Friday Night Adventure

Friday night was a little adventure.  There was a youth conference in Syracuse and one of my young women was going.  After lots of phone calling and e-mailing and not much luck, I decided it would be best for me to take her to Syracuse myself and make sure she would be watched over.  I didn't make this decision until Friday afternoon and she was supposed to get there by 7pm.  Syracuse is 75 miles away.  I knew that PTB wouldn't let me drive alone and I knew I couldn't take Nolan and Gerret on such a long trip.  So, I left (numerous) messages on PTB's phone letting him know that he could expect a long excursion immediately following his arrival home from work.  I didn't yet know that this excursion would be an adventure.  

Side Note:  In the back of my mind there was a little voice repeating "Coraline.  Coraline.  Coraline."  You see, the movie Coraline came out recently and I knew Syracuse was the closest place to see it 3D and I also knew that PTB was interested.  I didn't take much more thought about it than that though.  

Anyway, we did leave the house shortly after 6pm, picked up my young woman, and drove off in the north-east direction, bee-bopping to some tunes, small talking, and otherwise thinking we were on a fairly inconsequential journey.  It was kind of windy.  Then it started to lightly snow. Barely.  We  made it to the north end of Cayuga before I'd really call it snowing.  But then it was really snowing and then it was nearly white-outing and we were suddenly traveling   r  e  a  l  l  y     s  l  o  w  l  y.  And Lola was telling us to take some obscure routes.  I kept watching the cars on the plowed interstate (as we passed over it or rode along next to it) and wondered what the GPS had against main roads.  It was pretty late when we finally slid (literally) into our parking spot.  Another half hour or so and my young woman was happy and situated and looked out for and I felt comfortable leaving her, but not comfortable about returning to the slimy roads, so we made the quick decision that we would prolong our stay in Syracuse in an effort to shake the tension of the previous 3 hours.  We trusted our car to a dingy underground parking lot and paid $24 to see a pretty awesome 3d movie.  The show started at 10pm.  I felt like a teenager.  Generally I like to be in bed before midnight.  Last night I was staring at unplowed roads for a long time past midnight.  And that's how my Friday night threw down.  

If you only came here to see a picture of something cute, here it is:

If you want to hear some more, here it is:

Realizations ... (thanks to an adventure with PTB)

1.  We live in the Sticks.  You'd think that because I spent the first 18 years of my life here, I would have realized this before, but I guess it took moving away and moving back and making a long slow drive on obscure roads for it to really sink in.  I think I made a comment to the effect of "this place really is The Boonies" upon looking out the window in the town of Montezuma.  As soon as I said it out loud, I realized "this place" was really just like the place I live.  And yes, it is the sticks.  Coraline is 3D only in select theaters.  For most of you, this means finding one of those theaters in your city.  For us that means finding a city with one of those theaters.  It was 75 miles away.

2. The title Family Film means absolutely nothing.  Nobody should trust that.  Don't get me wrong, I thought Coraline was a really great movie (see #3), but I would never take a child to see it.  I'm talking nightmares for 10 years.  I'm also never sure who decides to throw a few inappropriate things into an otherwise clean movie and then who decides to label it Family Film and rate it PG.  Sheesh.  This was not a family film, folks.

3.  Did I say awesome already?  Because it was an awesome movie.  Coraline was like nothing I have ever seen.  It was quite the adventure just to sit there and watch things popping out of the screen at me.  And the characters and story were creative and good.  It was good.  I liked it.

4.  PTB kindly and quietly does so much for me and rarely complains.  This trip could have been an occasion to complain.  We didn't make it home until 2 something in the morning and he worked Saturday.  He amazes me with his patience.

5.  Having a discussion about living in Arizona while driving in white out conditions is like grocery shopping while hungry.  We did it anyway, but I know that it was all silly talk.  Even so, driving in snow is no fun and sometimes down right harrowing and does really make somewhere snow-free sound nice.  I also know there are prices to pay.  Either way. 

6.  Under the right circumstances, I can still be mistaken for a 16 year old.  Those circumstances include standing next to other 16 year olds and standing there minus children or husband.  Upon arriving at this youth conference, I was asked numerous times to register/which unit I was from/who was my leader.  Ahem.... I am the leader!  Perhaps when I'm 40 people will finally assume I'm old enough to vote.