Regrettably, however, most of those things are quite droll and boring.
Stuff like sleeping which probably accounted for at least 20% of the time since the last time I wrote. Eating/sitting around/talking probably covered another 15% not to mention all the movies/TV/Books I read which probably covers another 10-15% which brings us right up to about 50% of the time that has passed. Then there is all other mundane things…brushing my teeth, getting dressed, taking Claire potty, taking myself potty, taking out the trash…you know all that stuff. So, I figure after you factor in all that - we are only looking at about 30% of the time in which something truly remarkable could happen. And don’t you worry plenty of things did happen. I’m just only going to talk about two. Not because other things didn’t happen, (because they did, you know stuff like traveling back in time for eight minute periods to save Chicago from a nuclear terrorist attack and saving hundreds of people on a commuter train, and stuff…(if you are thinking…hey that sounds like the movie Source Code…well they had to get the idea from somewhere. Right? Well I’m just sayin’.)
The first thing that happened to us over the last three months that is worthy of mention is that we went to Bojangles. Now, if you are like me the first thing you think of when you hear Bojangles is the old Nitty Gritty Dirt Band remake of the song Mr. Bojangles about Bill Bojangles the tap dancer in the 30’s….you know…let me clear me throat…
“I knew a man Bojangles who danced for you in worn out shoes…he jumped so high, jumped so high and he lightly touched down …Mr. Bojangles, Mr. Bojangles …dance”
Or something like that.
Anyway, obviously we are not talking about that particular Bojangles we are talking about the “Famous Chicken and Biscuits” fast food Bojangles with the catchy TV commercial slogan “Hey, Its Bo Time.” Apparently, Bojangles is like the Mecca of fried chicken and biscuits here in the south. Well maybe not THE Mecca, I mean not only is that politically incorrect to say it isn’t entirely accurate as there is technically only one Mecca and there are lots, (like over 500, I just checked on Wikipedia) of Bojangles…so probably more like the Southern Baptist Church of fried chicken…just to be fair. Anyway. It’s a big deal here. An example of how big a deal. Well let’s just say Hillary mentioned at school once that she hadn’t been to Bojangles before and people stopped talking to her for a week. Literally. It is that huge of a deal. (ok they didn’t stop talking to her for a week but they did look at her like she was from another planet (aka the mountain west)). When people did start talking to her again (which was really only about 5 seconds later) she was informed that she HAD to go to Bojangels. To which Hillary responded “isn’t it just like KFC?” And that is actually when everyone stopped talking to her for a week.
Well we went. Finally. Back in may. And well it was truly a noteworthy experience. And here, like they say down here in the south “is ow it ’ll ent dwn.” (how it all went down).
Well we pull up. I think, “hum this looks like a KFC to me…the sell Fried Chicken in a Bucket and it’s fast food…yep…pretty much KFC. However, as soon as we walk in the door I immediately realize that this place is definitely not a KFC. How do I know? No white people. When we walked in, the way the heads whipped around in there -whoosh- it was like the most curious/strangest looking thing in the world had just walked in the door. We might as well have been Sarah Palin. Everyone looked at us with this sort of expectant “well, looky here, look what the cat dragged in, lets watch and see what crazy thing they are going to do next” sort of look. Well we went up to the counter to order. That’s what we did.
As we approach the counter we try to read the menu, but mostly we are trying to overcome our obvious and decidedly un-cool western whiteness. When we get to the cashier the lady behind the counter finds us such a curios and amusing sight that she actually lets out a little laugh while she says “what y’all want?”
We have no idea. We have never been here before. And we are still trying to overcome our whiteness. So, Hillary, trying to by a few more moments for us “to look at the menu” says “well, we’ve never been here before…what all do you have?” At this point the cashier looks at us, tries to hold back her laughter. Fails. Laughs, does a half eye roll that says “white people” then says “uhm, CHICKEN.” Hillary, trying to remain calm, says “right, but I mean what’s good? Can you suggest something?” The cashier is just flabbergasted by this question starts laughing and calls out to her manager, and says: “hey, these people want to know what is good here” but her tone means: “hey, you gotta come check these clueless white folks out..They are hilarious”
So he wanders over looks at us. Looks at the cashier that is now laughing outright, tries to hide an amused smirk and says “most people get the chicken and biscuits.” I say we will get two of those and a kids chicken strips meal with milk. The cashier who is still laughing says “white or chocolate” I say, and I’m fully self conscious of the irony here, “white.”
