Random stopping-Chicago Part I

Have you ever watched icarly? It's a Nick show about 3 kids who produce a web show. I watch it because the kids watch it. But, I'm not gonna lie to you, if I didn't have kids and I knew about the show, I'd still watch it. It cracks me up! (Hang with me, there's a point.)

So, very early last Saturday morning, I picked up Janae, and we drove to Chicago to visit my friend Gina. Gina had a precious baby girl 5 weeks ago and I had to go meet her. And, I wanted Janae and Gina to meet because they both hear about each other all the time.

Want to hear about my trip? Well, you're going to whether you want to or not.

Sooo... we set out on our long drive. Two hours into our trip, Janae grew very concerned about herself. She feared she was getting old because she kept reading billboards out loud. Apparently, Janae is a student of the elderly and she has frequently observed this behavior in them. I don't know...I'm just saying....

Since she was reading all these billboards, I decided we should incorporate a little icarly into our trip. One of my favorite things on icarly is when this deep voice comes on and announces, "Random dancing!!!!!!!!!!!" Carly and her best friend, Sam break into random dancing. I laugh every single time. So, I decided every time we take a road trip we should incorporate, "Random stopping!!!!!!!." I mean certainly one of the signs she reads is going to appeal to us.

Our first random stop: an Amish furniture store/antique barn. I think we really wanted to head to the antique part of the stop, but instead we found ourselves surrounded by a bunch of old Amish men. They seemed very desperate to sell something. I mean they were nice and all

BUT add furniture salesmen to the list of things that get on my last nerve. "For crying out loud, if I want something, I'll come find you!!" As a matter of fact, when furniture people start following me around, it makes me not want to buy anything.

We were walking around looking at bedroom furniture and this little old man, started talking all quiet under his breath and lead us over to a set that was on special. Who said we were buying bedroom furniture?? Then, Janae found the bed of her dreams and got into this conversation about Frank Lloyd Wright with an Amish man! I think the bed had something to do with this guy. I don't know. It doesn't seem that the worlds of some architect named Frank Lloyd Wright and the Amish should ever collide, but what do I know? I am not even sure I have ever heard of this Wright guy and Janae's having a conversation about touring some of his houses in Oak Park, Illinois.

So, we escaped the Amish without the purchase of any beds or desks or any other furniture and headed back to the antique barn behind the Amish furniture store... which is where we really wanted to go in the first place. Once inside the doors, we headed straight for the bathroom. It just so happened that this little antique store was having an Open House.

And, now that I think about it....if you were a business having an Open House, don't you think you should tell people when they walk in the door?

"Hello!! Welcome to our Open House! If you take a left and head down that hall we have coffee and refreshments!" (I can't believe that I even just wrote the word refreshments. I hate that word more than about any other word in the world. Why? Because I am quirky, that's why.)

The point is... no one told us. So, we walked into this little room that housed the bathroom and it was laden with store bought pastries, cookies, cakes, etc... and really, there is no point in telling you all this except to say: 1) Gross! It was way too connected to the bathroom for me. 2) What in the world is fruitcake? I think it is melted plastic... for real. 3) In the sulfur smelling bathroom, there was a cleaning product called Fabulouso. Can't people come up with better names? I wouldn't buy it because I hated the name... even if it was the best cleaning product ever invented. 4) Janae was pretending to eat the fruitcake when I came out of the bathroom. Totally fell for it.

We walked around the antique store while Janae picked up all this fancy pottery sort of stuff. She knew the name of it and everything. So, basically, I left that exit 215 in Indiana feeling.... well, I am not really sure. Uncultured? Frank Lloyd Wright. Antique pottery. I mean... I got nothin'.

The best I could come up with in the car as we left was, "Hey! Want to listen to some Taylor Swift?"

Stay tuned.... oh, it gets better!:-)