OHIO WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY -- PART I
(start here for the full OWU experience)
++++++++++ 4:15 PM ++++++++++
The car is packed and Nicki and I are headed out of Chicago! We’ve borrowed our friend Carla’s car, and have both gone AWOL from work so that we can hopefully beat the notorious Friday-afternoon-rush-hour traffic… we’re headed to Bucyrus, Ohio to stay with my grandmother for the weekend, while I have rehearsals and a concert at Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio. I’ve practiced well the past few weeks, so I’m feeling pretty good about my parts. The conductor, Milt Allen, has told me that the band is really coming together. I settle into the passenger's seat with a huge stack of CD’s, keeping a steady supply of tunes playing, while Nicki drives. She’s totally psyched for this – the woman has been dying to go on a road trip for months, and I’m very glad she’s decided to come with me. With the prospect of meeting new relatives, a concert performance on Sunday, and whipping back to Chicago before work on Monday morning, this blitzkrieg is pretty much guaranteed NOT to disappoint.
The only thing I haven’t told Nicki is that she’s also guaranteed two things on a road trip with me:
1) we’re going to make a wrong turn or miss an exit, and
2) at some point, it’s inevitably going to rain.
++++++++++ 6:00 PM +++++++++++
I call my grandmother, and then call Milt, to let them know of our progress – we’re past Gary, Indiana and making good time. About now, I also realize I’ve left the shirt I was going to wear for the concert on the doorknob of my bedroom. Nice.
++++++++++ 7:45 PM +++++++++++
About 45 minutes after we’ve passed Toledo, we realize we’ve missed the turn. I break the news to Nicki that this is my fault -- it was bound to happen, and it’s also inevitably going to rain. She laughs this off. I’m not sure whether she’s taking the news very well, or she just doesn’t believe me.
++++++++++ 10:00 PM +++++++++++
It has (inevitably) started to rain.
++++++++++ 11:30 PM +++++++++++
In spite of the missed turn, rainfall, and a stop for dinner at the ubiquitous roadside Cracker Barrel, Nicki has gotten us to my grandmother’s house in excellent time. Much to my surprise, my 84 year-old grandmother is still wide awake and waiting for us! We spend about an hour chatting and have a Stroh’s (my grandmother’s beer-of-choice), and then Nicki and I head upstairs… to sleep in separate bedrooms. It takes a little time for me to fall asleep, and I consider getting up and practicing (there had been no time that day to even move my fingers around), but then decide that would simply be a neurotic waste of time, and roll over on my fold-out single bed and drift off to sleep, listening to the dulcet tones of a M*A*S*H rerun drifting upstairs from my grandmother’s television.
++++++++++ 4:15 PM ++++++++++
The car is packed and Nicki and I are headed out of Chicago! We’ve borrowed our friend Carla’s car, and have both gone AWOL from work so that we can hopefully beat the notorious Friday-afternoon-rush-hour traffic… we’re headed to Bucyrus, Ohio to stay with my grandmother for the weekend, while I have rehearsals and a concert at Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio. I’ve practiced well the past few weeks, so I’m feeling pretty good about my parts. The conductor, Milt Allen, has told me that the band is really coming together. I settle into the passenger's seat with a huge stack of CD’s, keeping a steady supply of tunes playing, while Nicki drives. She’s totally psyched for this – the woman has been dying to go on a road trip for months, and I’m very glad she’s decided to come with me. With the prospect of meeting new relatives, a concert performance on Sunday, and whipping back to Chicago before work on Monday morning, this blitzkrieg is pretty much guaranteed NOT to disappoint.
The only thing I haven’t told Nicki is that she’s also guaranteed two things on a road trip with me:
1) we’re going to make a wrong turn or miss an exit, and
2) at some point, it’s inevitably going to rain.
++++++++++ 6:00 PM +++++++++++
I call my grandmother, and then call Milt, to let them know of our progress – we’re past Gary, Indiana and making good time. About now, I also realize I’ve left the shirt I was going to wear for the concert on the doorknob of my bedroom. Nice.
++++++++++ 7:45 PM +++++++++++
About 45 minutes after we’ve passed Toledo, we realize we’ve missed the turn. I break the news to Nicki that this is my fault -- it was bound to happen, and it’s also inevitably going to rain. She laughs this off. I’m not sure whether she’s taking the news very well, or she just doesn’t believe me.
++++++++++ 10:00 PM +++++++++++
It has (inevitably) started to rain.
++++++++++ 11:30 PM +++++++++++
In spite of the missed turn, rainfall, and a stop for dinner at the ubiquitous roadside Cracker Barrel, Nicki has gotten us to my grandmother’s house in excellent time. Much to my surprise, my 84 year-old grandmother is still wide awake and waiting for us! We spend about an hour chatting and have a Stroh’s (my grandmother’s beer-of-choice), and then Nicki and I head upstairs… to sleep in separate bedrooms. It takes a little time for me to fall asleep, and I consider getting up and practicing (there had been no time that day to even move my fingers around), but then decide that would simply be a neurotic waste of time, and roll over on my fold-out single bed and drift off to sleep, listening to the dulcet tones of a M*A*S*H rerun drifting upstairs from my grandmother’s television.
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