American Idols

Like every other day of my life, yesterday was busy .. only to complicate things, we had tickets to go see American Idols Live. We wanted to leave town by 4:30 so that we could hopefully get to the Arena by 6:30 as it started at 7. Did that happen? No way! In my chaotic life, absolutely NOTHING goes as planned.

Before I could leave I had to install a car seat in my SIL car. Why? Can't she do this? The answer is no. She would put Butterfly's seat in forward facing and I extended rear face. Also I insist on solid installs .. and this is not likely to occur to my satisfaction unless either a. I do it myself, b. a carseat tech does it, or c. someone as equally picky as me does it. None of those 3 would include my SIL, who is otherwise really good at caring for Butterfly. So this took awhile. And then of course Goobie-kins may be 8 but he is small so he is in a car seat too. For the short trip with SIL, I did let him just use a booster though because I really did not have the time to install the radian. Believe it or not, he prefers to have the 5 point harness. This is because with the boosters he has a hard time getting himself buckled .. yes he IS that small.

So back to the Idols trip. Anyone who has ever driven in Michigan knows that Michigan is just one huge construction mess in the summer (year round in some areas). So basically the part of 75 that runs through Detroit (you know only the MAIN part of 75 in Michigan) is not simply under construction ... it has been blown up .. seriously mounds of dirt almost as high as the overpasses .. in other words, you have to go around .. through detours. This definitely slowed down our progress towards that 6:30 goal. So we arrive and get into the parking garage and we get directed ALL the way up to the top.

We walk quickly across the tunnel bridge to the Arena, by this time I seriously have to pee. We get inside and we are going through security as the announcer comes out and does the show opening stuff. The door is not far from where we need to go to get to our seats and there is a bathroom right there!! So I say something to my husband about going .. somehow he and I were not on the same page. I thought he was waiting for me. I come out of the bathroom and cannot find him .. so I look all around and then think maybe he went to the bathroom too .. wait there a little. Then realize he went without me. I was pretty upset by this. It is halfway through Chikezie's first song when I go through the curtain to where I need to go to get to my seat. There is NO light AT all .. very steep steps that I have to go down (and due to a tumble down some steep steps during my pregnancy with Butterfly I fear steep steps even in good lighting) and NO railing to hold. The steps are 2 sizes .. a big one then a little. And we had great seats. Not on the floor .. but 2nd row pretty close to where the centerline would be for the hockey games. The downside? I had a lot of steps to get down in the dark. I start to have a panic attack. One of the ushers decided she would "help" but she went flying down the steps with her little light that illuminated them for her .. but I could not keep up. I was about a 4th of the way down when the song was over and we got some lights and I was able to get down and to my seat.

I was upset and my husband instantly knew it. He had misunderstood what I was saying. This does happen with some frequency when you marry someone from a different culture who has a different language. It did not take me long to forgive as he was very sincere in his apology and really just misunderstood. The concert in itself was really good and I really enjoyed it. At the intermission I asked him to get me a soda and he did .. and brought me a snack too. Edy's Dibs are quite yummy if you have not yet tried them.

After the concert, we stop at the souvenir table and buy some teddy bears for the kids. Then we get to our van and I have to pee again. I was seriously considering using a cup that was left in the car from Red Lobster. But thought I better not. So it takes forever to really even move at all in the parking garage .. or should I say on top as we were not yet IN the garage.

We get down one level and then this woman gets in front of us and by the way she is maneuvering her vehicle I can tell she is stupid. Finally we go from not moving much at all to making some real progress. We are happy about this. I look at my husband and I said at some point this woman in front of us will stop when she does not have to. She will hold everyone up .. I can just tell. So down on I think level 5, maybe 6 .. there is someone selling T-shirts to people as they drive by. GRRRR .. I seriously have to pee at this point! A car stops. Sure enough ..she does NOT go around .. she stops. My husband was trying to be polite and it started to look like she would go around but she was acting indecisive .. so he went around her ..and it was not long at all after that before we were out of the garage. But all down the street were even more people selling these shirts and lots of people stopping for them. SLOW!!

So anyway, remember that construction? Well we remembered which way we came from and wanted to return the same way .. however there was a lack of lighting and we could not see street signs well so we figured we would just follow the signs to 75. So we are going down a road called Rosa Parks and find the sign to 75 .. says to Turn left. So we do. Then it says Turn left again .. and then again turn left. At Rosa Parks .. turn right. We were going right back to where we came from!!! We had to turn down a road called Fort. Why didnt it just have us turn on Fort the first time (there was a sign there that said to go straight .. so we followed the signs)? The only answer I have to that, it's Michigan. I learned long ago to not expect logic when it comes to driving in Michigan.

It was over an hour before I got to use a bathroom and 1 am before I made it home. And lucky me, I had to get up early this morning to get Witchlet to gymnastics camp. No time for a nap today, and tonight is Bears b-day party at Chuck E Cheese. CEC on a Friday night = Pure Chaos!