You ever have a day where everything possible that can go wrong, does?
How about a whole wekend?
Yup...that was mine. But no matter what the crazy stuff was that happened, the weekend was absolutely perfect becasue I got to spend it with Oliver at beautiful Illinois State University.
GOOD STUFF
First of all, the great stuff. Just spending time with Oliver is one of my three very favorite things to do in my life. ("Spending time with Emily" and "Spending time with Oliver AND Emily" are the other two. Lower in the rankings, but still pretty high up are: badass adventuring, having the first sip of the day's coffee, beach walking, and hanging out with everyone else I love in my life. But my kids will always take my top spots.
So all weekend, even though bad, gross, and not-optimal things happened, being with Oliver cancelled that out.
The hockey games were so much fun to watch, especially the third period of the second game, where we alternated scoring, letting one in, scoring, letting one in..... Though we lost in the end, what a fun game it was. I was SCREAMING my head off and it was glorious!
Seeing hockey parents, hockey players, and Oliver's childhood friend at the game. Even saw the Ex and got to catch up!
Walking around the campus. WOW! Illinois State University is simply gorgeous!!!! I haven't had as much opporutnity to scope it out due to COVID restrictions and relocating. But I'm so glad I got to go and check it out.
Here are a couple of cool facts for you about ISU:
llinois State University’s Fell Arboretum was granted status in 1995 from the International Society of Arboriculture and consists of a 490 acre site established with thousands of trees representing over 154 species.
The well-known 'castle' that adorns the northwest corner of the Quad is one of many such 'castles' on each state school campus in Illinois. The popular myth is that when put together all of the five castles would be interconnecting, like a puzzle. None of the halls are straight and nothing seems to make sense, in the basement it's like a labyrinth.. At other campuses there are dead ends just like Cook Hall has. If you join them all together you would be able to walk throughout all of them."
I got to sneak into the IHS State Farm School of Business and check out Oliver's academic stomping grounds. I walked through Bone Student Union and hit the bookstore for lots of IHS merch.
I got photos of Oliver's dorms/houses from the past 4 years. Weird that I never was able to go into his Sophomore Year dorm because of COVID restrictions, but Oliver reassures me "That's probably a good thing, mom".
Can't wait to go back in November and see it again!
I went to three coffee shops this morning, and discovered the wonders of Iced Thai Coffee.
Then there's the legendary "Nest", which is where all the hockey players store their gear between games. I've heard about this legendary place for years. Described as "a place you never, ever want to go, Mom", I imagined a dark, narrow hallway with cubbies for each bag of gear to be gently placed into.
After the game, Oliver had to drop off his stuff there. I casually asked if I could see it, and he said, "Oh no really. You really don't want to. Trust me". But after he came back out of dropping his gear off, he said, "Are you sure you want to see it?".
Um...yeah!!!! How bad can it be?
It was bad.
Let's just say that I am no stranger to the horrors of hockey smell. But this place....unlike anythingI have ever smelled or seen. I'll leave it at that. I have a photo. I"m not gonna show you, though. Don't want to ick you out.
But I got to see it!!!!!!!!! Is it weird that makes me really happy?
BAD THINGS
Oh yeah... now the "Bad" things....
The toilet in my hotel room reverse-flushed while I was sitting on it.
The older man with long blonde hair who owned the creepy hockey store drooled down the inside of the shaft of Oliver's brand new $300 hockey stick right after he cut it and before he capped it. Ollie didn't see. I chose not to tell him. Didn't want him to be late to the game.
Ollie got two assists with the drooled-in stick. New lucky stick, perhaps?
While trying to order our thai food for dinner last night, Oliver and I got in the middle of a screaming fight between a customer and four of the restaurant workers. Desperately trying to figure out how to slide back into our car and go somewhere else, we weren't able to extract ourselves, since the poor servers were in tears explaning that the customer threw her pad thai in the face of the cashier because "she didn't like how it tasted" and were wretchedly explaning that "if she hated it so much, why did she eat so much of it before bringing it back." Reassuring them that they were right to be so offended, taking small steps closer and closer to our car, we apologized that we had to leave because we didn't have masks with us, and there were at least 5 signs on the front of the restaurant clearly stating, "No masks, no service." Thinking this was a perfect excuse to leave, it backfired when they had a mini huddle and proudly proclaimed that they would make an exception in our case and would allow us in to order.
Great.
There was only one table -- a picnic table in the back of the outside of the restaurant close to the bathroom and service door.
Groovy.
And then the police came. Not sure if they can arrest someone for throwing pad thai in a victim's face, but he looked serious and appeared to be taking it very seriously.
Nevertheless, it was a lovely night, the food did not give us the runs (yet), and Ollie and I had yet another random, crazy adventure that we'll be laughing about for a long time to come.
Other bad:
I fought the gruesome OHare airport and Chicago traffice. Even though I arrived at 3 and the game wasn't until 7, by the time I got through the new ATA transit, (c'mon Ohare...woudl a few accurate directional signs really hurt you?), got to the rental car fast pass counter only to have to wait in line for a while as they dealt with a large man sobbing
and trying to figure out how to reclaim his lost phone as well as the giant group of people from Austria (I think) who were desperately trying to figure out what a "toll pass" is, got in my Kia (Dang it...why do I always get a Kia????) and on the road, I walked into the rink and took my seat with 2 minutes to spare. Ugh. Not good on my nerves, I tell ya.
Oh yeah...I forgot to tell you the fella sitting next to me on the plane not only claimed my armrest and a good foot of overflow into my seat, but he has a nice snack the whole way of the contents of his nasal passages. Barf-o-rama!
Now I'm sitting in Ohare trying to get home and my flight is delayed. Big looming clouds are passing over. A hurricane is coming, and the airport is packed.
But who cares? I'm such a happy Mama. I loved every minute of seeing my boy, and I would take all the gross, drooling, booger-eating, noodle flinging, toilet erupting bad stuff again in a heart beat. It was a GREAT weekend. I love you Ollie!!! Don't forget to keep your head up and LET'S GO BIRDS!!!!
I'm one happy -- and lucky -- mama!!!!
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