Today was amazing. In a nutshell, it consisted of waking up at quarter to five and rolling out of bed and running around with a chicken...wait...with a chicken? that's not right...LIKE a chicken with its head cut off. I'm exhausted, gimme a break! Anyway, getting out of the house this morning with all five of us kiddos and my daddy was very hectic. I couldn't find my shoes, Dallin was walking into tables and Tyler was falling asleep on the couch. We finally got out the door and in the car and down the street when it hit me..."DADDY! I LEFT THE STRAIGHTENER ON!" I don't even know what I was thinking turning it on this morning, I left the house with my hair in a messy bun. Dad was not happy about that. So we turned around and went back home so we could unplug my straightener and finally made it past the Hampstead town line.
100,000 people came to the air show today and there were over 7,000 volunteers. And we ended up being in charge of the Handicapped Parking lot....figures, right? This is the story of my life. But it was actually really fun. My dad took care of the entrance, all of the kids spaced out around the four sections of the lot and I directed everyone to their spots. I felt kind of cool, I'm not going to lie. I even got to be all assertive and threaten to tow this irritating NON-handicapped lady who had snuck in the lot while my dad was talking to someone else and told my little sister that she wasn't going to stop her from parking in the compact car spot because she had a prius that would fit. Sorry lady, just because you can afford some stupid little car doesn't mean you can take a spot away from the disabled!
So, from 6:30 AM until 9:00, we managed the parking lot. And then, all of a sudden, there were NO parking spots left....and a good 100 cars still in line, with more coming, all with handicapped status needing spots! MAYDAY! WE HAVE A PROBLEM!
Of course, no one who is running this shing-ding has a clue what to do, and eventually they decide that we will have to send all of these poor old people and vets to the general parking area and have them shuttled to the entrance. The people in charge were too afraid to pass the news to the people waiting, so they tell us to go pass the news along. "Excuse me sir, but we don't have any more spots, so we're gonna need you to turn around, take a left and park in the general parking that is three miles away and wait in this heat for a shuttle to take you here." One guy looked at me and said sassily: "Are you surprised at the amount of disabled people there are in this world?" It took everything I had to not laugh and say: "Of course I'm not, I'm one of them."
anyway, they finally found us a new lot that was closer and so we walked over there, set up our system and continued to park people until 11. Lots of sunshine, lots of cutsie old couples and lots of grumpy people too. But it was an adventure!
we finally were relieved of our duties and went in to enjoy the show. it was super cool! There were tons of planes to look at! My favorite was the Black Hawk Helicopter. My dad is an aerospace engineer and he is the main project leader and engineer on the gear box (kinda like the transmission) for the Black Hawk. When I worked as a receptionist at his company a few summers ago, I got to see this huge hunk of metal become this amazing intricate and complicated piece of machinery on a weekly basis! And today I got to see in IN the actual helicopter and working! That was wicked cool!
We got our free lunch and then sat back and watched an F-16 and an F-22 fly around. Dad makes parts for those aircrafts too and it was cool to be able to ask questions about the differences in the jets and actually understand how they work. My dad may complain about his job sometimes, but when he starts talking about planes and watches them fly, especially ones he has built parts for, it's not hard to tell that he is passionate about what he does. That inspires me. I love my dad.
and man, after today, I am pretty sure I could watch those things fly for hours and never get bored.
We got to watch the Blue Angles fly for a while too; also super neat! And then, after a long and hot day, we packed it up, sat in traffic for a long time and drove home. Dad treated me and mom to chinese food tonight because the kids are all at a tri-stake dance. My bed is still shaking and my cat is currently being a bed hog, but I am exhausted and sore and I'm gonna call it early tonight and sleep forever and dream about being reunited with my roommates next week. yay!
2 comments:
ew, what's that thing in your bed?
really? really?
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