Taking a Time Out

I just have to pre-empt my post by saying if you'd like to read the funny version of this post please refer here. Also, some of the pictures below have been used without permission, hope I don't get in too much trouble for plagiarism.

FINALLY, after much, much, deliberation, Sarah and I were on our way to St. Louis for Time Out For Women.

Two years ago when we went to St. Louis together Sarah yanked me from my shell and taught me it's okay for grown women to give the "honk your horn" signal to truckers on the interstate. I was so embarrassed and didn't think there were any more road trip games she could possibly teach me. "Oh Contraire!" Sarah decided it would be fun if I took pictures of truckers for her photomentary. It was like a really bad episode of "Starting Over". She as Iyanla and me playing myself...a typical introvert woman, needing to branch out and stop worrying about what other people think of her. However, instead of saying, "Step into your power, gurl." She said, "Do it or I'll kick your butt!" I obliged.

The Con-way truckers were the best subjects...very friendly. He was one of my favorites, and he even radioed down the road to his buddy, who slowed down and was waving before we even got there. I think they liked us!

It really got pretty fun, except I kept stressing over the fact that the sun was in a bad place and none of the pictures were turning out. Then Sarah put on the pressure and said I had to wave and smile first, then take the picture. Her next request was that I stick out my tongue to see if they would do the same. I had to draw the line somewhere...it felt "wrong"...very, very "wrong". What if they followed us to the next truck stop? No thank you!!!

The rest of the day consisted of lounging, ice cream, shopping, butter burger, fries, frozen custard, casino for a pretzel the size of my head, and karaoke.

Let me rewind though, CULVERS!!! Oh my gosh! Beautiful! I finally got to have a butter burger. Here is the experience carefully documented, compliments of Sarah!

It's worth posting my ridiculous looking pics just so I can relive that first bite. DELICIOUS! I seriously believe they put happy powder in their food. Everything about it is HAPPY!!!

As for Karaoke...oh, that was not pretty! Let's have a serious conversation about this-kay? The bar was small, there were very few people, most were drunk. The guy running the gig couldn't sing, but was in love with his voice. It was supposed to be for FUN! Sarah sang a beautiful version of Norah Jones, "Come Away with Me". Casey and Meg rapped. It was great. Why, why was I such a chicken? Sarah tried to get me to sing, but being the stubborn pissant I am, I wouldn't do it. I regretted it all night. I could've sang Lisa Loeb, "Stay". But nay, I was too worried about how horrible it would sound. I love to sing, so why didn't I just get up there and belt it out?!

Well, because I had horrible flashbacks of my Sr. year in high school. I was Chava in "Fiddler on the Roof". The orchestra is blaring from the pit, I have to sing my solo in "Matchmaker" and I felt absolutely trapped. What is my note, when do I come in, why are they playing so fast??? I wanted to crawl into a hole! I can't sing to the instruments. Gimme a piano, and play my notes...and I'll sing. But give me all this mumbo jumbo without my notes...it's just not pretty! I was so sad. Seriously, when will I learn to let go, be stupid, and not really care? I wonder, was I like that as a teenager? Has it only been since adulthood that I got so uptight? I could seriously get voted out of the Starting Over House for this!

We got back to the hotel at 1. We reaked of Cigarette smoke, we were exhausted and just wanted to shower and go to bed. Oh, but wait. There was a blood stain on our sheets, the replacement sheets were wet, upon ripping the sheet back we realized the sheets were not only "stained" but dirty because there was a matching stain on the mattress pad, among other things!!! So, basically, three sets of sheets, and three mattress pads later we crawled into our less comfortable bed (they were out of the nice fluffy mattress pads). It was 2am, we were too exhausted to even enjoy the slumber party. We hoped we would awake refreshed and ready to be spiritually fed, (and another trip to Culvers wouldn't hurt either!)