And we're off! Wisconsin here we come. 10 days of running around like fools trying to see anyone and everyone that we love. NavyGuy and I are on the red-eye out of Seattle tonight, and are due into Wisconsin early Saturday morning. Who knows when I'll be able to post again amidst all the running around like fools, but I'll do my best.
Can't wait to see many of you!!!
By Wednesday morning, I was full of yummy Wisconsin food, my nose hairs had finally started to freeze when I walked outside (there was an unusual warm spell until the last day of my visit... a whopping 38 degrees a few days!), and I'd managed to see everyone on my "must-see-list."
I headed down to the airport, got frisked by the TSA (apparently my Wisconsin t-shirt and backpack looked suspicious), and have an uneventful flight back to Washington.
Would I do the whole thing again? If it isn't clear by now, then I don't know what recap you've been reading. The trip was AWESOME! I have never had a vacation where everything actually worked out as planned. All the surprises went off without a hitch. None of my flights were delayed or became major debacles. The weather cooperated (mostly). And I think everyone enjoyed my visit :)
Mom, did I miss anything important in the recaps? HG, anything you feel the need to add? Am I forgiven for shocking all of you? :)
"There is no love sincerer than the love of food."
~George Bernard Shaw
NavyGuy's family has a long running joke that all we ever do when we vacation, celebrate holidays, or get in a group of more than three, is eat. I would argue it's less a joke and more a rule. One I wholeheartedly and without question follow. So it should really come as no surprise (tee hee hee), that much of my trip back to Wisconsin was spent eating. There are many delicacies that I can't get out here, so I have to fit in as many Wisconsin dishes as possible whenever I'm home. Here's a glimpse at my diet for the five days I was home...
-a fabulous Friday night perch plate, complete with beer battered perch, french fries, and rye bread. Wisconsin. Friday. Fish. Say no more.
-Culver's hot dog, french fries, chocolate custard, cookies and cream custard, and chocolate oreo volcano custard. Yes, Culver's must have figured out my surprise visit and planned two of my absolute favorite flavors of the day. That makes up for the fact that they changed their previously delightful hot dog! I know! Scandal! They used to have a wonderful hot dog on a normal bun, and now they've switched to a random weird roll in place of the bun, and they cut the hot dog in half! In HALF! I choked it down, but the magic is gone. (Apparently my mother knew about this travesty ahead of time, but felt she should keep the info from me lest I launch some sort of protest outside the restaurant and get us both arrested for disturbing the peace. Whatever, the police and judge would have totally been on my side once they heard the circumstances. In HALF!)
-Fond du Lac Chinatown Kitchen Sweet and Sour Chicken. Oh lordy. I don't actually eat the sweet and sour sauce (leading NavyGuy to claim I'm simply ordering Chinese chicken nuggets), but the fried rice, egg roll, and deliciously fried chicken pieces are enough to make me melt into a food coma. All the Chinese restaurants out here stink; the fried rice isn't greasy enough, the egg rolls have too much cabbage (or whatever that stringy stuff is), and don't get me started on the subpar sweet and sour chicken.
-French toast, hashbrowns, sausage, and bacon brunch at MOH's house on Sunday morning (have you noticed that there pretty much hasn't been a single vegetable on the list so far... hehe, oops). She invited the fam over for some quality baby Lily time, and offered to feed us as well!
-Grilled pork chops, homemade bread, carrots, and twice-baked potatoes (ha! veggies!) at Uncle J's and Auntie T's house Sunday night. Uncle J missed his calling and should have opened a restaurant years ago, because the man can cook like no other. I don't even like pork chops, but Uncle J sprinkled some magic on them or something cuz I cleaned my plate! (And scarfed down a brownie and two chocolate covered strawberries for dessert - ooo, fruit!)
