Saturday, August 27, 2011

BEDA 27: North Dakota Moose Lodge.

Bloooooooog post time.

My post is late tonight on account of my parents kidnapping me, taking me to a biker bar, promising I'd be home by 10 -- and not actually getting back to our hotel until about 1 am. I kept insisting "but guys, I have a blog post to write", but eventually I just gave in, drank my three drinks, and succumbed to the wild North Dakota lifestyle. It's hilarious to picture my parents being the crazy people they were in their twenties, because their old friends I meet here from "way back when" are just... old. But, obviously, it's been about thirty years since their glory days, so I have to suspend disbelief and use my imagination when I picture how things were then.

Today has been a great day. I woke up relatively early and got ready in my grandma's shower (which was literally a trickle of water) and before I knew it, my cousin Mandy had shown up with her new baby Chance. You guys know how much I love babies, so I'm sure you can only imagine what a joy it was to have a baby in front of me I was allowed to play with and not just gawk at from afar. Chance is absolutely adorable (he's 6 months old and such a happy, energetic baby) and I spent the better part of the next few hours holding him and tickling him and dangling toys above him and gushing over him.

My parents keep talking to me. I don't think they fully grasp what "I need to write a blog post" actually means. This post is going to be even later than I thought.

My parents showed up a bit later and we all visited awhile, but everyone was getting hungry. After Mandy left with Chance, we went out for lunch with my grandma at this place called Pizza Ranch. It was a buffet style place, and all the food was pretty standard except the Taco Pizza (which was amazing) and this dessert pizza (called Cactus.. something) that was so freaking good I couldn't even believe it.

After lunch we dropped off Grandma and headed to our hotel to check in. We dropped off our stuff then headed over to my Uncle Gary and Aunt Mel's house to hang out for the evening. My other aunt and uncle Lilia and Rod were there too, which was really nice - I really had no idea which relatives I'd be seeing on this trip but so far I've really lucked out. I spent a huge portion of our time there talking with Lilia... we've always bonded so much because we're both readers (she's the one who forced me to read Harry Potter, bless her) and it was so nice to catch up. We talked about everything before everyone else finally came and joined us on the porch and we all started drinking. Not to say my family is super wild or anything, but they like to have fun, and often that includes alcohol. I had this drink that was bright green and when my mom asked me how it tasted, I told her it tasted "like bright green". I didn't know how else to explain it.

After more general family times, and supper, and my parents embarrassingly insisting I show my relatives a few of my YouTube videos, it was around 9 pm. My parents, Gary, and one of my mom's best friends named Lynn still wanted to party, so they convinced me to come out to this bar called the North Dakota Moose Lodge. That brings me back to the beginning of this post, and the biker bar, and being very behind in today's BEDA post.

One of my favorite parts about meeting my parents old friends here in Bismarck is that I was six months old when we moved away from North Dakota. So many of them really haven't seen me since I was that old. Six months to twenty-three years is a pretty freaking big jump, so when I meet them they tell me things like the quintessential "I haven't see you since you were this big!"

One guy we met tonight brought up the fact that when I was a baby, I raced against his own daughter in the "Huggies Diaper Derby". He and my dad argued over whose daughter won (my dad insists it was me) but the real gem from this conversation was that while other parents were waving little baby toys at their kids to get them to crawl faster, my parents were waggling a pickle at me. Because I loved pickles. My baby contender is now apparently married. Time flies, guys.

My mom is currently talking to me from across the hotel room (we have a room with a little wall divider between their King bed and my pull out couch) about our natural disaster plan. I have literally no idea what prompted this. I keep saying "uh huh", and "yeah?" and while this is a fantastic idea in the broad scheme of things, I'm not certain right this second (at 1:14 AM after an evening at the Moose Lodge) is the right time to talk about this.

Perhaps I will suggest we debrief tomorrow morning. If I remember. Remind me to refresh with my mom about our natural disaster plan tomorrow, guys. Thanks.

Flights taken: 21

12 comments:

StarrySkyPixy said...

FIRST!!!! Mmmm, pickles. I always get them with burgers and sandwiches at my favorite restaurants. I always eat them too. Thank your aunt for us for Harry Potter. I hope you understand that. It makes sense in my mind. I totally get your "it tastes bright green" comment. Because some things just taste like it looks. Glad you remembered to post. Also, remember the natural disaster plan!

flitwicks_choirgirl said...

hey Kristina, remind your mum to go over the natural disaster plan, ok?

Altai said...

In Spain there was this amazing pickle stand in the market... I must have eaten about 60 gerkins in those two weeks, and that still wasn't enough!

Sarah said...

Pizza Ranch is pretty good. I love the cactus bread! Sounds like ou are having a great time in ND.

Unknown said...

Haha I couldn't help but crack up about you being so motivated from a pickle when you were a baby. That's way too funny.
Glad you're having a great time. Family time is the best :)

Danielle said...

Ahaha! This was such a cute post! Glad you're having fun seeing your family! :)

Sarah said...

I love the idea of "baby contenders:" a bit of third person reminiscence mixed with all-too-realistic scenes from the present day. I might have to steal that concept for a story at some unknown time in the future...

abstractmina said...

PIZZA RANCH!!! That is my home town pizza place. It's funny hearing you describe it.

Alex Dahlberry said...

looool. :) this was cute.

Manar said...

Your life is adorable. :)

usernamessuckfully said...

ahahaha pickle so cool:-) hey no one ever said comments had to be usefull

Aisling said...

I just want to preface this comment with the fact that I have a very, VERY obsessive personality- I can never just like things, they have to CONSUME MY ENTIRE LIFE for a period of time until I find something else (for example, last year I watched all seven seasons of Buffy in my two week school holidays)

Anyway, the point is that I have just caught up on your blog, after nearly a week of ignoring all uni work and reading every single entry in chronological order. I've been a fan of your videos for a while now, so when I saw that you were doing BEDA I decided to follow along..then decided that there was just too much I didn't understand from not having read your blog before and that the only solution was to read EVERY ENTRY EVER.

And now here I am :)

Basically I just wanted to say that I think you're awesome, and I really hope you keep blogging regularly post-August because I feel like I might start to suffer from withdrawal symptoms...

Hope you're enjoying North Dakota!

Love Aisling
(An Australian fan with a lot of time on her hands)