Honestly, the only positive thing to come out of that wholly infuriating experience was that Riley took the first shift, racked up 90 solid minutes behind the wheel, and thereby acquired the final hour he needed to log for his Learner's Permit requirements. You know what that means, yeah? Watch out, License Test, here he comes! Other than that, the delay almost--but fortunately not quite--derailed our plan to get the HECK out of the car and hike for a while near the end of the journey, before finishing up at my Dad's house for the beloved, time-honored Friday Night Pizza tradition.We didn't have as much daylight left as we'd hoped, so our stroll through the woods at Sugarloaf Mountain was slightly abbreviated...and perhaps a bit brisker than originally anticipated...but still delightfully peaceful, enjoyable, and rejuvenating. This turned out to be especially important once we arrived at Casa Extended-Fam...otherwise called Cousin Chaos Central. Yes, there was dinner, which was the relatively calm aspect of the whole shebang. But then...at 7:00, my father switched the TV to Jeopardy, which during my childhood was an ultra competitive sport, inspiring much enthusiastic participation, yelling of answers, good-natured arguing, and frankly, nerdy trash talking. Well, I'm happy to report that nothing has changed--except perhaps the VOLUME level of the combatants...or, you know, Quiz Show Geeks...whatever...
Add to that the fact that my youngest nephew broke out a Trivial Pursuit-type game (at the same time, mind you--because who wouldn't want more noise and rivalry?) and wrangled my sister and Derek into playing it with him...which can be summed up as just a whole bucketful of pandemonium, y'all. Need proof? My nephew, when unsure of the correct response to one question ("Name of the teenage spy written by author Anthony Horowitz"...Alex Rider, if you're curious), settled for shouting the first thing that apparently popped into his mind, which happened to be...the cartoon character Kim Possible. After that, this became the default wrong answer whenever anyone couldn't come up with a better option.
Meanwhile, my brother at one point was attempting to name a Disney film, but only managed to sputter, "You know, that princess movie! (Oh, that's helpful. Would you care to maybe narrow that down for us, dude?) Bless him, he plowed on with admirable determination, "With...um...Esmerelda? (We'd figured it out by now...but he was on a roll, so we didn't want to interrupt...or honestly...rescue him...) He finally, desperately tried "And the song...'Take away, take away!'" This was accompanied by dramatic, sweeping arm movements to supposedly illustrate his point and spark our memories...of the movie FROZEN. (So close, and yet, sooooooo...NOT...) Yeeeahhh....there was no speaking for at least 5 minutes after that debacle, until my sister and I were able to pick ourselves off the floor, stop howling and clutching our sides, wipe our eyes, and generally get ourselves back together enough to continue.Whew! It was a wild little get-together, for sure. And then we said our goodbyes and headed to our usual HQ at the home of friends who so graciously allow us to crash there several times a year. There we were able to greet our hosts, settle in for a couple minutes of quieter conversation, and rest up for Day 2 of the Mid Atlantic Invasion...or, um, "holiday visit". Stay tuned for more fa-la-la-ing!
No comments:
Post a Comment