-Monday night was fettucini alfredo a'la HistoryGirlie. I had scooted back up to her neck of the woods to hang out for the night, and got the royal dinner treatment (including garlic bread and beans... which little Kitty proceeded to mush into her hands, face, and hair). Dessert was the mini-chocolate chip cookies that come in that fun plastic tub from Pick'n'Save (a Midwest grocery store). HG and I gave Kitty a bath (okay, I sat on the counter and told random stories while HG did the real work), watched Elmo, and finished our gossip session.
-Q'doba chicken burrito (plus chips). And a side of salsa. So technically we have Q'doba out here, but it's a 70 minute drive away, whereas the one in Fondy is three minutes from Mom's house. Also the reason why I went to Target twice while home - because it's less than five minutes away.
Are you horrified? Or impressed? You should know that I gained more than two pounds (but less than four) while on my Wisconsin food binge, which I consider a successful vacation. Aside from the Culver's hot dog incident, the only other food disappointment was discovering that Panchero's on the east side of Appleton had closed. Discovering this after Mom and I had driven across town and I had gotten my mouth all watery and excited for tacos. And then discovering that NavyGuy knew it was closed and kept the information from me!!! What is it with people not telling me about changes? It's like they think I can't handle change...
By now I'd surprised pretty much my whole family, but there was one honorary family member that still needed a shock...
Mom called HistoryGirlie (my former teacher colleague/sister from a different womb/wedding day lady-in-waiting/future History Channel commentator) on Friday afternoon. We needed a way to surprise her with my visit, but we couldn't risk just driving up to her house (45 minutes north) and finding out she wasn't home or goodness knows what. So, Mom sold HG on the idea that she was going to Appleton to shop, and wanted to see HistoryGirlie and her daughter Kitty because Mom missed them and wanted to see HG's baby bump and so on and so forth. Luckily, HG a) wasn't busy Saturday morning, and b) is easy prey for Catholic mother guilt, and immediately agreed to meet Mom at Archiver's Scrapbooking store.
The whole conversation took place with me sitting on the couch next to Mom, stifling giggles and trying to figure out what must have been going through HG's head. Her hubby said after the fact that he thought something must have been up, but HG swore up and down that she really just thought Mom wanted a shopping buddy since her own daughters had selfishly moved thousands of miles away :)
Saturday morning we set out for Appleton. After a quick stop for Mom's gas station coffee (keep this tidbit in the back of your brain for later), we made it to Appleton in record time and discovered that Archiver's wasn't open until after we'd planned to meet HG! Mom quickly called HistoryGirlie and moved the meeting place to Atlanta Bread (a yummy breakfast and sandwich place nearby). Since HG is currently in a "delicate condition" (random tangent - when did we lose those cutesy phrases for being pregnant... they're so much more fun to say than to call someone "knocked up" - end tangent)... anyhoo, since HG is with child, I figured it might be a little evil to give her a full-on surprise, so we decided to stage me at a table in the restaurant with my back to the door, and Mom would meet HG and Kitty at the entrance and lead them over... giving HG a chance to recognize my jacket and/or back, and start to put the whole thing together.
(I told you - doll!! Kitty at the dinner table on Monday night.)If you've never surprised someone before, you've simply got to try it. It's exhilarating. Plan a surprise party, or just show up somewhere unannounced - trust me, it's a legal high you'll want to experience again and again.
Our timeline left us at 10:40, Friday morning, en route to Mom's classroom. I was armed with my Culver's fries, a stealth plan, and nerves of steel. If all had gone to plan, Mom would be in her classroom, obliviously surfing the internet and snacking grading papers and planning inspiring lessons, none the wiser that her eldest daughter was creeping through the halls (torturing middle schoolers with the scent of french fry grease), ready to give her mother a heart attack. My own heart was racing as I turned the corner towards her room; if she had chosen today to call in "sick" I was never going to forgive her.
I peeked around the doorjam and looked into her room as silent as a mouse. Perfect. Hard at work at her desk, completely engrossed in spelling sheets or some such nonsense.
"Anyone up for Culver's for lunch?" I held up my bag 'o fries and flashed my killer smile.
