Wicked Weekend

Oh my wow. I had a totally amazing weekend. This is going to be a mother of a long blog, but you're going to have to deal with that. I just have so much to talk about! I'll start at the beginning... Friday night.

Everyone came down to Rochester on Friday night for a slumber party at my parents' house. We played a little Guitar Hero and a lot of Lynch Mob. Oh how I heart Lynch Mob. We also started a new tradition of doing scratch-off games around the newly dubbed "Scratch-off Table." We went into town to buy some at Kwik Trip. Nate, Brandon, Sarah, and I were still inside and Beth and Matt decided to leave us. When we went outside, Brandon said, "I'm sure they're sitting somewhere right now where they can watch us and laugh at us." I started looking around and found them in the BWW's parking lot. The dorks.

We attempted to get on the road by 8 o'clock on Saturday morning. We were on our way out of the driveway at 8:20. We thought that was pretty good. Well... That was until my mom called us and had us turn around so that my dad could check the air pressure in the tires. It was low, by the way, so he filled them all. We finally headed down the driveway again and then Matt called. He told me to stop at the end of the driveway and that Dad was "racing" down to fix the chains that were dragging off the carrier. We turned around and the Explorer was barreling towards us. I think we finally were on the road a little before 9.

The drive down was super fast and really fun. We played a bunch of games (that we had modified slightly for car play). We played a lot of Smarty Party. Beth, of course, murdered us all at that game. We also played 25 Words or Less. I don't think Sarah ever got to do a card, but it was really fun. Brandon, Nate, Sarah, and I won. We stopped for lunch at an A&W in Edgerton, WI and then headed into Illinois.

I would simply like to say that drivers in Chicago are INSANE! If you don't break all kinds of traffic laws, you will die. I have never really driven in that kind of traffic before. I was very stressed and scared out of my mind. But I'm pretty proud of myself for doing it, not gonna lie.

When we got to downtown, we headed to Navy Pier. We pretty much booked it down to the end, took a few pictures with the anchor, and raced back to the parking garage. We then changed and raced down the curvy garage (yes, I did think I was going to throw-up) and over to the theater. We got lost because Bertha couldn't find us in time. We ended up on Lake Shore Drive in tons of traffic. Thank God that Brandon can read maps, he got us to where we were suppose to be. We parked in the ramp by the theater and then I changed quickly. We rushed to the restaurant (in the rain and dress clothes) and were incredibly thankful that they held our reservation even though we were 30 minutes late.

The restaurant was beautiful. It was called Italian Village and had a really neat ambiance. There were murals of Italian countrysides and villages on the walls. Complete with little lights in windows and a moon over the river. The food was good and the pina coladas were amazing. Haha. Nate ordered dry pina coladas, but still got changed for alcoholic ones. They were the best I've ever had, but probably not worth the $7 he had to pay for them.

Next up, the theater! We headed back over to the Oriental Theater for the 8 o'clock show of Wicked. We got there at about 7:40 and took lots of pictures outside. They're all on Sarah's camera, so I'll post them on facebook as soon as she does and I steal them from her.

The show was totally amazing, of course. They did a lot more with lighting and special effects than they did when I saw it in Minneapolis. The woman who was Elphaba was completely amazing. She had a really strong and gorgeous voice. The show was so good, in fact, that it will get it's own Top 10 later in this blog.

We hit the road right away after the show. After we got lost, we finally headed out of down town. But because we needed some more drama while driving, we wound up next to a trolley full of drunk people. They were making faces at us, checking us out, offering us beer, and trying to get us to roll down our windows so they could squirt us with their water guns. Haha!

I drove into Janesville, Wisconsin, where we finally stopped for gas and for some people to change (the people who weren't talented like me). Haha! At that point, I had driven the whole trip so far. I decided it was time to let someone else take the wheel. Brandon drove from there back to Minnesota. Nate drove for the last hour or so of the trip. We got home at 5:45 this morning and I went straight to bed. Yay for sleep!

It was an amazing weekend and was definitely worth all the driving, stress, and running around like a crazy person. I loved the road trip, the singing along to the Wicked soundtrack, the games, Navy Pier, dinner, and seeing the best musical of all time! I can't wait to do it again :)

Memorable quotes from the weekend:

"She's a silent killer. Like Gonorrhea." - Brandon (about Sarah, while playing Lynch Mob)

"It's not a van. It's a crossover vehicle." - Matt
"Oh, so it's transsexual?" - Nate

Smarty Party Card: Top Protestant Denominations
Susan's answer: Catholic

"I hate Chicago." - Janet

"Don't die of boredom... like I would." - Janet (to the toll booth worker)

"Not gonna lie." - Janet et al.

Chicago Road Trip Top 10

10 - Bertha
9 - Brandon (almost) falling down the stairs to the subway
8 - Everyone changing into their dress clothes in the parking garage/car/stairwell/between other cars
7 - Me changing from my skirt, top, and dress shoes into my sweatpants, t-shirt, and Crocs while driving through downtown Chicago in traffic
6 - Us rushing EVERYWHERE we went
5 - Dinner at the Italian Village and Nate's pina coladas
4 - The Booze Bus
3 - Playing games in the car
2 - Almost rolling backwards down the parking ramp entrance
1 - Seeing Wicked

Honorable Mention - Beth being the only one to find the exit of the bathroom on Navy Pier, our amazing speed walk down Navy Pier, all of the picture taking, playing Bunco in the car with Sarah, driving in Chicago, and the rain.

Wicked Top 10

10 - The creepy cat on the ceiling
9 - Glinda's quotes about her name ("It's Galinda with a ga." and "It's Glinda. The ga is silent.")
8 - The tears. Yes, I will readily admit that I cried during at least 3 different songs.
7- All of the cool stuff they did with lighting and special effects
6 - When they make it rain on stage during "I'm Not That Girl"
5 - "Popular" - it's such a clever song with great lyrics!
4 - All of the made up words in the play (disgusticified, braverism, etc.)
3 - "For Good" - It's one of my favorite songs in the show. Watching this number while sitting in between my sister and one of my very best friends is an experience that I will never forget.
2 - The "Wizard of Oz" references (see note below)
1 - "Defying Gravity" - it's the best musical number in the show. When Elphaba flies and the cape goes up and all the lights are on her. Oh man, it's so cool!

Wizard of Oz References

"Lemons and Melons and Pears." - Boq
"Oh My." - Nessarose

"There's no place like home." - Elphaba

"I do hope they find it, I'm horrible with directions." - Glinda (after sending Dorthy down the yellow brick road)

"... Or you'll never see your Auntie Em and Uncle what's-his-name again!" - Elphaba

"Let the girl go. And that poor little dog Dodo." - Glinda (to Elphaba)