For Phats: or, Why Wisconson ows me an Hour

A while back, Phats posted about the Indiana time change ( or keep) for the state. Honestly, I never really understand the whole thing... like, when are you really saving time, in the fall or spring? I understand why - but when is normal time, and when is saving time.... It's kind of like which is the Law part and which is the Order part (duh-duhnk)

Anyway...It reminded me of a story....

My friend in Toledo (Hi Kais!) had a former roommate who had a boyfriend/fiancee who got tickets to see Garth Brooks. This was back in 97... well of course, I wasn't going to pass this up! Somehow, I managed to grade all of the papers I needed to for the weekend, hurried home after school, packed my bags and was off. I drove the several hour trip to Toledo. Mind you, I wasn't familar with that part of the state. I did notice how Rt. 23 when all the way up there, so I figured why not (this was before I found Mapquest.)

Lesson 1: Don't take local routes through big cities, especially if you are unfamiliar with said city (Columbus) and are a lone woman driving a big honkin' pink van. Oh, and it was night by the time I made it to Cols... very scary.

Somehow I made it up to Toledo and found her house, about 2 am Saturday -- we had a few laughs, a few beers, she showed me her used take-out box with fork stuck to styrophoam collection, and then we got ready for the next day.

We left fairly early, I don't remember the exact route we took, but we did go through Indiana, through South Bend, I believe (Go Irish!) and other parts of the state. Since she had a standard, she did all of the driving... We listened to tapes, waved at truckers (yes, I kept my bra on this time.) Luckily, she had directions on where we were to meet her friend and boyfriend/fiancee.

Lesson 2: Having a prearranged time is great, if both parties have synchronized watches a la military style.

We arrived at the meeting spot and called the friends. It turns out we forgot about the time difference, and we also arrived well ahead of schedule, thanks to Kais's lead foot. We had a great brunch, lunch and dessert at Denny's. After staying there for as long as we could... we went to a lotto store and donated to the Illinois lottery. Soon the friends arrived and it was time to head over to the concert. Here is the ticket stub -- I have no clue where this arena is in relating to Chicago, but it's there somewhere. (check out the price!)


It seemed to take forever for the show to start. We had excellent seats (5th row!) . When Garth came out he put on a hell of a show!


Kais had a better camera, and could actually zoom... I was stuck with a generic 35mm camera from my HS days, otherwise, I'd have better pictures....


So, later that evening, after the show, we drove to the boyfriend/fiancee's parents house and crashed. The house was in Wisconson (I never knew it was so close to the Chicago area!) We woke up Sunday, totally confused, as the time was completely off. Not only did we travel through a time zone, but we went through a time change... yikes... don't ask me to explain the math, because I can't...-- (if you want to try, go ahead!) But I think there is an hour of my life stuck somewhere in Wisconson...

Overall, the trip was very memorable... I made it home safely with a t-shirt, and plenty of pics like the one above. Interestingly enough, not only do I have pics of Garth, but also of this guy's reflective head...

There is a more to the story, but I'll have to dig through the journals to get the details...they are kind of fuzzy right now..

OK - so that's my story... after typing it out, it probably isn't that great, but hey - it's my blog and I'll post what I want... No one is forcing you to read it (Well, except for you, Design... I think my mom is still paying you, right?)