I had contemplated taking a photo of Mom's face the moment I walked in, but a) she hates pictures, b) she'd probably be confused enough to see her daughter randomly standing in her doorway that the flashbulb might put her over the edge, and c) did I mention she hates pictures? Anyway, there's no real way to describe her face. I swear it flashed from "who is that?" to "is that my daughter?" to "oh god, what happened to NavyGuy!!?!?" to "wait, she wouldn't come here to tell me he fell out of his airplane" to "OH MY GOD!"
There were screams, tears, hugs, and a few loving smacks at my arm resulting from her indignation that I would fly into town unannounced. I swear she was a little disappointed that I'd denied her the motherly joy of counting down the days until she'd see her progeny (and her singular joy at watching flight tracker and seeing my little plane jump across the country). But she got over it. And when she found out I was staying until Wednesday, she got all weepy again :)
Mom was not the only one to get a shock though. Once I'd surprised her and seen how much fun it is (it's great for your self-esteem when every person you see screams your name and exclaims how happy they are to see you), I decided the fun must continue! The remainder of Friday was spent surprising the rest of the family...
-Mom and I ran over to the bank where Auntie T works, under the pretense of needing to drop something off for her. I walked into her office like I owned the place and we had round two of shock and awe.
-Next up was Grandma and Grandpa. Grandpa bolted out of his chair, and Grandma popped right up and recognized me! (She's battling Alzheimer's so I wasn't sure she'd be having a good enough day to know what was going on.) And they force fed me peanut M&Ms. Gotta love grandparents.
-Dinner was a surprise visit to Cousin MOH's Friday night waitressing job. MOH had no clue I was coming, but her husband was there with their daughter Lily (who I hadn't met until this point), as well as Auntie T, Uncle J, Grandma, Grandpa, and Mom. MOH had her back to me as I snuck in, so I tapped her on the shoulder and said, "um when you have a minute can I have a refill on my water please?" Poor girl almost dropped her tray. More hugs, more tears, and once baby Lily awoke from her nap and got her first look at me, I got a giant grin! Melt my heart... :)
(You would not believe how hard it is to get a good photo of a six month old. No kidding - this was the best photo of the whole weekend. Trust me, her smile's adorable.)
-The surprises kept on comin'. Auntie E and Uncle D were out to dinner at a nearby restaurant, so I popped in on them. Then Mom and I headed out to their kids who were home watching a movie - another successful surprise!
By this point on Friday night, I was ready to drop. All this surprising was exhilarating, but exhausting! I needed to rest up because I had one more big surprise to pull the next morning...
Thursday, 7:00pm - Board airporter shuttle for a two hour trip down to SeaTac airport.
9:10pm - Arrive at airport and get checked in for flight.
9:20pm - Survive TSA security checkpoint with minimal irritation.
9:30pm - Settle in for a three hour wait for my flight (the 7pm shuttle is the latest option, so I had no choice but to get to the airport way early).
12:06am - Board. Remember that I booked late and got left with a middle seat. Bah. (Luckily I'm a pro and can sleep anywhere, anytime.)
(We're into Friday now...)
3:30am - Land in Minneapolis. Switch to central time zone... so it's now 5:30am.
5:45am - Walk 1/2 a mile through the airport to get to my terminal for the connecting flight. Stop for a tea from the Sbux.
6:15am - See Mom has commented on my blog and wants me to come home and shovel... oh if only she knew!
6:17am - Debate calling her and breaking the surprise early. Restrain myself.
6:30am - Board my second flight. More sleeping.
8:30am - Land in Milwaukee, WI! Collect my luggage, find the rental car counter, chat up Joe the rental car dude, get suckered into insurance for the car (whoops), and head out for Fondy.
9:46am - Again, debate calling Mom and spilling the beans. Reason that I can make it one more hour, I'm so close, don't do it! I throw my cell phone in the backseat where I can't reach it to prevent a last minute will-power break.
10:30am - Pull into Culver's in Fondy. Walk out with hot, fresh french fries.