Laughing Cashier (LC): What sides do you want?
Hillary: What do you have?
Disbelieving LC that is obviously thinking to herself did this white girl really just ask me that again: Fries, and whatever else is listed on the sign up there.
Hillary Clam as a summer morning: Well I don’t know, what do you think Will?
Totally Self Aware of his whiteness and flustered Will: I don’t care, who cares, just say something. We’ll get the fries.
Cashier: That’ll be $15.47
I pay and we move down the counter. Meanwhile the manager is getting our meals ready and putting them on the tray. He fills up two large drinks and puts them on the tray and I say to Hillary “I don’t remember telling anyone what we wanted to drink.”
Hillary replies, “that’s because we didn’t”
Frantically I look at the menu again, and sure enough it says “Free Ice Tea with every meal order.” Oh great I think here we go again.
Will to Hillary: “They gave us tea”
Hillary: “hum, that’s not going to work”
Hillary to manager: “excuse me sir, hum, can we get different drinks?”
Manager with bemused look on his face: “hum, I guess…what do you want?”
Hillary: “do you have lemonade?”
Manager: “Nope”
Hillary: “Water is fine then.”
Manager, with totally entertained cashier now listening in: “No water either. Just Tea and soda”
Will: “how about Sprite”
Manager: “hum, no…”
Hillary: “What do you have?”
Insert burst of laughter from eavesdropping cashier.
Manager barely containing his mirth: “Sierra Mist”
Will: “Perfect. We’ll take it”
We get our food. And go to the napkins and condiment table. No ketchup. There is hot sauce, but no ketchup. I look around. Other people have ketchup. But I can’t see any on the condiment table. So I say to Hillary “hey, where is the ketchup?”
Hillary: “I don’t know, other people have ketchup should I go ask?”
Will: “nope. Let’s not give them any more amusement then we need to. Let’s just go sit down.”
We sit down. Everyone is looking at us out of the corner of their eye. I start softly singing the song from Sesame Street “one of these is not like the other; one of these doesn’t belong…”
Hillary: “It’s Bo Time!”
The other thing that we did over the last three months that was noteworthy is we went to Idaho/Utah to visit friends and family. As always it was a blast. There are actually too many fun things to list but aside from just seeing and talking to everyone which we always enjoy here are a few highlights more or less in the order they occurred:
Brooklyn’s birthday party
The “Treehouse” in ogden
Playing “NBA Jam” with Derek and Amy and later Lael and Elise
Going to see “Rio”
Camping with the Griffins at “the property”
Being scared of the two moose (moosen? Meese? Moxen? Mooses?) that came within 10 yards of our campfire while at “the property.”
Keeping Mom and Dad Griffin up past their bedtimes
The Farm (aka the Taylor’s)
Hamburgers with the Plicka’s
Teasing Ericka and Peter
Bowling with the Petersons
Seeing Mack and Lacey's ridiculously awesome backyard. oh yeah, and talking to Mack while there :)
Going to West Yellowstone and seeing “Dirty rotten scoundrels”
Jordan’s water party
Seeing Tyler and Tashie
Going to Yellowstone Park with Granny and Papa
Visiting with Travis and Brandi…Kambrie is huge! And adorable!
Talking with/Teasing Robert
Fireworks at the Marquits for the 24th
Breakfast with Lael and Elise
Wackie Six
Camping at Redfish with Smiths and Great Grandpa Baird
Fishing (Claire caught her first Fish)
Going to Great Grandma Smith’s on Sunday
There were actually a lot of other things as well but since I have been writing this post for over an hour now, I think I am going to stop with what I have listed. I will only add that we are extremely grateful to all those that hosted us, let us eat your food, made us meals, gave us everything we needed and generally ensured that we had a smashing good time.
Bunch of random Pics and stuff from last three months:
This one is of Claire and her Friend dancing at a blue grass show we went to last week
