Weekend Wrap-Up
In a nutshell - visiting family in Ohio is like doing your tour of duty for the army. You don't want to do it - you just have to. Its most like being enlisted during Vietnam considering you never signed up to be a part of this family but rather - you were drafted.
Ok, yes. That's all a rather bleek and mean thing to say, but really. If you had a chance to take a vacation from work (unpaid, mind you, since I'm a new hire and have not earned vacation time yet) would you really race to the car for a 10 hour drive to extended family-ville? Probably, cause you have to do the same tour-of-duty like the rest of us, but, ...would you want to?
So, the first day (Thursday) was an easy drive. Of course, I didn't do one leg of it. Late start, a few stops and we were here by 7PM. That night, I stayed up a wee bit too late talking and catching up, became really cranky and crashed out.
Friday was Susan's Coffee and Tea for Rob to do work, then Jay & Meg's house for the new baby tour (I'll post pics later). Once again, they organized a massive get together involving Kendra & Kenny (and their new baby), Galen, Craig and Wayne... complete with a full spread of filling snacks. We then grab dinner at the famous Swenson's before heading to Nicole & Jon's house (Rob's sister) to see the new house and visit with the 3 year-old nieces. Later, Andy (Rob's brother) and his girlfriend (whom we hadn't met yet) joined us. Phew! That's what? 11 hours of straight talking and catching up? I was beat.
Saturday was yet another kam-packed day. Grabbing lunch with Andy and Natalie for a few hours. Seeing Andy's apartment. Then running through Gabriel Brothers (a local Kent State University area dive much like that of TJMaxx or Marshall's). Later, heading over to Eileen Burg's place to see Bill & Laura Burg (and for me to finally meet Adeline who is now 2 years old!). We stayed for dinner which was fixed entirely for the 4 of us by Eileen. She served salads, homemade mac n' cheese, wine, homemade cherry cobbler... and didn't eat a bite of it herself. We were there for at least 5 hours.
Sunday was "wake-up and head out to Toledo (Toodly-doo!)" day. We hit Skyline Chili on the way out (*gag*!) and made it there by 1:30PM. We picked up grandma (my dad's mom) and went to my uncle Jeff & Aunt Patty's place... a place known for loud talkers who speak over one another while chain smoking and sucking down beers. My mom's family is a bunch of auto workers who all work for Jeep. there's a lot of talk about assembly lines, long hours, who's doing what (it could be really good news or really bad - in either case, its always a more extrememe version of YOUR news. These people are rarely impressed with anything you bring to the table. They've either seen it, been there or have done it). I saw family members I saw last year and one I hadn't seen for 12 years. We then split to go back to my dad's mom's apartment where my brother (yes, I have a half brother who I maybe see an average of every 6 years) and his wife were waiting. Here's where I tell funny stories of my grandmother heating up a frozen pizza WITH the cardboard on the bottom. We stayed over and left early (but not as early as we should) the next morning... which is today (Monday).
Now I am sitting in Susan's Coffee Shop again after returning/ replacing items purchased from Gabriel's earlier this weekend. ("Gabriel Brothers! You gotta love it!"). I'm cursing an obnoxious russian who insists on yelling in FULL VOLUME at his friend sitting across from him... fantastic, now he's even louder cause he is on his cell phone (and to think, I thought he couldn't get any louder). Rob's finishing up a sketch to send off tonight.
Tomorrow we leave at the crack-of-ass to get home at a decent hour (or at least try to). I have to work on Wednesday and really want some Down time" after all of this.
I think Rob and I have earned our gold wings after this weekend wrap-up. ;-)
Ok, yes. That's all a rather bleek and mean thing to say, but really. If you had a chance to take a vacation from work (unpaid, mind you, since I'm a new hire and have not earned vacation time yet) would you really race to the car for a 10 hour drive to extended family-ville? Probably, cause you have to do the same tour-of-duty like the rest of us, but, ...would you want to?
So, the first day (Thursday) was an easy drive. Of course, I didn't do one leg of it. Late start, a few stops and we were here by 7PM. That night, I stayed up a wee bit too late talking and catching up, became really cranky and crashed out.
Friday was Susan's Coffee and Tea for Rob to do work, then Jay & Meg's house for the new baby tour (I'll post pics later). Once again, they organized a massive get together involving Kendra & Kenny (and their new baby), Galen, Craig and Wayne... complete with a full spread of filling snacks. We then grab dinner at the famous Swenson's before heading to Nicole & Jon's house (Rob's sister) to see the new house and visit with the 3 year-old nieces. Later, Andy (Rob's brother) and his girlfriend (whom we hadn't met yet) joined us. Phew! That's what? 11 hours of straight talking and catching up? I was beat.
Saturday was yet another kam-packed day. Grabbing lunch with Andy and Natalie for a few hours. Seeing Andy's apartment. Then running through Gabriel Brothers (a local Kent State University area dive much like that of TJMaxx or Marshall's). Later, heading over to Eileen Burg's place to see Bill & Laura Burg (and for me to finally meet Adeline who is now 2 years old!). We stayed for dinner which was fixed entirely for the 4 of us by Eileen. She served salads, homemade mac n' cheese, wine, homemade cherry cobbler... and didn't eat a bite of it herself. We were there for at least 5 hours.
Sunday was "wake-up and head out to Toledo (Toodly-doo!)" day. We hit Skyline Chili on the way out (*gag*!) and made it there by 1:30PM. We picked up grandma (my dad's mom) and went to my uncle Jeff & Aunt Patty's place... a place known for loud talkers who speak over one another while chain smoking and sucking down beers. My mom's family is a bunch of auto workers who all work for Jeep. there's a lot of talk about assembly lines, long hours, who's doing what (it could be really good news or really bad - in either case, its always a more extrememe version of YOUR news. These people are rarely impressed with anything you bring to the table. They've either seen it, been there or have done it). I saw family members I saw last year and one I hadn't seen for 12 years. We then split to go back to my dad's mom's apartment where my brother (yes, I have a half brother who I maybe see an average of every 6 years) and his wife were waiting. Here's where I tell funny stories of my grandmother heating up a frozen pizza WITH the cardboard on the bottom. We stayed over and left early (but not as early as we should) the next morning... which is today (Monday).
Now I am sitting in Susan's Coffee Shop again after returning/ replacing items purchased from Gabriel's earlier this weekend. ("Gabriel Brothers! You gotta love it!"). I'm cursing an obnoxious russian who insists on yelling in FULL VOLUME at his friend sitting across from him... fantastic, now he's even louder cause he is on his cell phone (and to think, I thought he couldn't get any louder). Rob's finishing up a sketch to send off tonight.
Tomorrow we leave at the crack-of-ass to get home at a decent hour (or at least try to). I have to work on Wednesday and really want some Down time" after all of this.
I think Rob and I have earned our gold wings after this weekend wrap-up. ;-)
posted by Brooke Ullman at 4:36 PM
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