We all took the day off of work on Friday, got up early and headed to the Mall of America. Bailee, Jeff, and I had a nice ride up, Jen called to say her flight to Minneapolis was good and that she would meet us at the mall as soon as she finished with her fabric shopping spree at SR Harris. Her girlfriend, Tara was with her and the two of them called constantly to update us on the status of their location within the mall.
Bailee was on a mission. She saved up $800 for her shopping spree. Unfortunately for me, I had to carry her cash which I found to be a large burden of responsibility. She had an agenda and didn't care about meeting up with her sister. We started at Victoria's Secret which was a very annoying. Since it was the middle of the afternoon, the mall wasn't all that busy. This meant a barrage of sales clerks were upon us like seagulls diving down to get the dirty french fries from the garbage cans. And these women were so stupid. They would forget they asked us if they can help us and ask again. When Bailee actually responded and explained what she wanted, they didn't listen anyway. Here is this 34D young girl trying to find a stinkin' bra that fits and all they want to do is sell her push-up bras. Like she needs to make her big boobs even bigger. Morons. In the end she got her bras with no help from the sales staff.
Her next mission was to find a fancy dress for a wedding. As we wandered from store to store, she put a few dresses on hold. We also stopped at the cool little stores in-between the dress hunt. We met up with Jen and Tara somewhere between Delia's and the Guess store. Both Jen and Tara have degrees from Stout's fashion design program so most of their conversations revolve around the clothing stores. Comments like overpriced, bad cut, cheap fabric, bad design are not uncommon - it's the nature of their business. Unfortunately, Bailee takes everything her sister says to heart. So she took the comments about the stores as an attack on the things she likes.
So let the war begin. Jabs, digs, and irritations become anger, bitching, and yelling. So we separate the two of them only to have to deal with the aftermath for the rest of the day. This day I've decided that I will never go anywhere with the two of them again. And it's too bad, I've always wanted us all to go to Cancun over the Christmas holiday as a family. It would be a waste of money.
The cool thing at the mall was that the Food Network had a contest to create the tallest sugar sculpture. Two teams competed. One made a replica of the Empire State Building and the other did the Hancock Building. They were about 27 feet tall - pretty cool. At least Jen, Tara, and I thought so, Bailee thought it was lame. Here we go again. Round two.
By the end of the day, things settled down, Jen and Tara left to head back to Tara's place, and we headed toward Hudson where we had a hotel reservation. I was disappointed because at the end of the day I hadn't really shopped for myself. We stopped to eat in a suburb called Woodbury and discovered the coolest area filled with shops. Ann Taylor, J Jill, and many others lined the newly paved streets. Too bad I was too tired to shop and all I could think of was getting something to eat and sitting a while. We ended up at a Champp's. Although the food is always good, part of the adventure is trying something new and this definitely wasn't anything new.
We checked into our hotel room just before 10, Bailee went right to bed, we headed to the pool to swim a few laps and unwind. I fell asleep with soaking wet hair and woke up looking like Alfalfa from the Little Rascals. After a morning swim, a decent breakfast, and a hot shower, we headed to Stillwater to hit the shops along Main Street. What a cute little town! We noticed it last year when we passed through on a motorcycle trip. Unfortunately, we were with a group that couldn't fit a stop in their schedule so we just passed the town by. Our first stop was at a winery. We tried samples and made our purchase. After a nice walk through town it was time to head to Menomonie.
By brother Mike lives in Menomonie. He was working until noon so we knew we had time before we had to make an appearance. We checked into our hotel in Menomonie then we stopped at Mike's house where we were greeted by his wife, Carmen. She let us in and we spent the afternoon playing with their children, Seth and Aubrey. Aubrey's baptism was scheduled for later that afternoon and we were also celebrating Seth's second birthday. His birthday is easy to remember - tax day, April 15th. I always need some sort of trick to remember important dates. I don't know why it's such a mental block for me.
Mike and Carmen have no sense of real commitment to time schedules. They told us the baptism was at 4 but at 4:30 we were drinking our second beer in their living room. We got on a roll during a discussion about my sister and her family. Their children are terrible due to the lack of discipline that they desperately need. They are also sickly from their steady diet of sugary sodas, coffee (yes, coffee and cappuccino too!), and anything else they want - all unhealthy.
Speaking of unhealthy, by 4:45 we headed to Legacy Chocolates to buy some of the best chocolate in the world. We eventually got to the hall where the baptism was held. We met the most fascinating people. The pastor and his lady were very interesting. He's 87 years old and his companion was most likely near that age too. So much history makes for interesting conversation. And this hall was a mini-museum so it had as much character and charm as those in attendance.
The commitment issue spills over into other areas of my brother's life. On our way over to the hall they asked Bailee to be the Godmother. She was shocked, honored, and annoyed at the lack of notice. But the baptism went on followed by a wonderful dinner. Mike is a health nut so dinner included a salad followed by chicken in puff pastry and steamed carrots. It was great to have something other than the usual banquet fare. After dinner, the evening ended with a chorus of Happy Birthday to Seth, the traditional cutting of the cake, and then the opening of the presents (both birthday and baptism).
We headed back to the hotel in Menomonie to unwind. Jen and Bailee were getting along, finally! Mike and Carmen came over after all their guests left. It was nice to visit with them one on one. We talked about mom's surgery and recovery and Mike's next visit to the Milwaukee area which will be in a few weeks. This was a surprise to his wife which was not really a surprise when you think about their decision making process, if you know what I mean.
Things broke up around 10:30 and we got to bed shortly after that. In the morning we packed up and got out of town as soon as we could. We were home by 2:30. Four and a half hours of driving is exhausting even when you're the passenger. We spent the rest of the day getting ready for the workweek, and I don't think I will recover or catch up until next weekend comes. It was a great time, considering a few bumps but I don't think I want to repeat the experience anytime soon. I think our next visit to Menomonie will be without the girls.
0 comments:
Post a Comment