10:40am - Head over to Mom's school...
So... as soon as we confirmed that NavyGuy would be spending the last week of January training with his squadron in Las Vegas (more on this later), I knew there was no way I would be moping around the house by myself the whole time. I could have gone down to Vegas to visit him, but why go to beautiful Vegas in January when I could go to beautiful Wisconsin in January?!?!?
The plan began to take shape. How fun would it be for me to sneak into Fond du Lac (under cover of darkness via a red-eye flight), run through a Culver's drive-thru to snab some french fries, and then show up at my mom's classroom all, "yeah, I just got bored and really wanted some custard and some cold weather, so I came home for the weekend!" Answer - wicked fun. As soon as I told NavyGuy my plot, he agreed that it could work, and that it would be a pretty awesome surprise for everyone.
I had to do some reconnaissance though before the mission could take place. First up, I put Sister in charge of chatting up Mom and making sure that she didn't have any major plans for the weekend in question (she didn't - she'd planned to get her taxes done... which clearly is way less fun than having her favorite daughter visit). Next I needed a babysitter for Tally pup, since both NavyGuy and I would be gone, and much as Mom may have liked a visit from her grandpuppy, there was no way I going to try to travel alone with the Tally. Third, I contacted an ally at Mom's school (one of her teaching partners) to nail down the bell schedule, where Mom would be at what time, etc. etc. Lastly, I had to not tell anyone! SO HARD!!! (But so worth it.)
So by last Thursday, we were ready to rock'n'roll...
Because I'm home in Fond du Lac!
I leave for Wisconsin (for one month, during which I will be attending several showers, oh and my WEDDING!), in about 16 hours.
Tasks Completed:
- get pedicure
Tasks Not Yet Completed:
- Fit one month's worth of clothing, beauty products, craft supplies, reading material, and wedding paraphernalia into suitcase (that I can lift).
- Take NavyGuy on pantry orientation, lest he think I've left him with no provisions and ordering pizza is his only option for nourishment during my month away.
- Decide on a first dance song with NavyGuy and practice "dancing"
- Locate my sunglasses.
- Locate my iPod charger.
- Charge iPod.
- Pay bills and organize household management (so the place doesn't fall down around NavyGuy, and two roomies in my absence).
Um... here's the current "packing" status...
Too many shoes? Beauty supplies still need to be added... you think TSA will mind if I simply show up with three garbage bags full of all this stuff?
Central Time Zone here I come!!!
I know you peeps out in the blogosphere don't know what I sound like. So you'll just have to trust me when I say that I do NOT have an accent. I sound just like any normal midwestern person you hear on the radio or television giving you the weather report. My speech is not peppered with "ehs" or "uf-dahs" or long, misprounced vowels.
So imagine my shock today, when a sophomore who a) knew nothing about me, b) had been in my presence for all of 87 seconds, and c) had barely been listening to me give the directions for her Peter the Great worksheet, thrust her hand into the air, and confidently asked, "Yo, are you from Wisconsin?"
Eh?!?!? Huh?!?! Suh wha?!?!? Oh no she did not just. Turns out this little sophomore is "real good at accents" (but apparently, is not good at grammar), and having listened to me speak for all of 87 seconds, immediately pegged me as a true Wisconsinite. I proudly confirmed my heritage, but could not get over the fact that I was so easily outed! Seriously - people who know me in real life - am I that transparent? (And Miss A, your opinion SOOOOO does not count, as you think anyone east of the Rocky Mountains has an accent.)
Oh, the rest of the sub job was fine. Apparently, Wisconsin still garners some respect around here.
NavyGuy and I finally got around to seeing this flick from last year. Daniel Day Lewis is intense as ever, but overall the movie is just kind of weird.
What made the two and a half hours worth it? Fond du Lac - my hometown, booming metropolis of 40,000, oft mocked and under appreciated - yes, that Fond du Lac, Wisconsin - got 4 (count 'em) FOUR mentions in the film!
To that I say, I drink your milkshake.
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