Colorado catastrophes with the family

I had the great pleasure of seeing my family this past week. My sister, mother, grandmother, and godmother hopped on a plane and came out to see me for two days as part of a girls’ trip, and it was awesome. 

 

Typical of our family, we exuded chaos wherever we went.

 

I picked them up at the airport late in the afternoon on Tuesday, and we stopped at a Target on our way to the hotel to get some snacks, water, and some wine. Then we got to the hotel, where our adventure began. First, they had some trouble checking in because we hadn’t realized both rooms had been booked under different names, not the same. Then, as my sister and I were pushing the suitcase cart to the elevator, her backpack fell over and crashed onto the floor, where the bottle of wine snuggled in her water bottle slot promptly shattered all over the lobby floor. 

 

We stood and looked from the floor to each other, completely shocked, until a hotel employee said not to worry, he would clean it up. So my sister and I fled to the elevator, away from the scene of the crime. 

 

That was the first of it. 

 

When we got to dinner, our waitress brought out our dishes with her arms full. We watched as one plate tilted a little too far, and half the food slid right off and onto the floor along with some silverware. We felt bad and apologized, convinced our bad juju was wearing off on her. A bit defeated, she explained it wasn’t us, as she had the worst shift of her career the night before. 

 

So that was the first day. 

 

The next day, I took the fam up to Boulder to go hiking in the foothills. The hike was beautiful, with the last of the previous Friday’s snow still melting and falling gently off the trees, riding the gentle wind to its next destination. Hiking, we could see the multitude of flatirons pressed into the mountainside; it was beautiful. 

 

Our next funny came at lunch. I drove them to Pearl Street, a famous and popular stretch of pedestrian mall in downtown Boulder, where we found a place to snack and have a drink. We were seated fairly close to the bar/kitchen area, where the wait staff hung out. Although we were not eavesdropping, we clearly heard one gal say, “Minnesotans are snarky,” in a rather negative tone in response to something said by another group member who was describing a friend of his from Minnesota. 

 

The five of us looked at each other and laughed. We didn’t think we were snarky. Sassy? Yes. Sarcastic? Of course. So my godmother piped up and told her that we were in fact from Minnesota. The woman apologized and said that she only said it because they had previously worked with a few Minnesotans who were all snarky. So we all laughed and went back to our conversations. After some discussion, we backtracked ourselves and decided Minnesotans can, in fact, be snarky: We said it with love, of course. 

 

And then, to top the day off, we got back to my car to find a parking ticket. I had paid on the app, but I realized I had forgotten to switch over my license plate after I recently got a new one. 

 

Thankfully, the rest of that day went well and nothing chaotic happened. 

 

The next day, Thursday, was also fairly calm. I dropped the family off at the airport at noon, but unfortunately their chaos continued as their flight was delayed an hour due to the snow and weather in Minnesota. 

 

All in all, I believe we all had a great couple of days, kept entertained by the happenings in our lives. 

 

My Determination: “Bedelia never meant to lead a pack of dogs on a wild-goose chase. She never meant to steal something and then sell it. She never meant to make someone look bad (very bad) or lead a parade astray or even stomp on a piece of perfectly delicious cherry pie. But all that and more actually happened.” – Amelia Bedlia Means Business