Warning: This post is very detailed and wordy. I just don't wanna forget any bit of it!
This year our goal is to do something cool/fun/different every month. January... well, we started in February. It was our anniversary month-3 years!- and we had a quiet weekend at home eating the most delicious pizza ever to grace our tastebuds. The next week Blake took a couple days leave and we headed up to Tulsa. Tulsa is to Oklahoma City what Robin is to me-the hippy sister.
We started our road trip jazzed and excited and took pictures sitting outside our apartment building. It was gorgeous.
We realized how much of a pair of homebodies we were when all we wanted to do was stay home and watch NCIS and eat some more Old Chicago pizza. Even as we turned onto the main street on the way to the freeway we we tossing the idea of ditching the concert for home back and forth. Oy vey.
Blake's lens popped out and this is the look he gave me.
We fired up Moses, our GPS, and instructed him to take us to our hotel and avoid all toll roads. This combination took us through the backroads of Oklahoma. We drove on approximately 8 different state roads and through many tiny towns. Everything was dead, but during the summer with all the trees lining the road, I'm sure it's gorgeous. On our way we passed about 4 dead skunks. Shtankay! One of our conversations was about Blake never actually trying any kind of olive black olives from a can. He promised me that the next time an opportunity came up for him to try one he would, but I couldn't facilitate the situation.
We arrived at our hotel and immediately turned out of the parking lot and headed to Jason's Deli for lunch. I didn't get my usual mushroom mufflata and had another sandwich. Delicious! Aaaaannnnddd it had sour olives in it! Blake wasn't too happy that the opportunity had arisen so quickly. He tried the olive and I proceeded to laugh historically at his face, while he tried to play it cool. Any situation where Blake is uncomfortable like that=my joy. We were both blissfully happy. Especially when the cashier told us that there was free ice cream cones. I had my first cone in...over two years! It was wonderful!
It was getting close to 6 so we decided to drive to Cain's Ballroom and stand in line. We were able to park in the street for free. It is important to note that our car was parked about 8 feet from the line of emos and hipsters there for the concert. We hopped in line and after about 15 minutes Blake said he was going to the car to get his jacket. So I stood by myself. And waited. And listened to the guy behind me complain that his ear gauges were metal and reacting to the cold air. And waited. And got smoke blown in my face. And waited. No Blake. He finally came back sans jacket. I gave him a puzzled look. He whispered in my ear that he squeezed into the backseat of the car and found an old water bottle and peed in it! In daylight with a million goths wandering around him! Oy. We stood in line for a little over an hour and cuddled. Yay for PDA!
They finally opened the doors and we went into the ballroom and went up to the front/side so I could avoid the inevitable mosh pits. And like Granpy McBlake and Granny McJoce, we put bright orange ear foamies in our ears. It was pure relief. The concert. Mindflow, Crown the Empire, We Came as Romans, and finally the Used. With each passing band people got drunker and enjoyed the music more and we got more and more squished. Then people started moshing. My nightmare. I felt like Elaine on the subway, standing calmly and cool-faced whilst screaming in my head. By The Used I was practically bosom buddies with the large Mexican man in front of me, the chunky underage emo on my right, the skinny smoker to my left, and Blake against my back. And the lead singer kept telling people to mosh! I don't understand the point of moshing. Drunk, pent up angry guys shoving people randomly as hard as they can against other people. You get shoved one way, and they shoved the other way. At one point the singer divided the room down the middle and told everyone, in the very packed room, to make the gap 10 feet wide. There was literally people pressed against all sides of me and I couldn't help but think that sweat is pretty much pee coming out of a person's skin. And then he told everyone to run at each other. After that situation calmed down we were able to jump around and actually enjoy the rest of the concert. Me and Blake had a perfect view of the door to the backstage so we saw the bands coming in and out and they would come out and stand by us to watch the other bands. I felt very fancy and roadie-like. Even though I'm writing mostly about the awkwardness, it was awesome.
When the Used ended their set I was sooo relieved. I was thirsty and my legs were stems of jello. I turned to go and saw everyone was still standing there! Apparently the band always plays and encore. It was then that I decided that I'm almost too old for these situations. When the concert was over we walked to the car and sat in it and people-watched while we waited for the traffic to clear. Blake was jiggling because he had to pee again. All we had were my kombucha glasses that I reuse and his already full plastic one. I finally told him to take his pee and dump it out so he could reuse the bottle. He poured it out in the weeds by the sidewalk, positive that everyone was watching him do it. He came back into the car and I told him one of the emos had said something to his friend about that 'guy pouring out his pee by the sidewalk.' I thought Blake was going to leak in surprise and I laughed and told him I was lying. He gave me a dirty look and climbed in the back seat. A few seconds later I heard: Psssssss--*curse*--pss--*curse curse*--ps-*curse CURSE*--ssssst. And then, "It washed back over my hands and on my pants!" Imagine me laughing uncontrollably throughout this situation. I handed him some napkins he had rolled his eyes at me saving from lunch. We finally headed back to the hotel and went to McDonalds for some fries for me and a sandwich for Blake. It was the only thing open at midnight, we had no choice. We checked into our hotel and to my utter delight we got a room with a patio! We are hotel snobs and each new luxury we discover we suddenly cannot go without the next time we check into a hotel. It's getting expensive. We ate our food in bed. I realized why we don't do this at home as I found fry and bread crumbs in the sheets the next morning. We went down to their breakfast room and everything was delicious. I had pancakes, hot chocolate, OJ, and a cinnamon roll. Blake had, and I wrote this down because I was so astounded, two pancakes, two sausage patties, one omelette, one muffin, two glasses of oj, one hot chocolate, one orange, one banana, one boiled egg, one biscuit with gravy, and a yogurt! We ate two hours later. During this meal we were listening to the hotel lady talking to the couple next to us. It was one of those awkward conversations where there is pretty much one speaker and she is telling about all her troubles and life-story. She finally said, "Oh! But you're on vacation, I won't bother you with my troubles." The couple, being nice, said, "Oh it's fine." And she proceeded to keep going on about her troubles. Me and Blake were just praying that she would keep her prey to the other couple and not spot us.
We checked out and Blake thew his pee away and we wandered around a mall. We went to Forever 21 and I always check the mens section. Blake was just protesting that he would never buy anything for himself at that store when he suddenly found a lightweight jacket and fell in love. Mmmmhmmm! We put a restaurant in our GPS and headed towards it. Suddenly we passed Costa Vida and then suddenly we were making a u-turn. Burritos? I think so. They were huge and delicious!
We decided it was time to head home so we could unwind and watch our NCIS. We drove home a different road that was almost a straight shot to home, only required on freeway switch. It was the best road trip we've had. We were both in high spirits and completely enjoying each other's company. We laughed soooo much. The only downside were the skunks we passed on the way back. Approximately 8! The only good thing, and this cracked me up every time, was that the a/c was on Blake but not me, so he'd groan every time he'd smell a skunk so I'd be able to bury my face into my sweater before I smelled it. I did catch a couple at first, but skunk-detecter-McBlake sniffed out the rest for me. =D It was definitely one of the best Valentine's Days ever!
