stacey | December 14, 2010 at 04:27 PM
Wow, I forgot about this! So so funny. While I can absolutely say that I'm glad I stayed home that night (or wherever I was), I love you, too, and we should definitely get another sibling night going again, soon.
Posted by: Kati | December 14, 2010 at 03:12 PM