Yet another lame video Weekend Roundup
And if you thought previous Weekend Roundup videos were lame… well brother, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
Oh what fun it is to write on a Weekend Roundup all day, hey!
Every weekend in the Horn household is chock-a-block with activity. We go shopping, we attend parties, we have friends over, we build tree forts, we manually solve pi to 653,992 digits, we dispense vigilante justice with extreme prejudice, et cetera et cetera. And then on Sunday afternoon or Sunday evening of those weekends, I take to the keyboard and complain about what a hectic and unrelaxing weekend it was, peppering my posts passive-aggressive whinging.
And in many ways this weekend was no different. It, like most weekends, provided multiple opportunities for Doing Stuff and precious few opportunities for Down Time. And yet… you know, I didn’t really mind so much. Not this time, anyway. Maybe the warmth of the Christmas season has started to slowly filter down into my icy, coal-dark heart, or maybe I’m drunk. Either way, I actually enjoyed the weekend’s nonstop goings-on. For example:
Friday night we had people over for dinner. As you might expect, it was The Crows and Tom. Ordinarily, I might bristle at the thought of having to rush home from work only to throw on an apron and commence cookery, but truthfully it wasn’t so bad. The kids were playing and giggling, the adults were enjoying a little of Ye Sweete Alcohollick Spirittes, the weather was mild, and heck, what’s to complain about?
And to top it all off, we were celebrating Maya’s birthday. Again. How many birthday parties has this kid had? I’ve counted three so far, with at least one more to go. Anyway, let’s do some pics. First, Maya opens gifts under the watchful eye of an obese canine.
She liked everything she got, of course, but I think the big poofy princess dress was by far her favorite.
After everyone left, Shannon and I were going to watch The Illusionist, which is some movie she put in our Netflix queue that I don’t know anything about. Feh. Didn’t matter anyway, as Shannon fell asleep on the sofa before I even had a chance to turn on the DVD player. Double feh. I was able to awaken her long enough to watch Thursday night’s DVRed episode of The Office, and then we all collapsed into blessed, albeit temporary, unconsciousness.
Saturday was yet another too-full day, but again, not many complaints from me. We started off with a nice home-cooked breakfast, then Steven and I hightailed it to Union Station in downtown KC. We had somehow scored two free tickets to Dialog in the Dark, a traveling exhibit that gives you a chance to experience life as a blind person. The whole exhibit is pitch-black, and nothing that glows or produces light of any kind is allowed. No cellphones, no cameras, no glowy watches, no light-up shoes (so I had to take mine off), etc. They even make you remove your glasses, because if you drop them, they won’t turn on the lights so you can retrieve them.
For example, here’s the first room in the exhibit.
Did you not read what I wrote? Pitch-black. No cameras. You could not see your hand in front of your face. Steven was a little nervous at first, staying close to me, but as we proceeded through the exhibit, he got more comfortable with his cane and his other senses, and eventually he wandered off to do his own exploring. It was well worth the money we spent ($0, with tax), so I highly recommend it. Steven was so giddy he wouldn’t shut up about it the rest of the weekend.
After we got home, we had barely walked in the door when Shannon had us turn around and head back out… for shopping fun! DEAR GOD NO! But I didn’t whine as much this time, because this was for a good cause. The local Starbucks had a Christmas tree bedecked with the Christmas wishes of area families. We let the kids pick out a boy and a girl, and then we went to Target to let them buy the gifts for these kids that they did not know and would most likely never meet. Well, the kids didn’t really buy the gifts. They don’t have any money! Moochers, the both of them! Steven picked out a Nintendo DS game. The girl Maya picked wanted a CD player and something called an “iCarly“? It took some digging around on Ye Olde Internette to figure that thing out.
Saturday night (after an afternoon of laundry and vacuuming, and after church of course) we headed to the church staff Christmas party, held at the home of one of the pastors.
You know what I like best about this picture? It wasn’t taken at my house. It was a nice party, crowded but low-key, with tasty food and great nerdy conversation about Lost and Heroes. And because it was at someone else’s place, I felt no urge to run around cleaning up after people. I got to be one of the people being cleaned up after! Hooray! It feels so good to be a burden, doesn’t it?
Maya enjoyed the fruit selections on the buffet table.
And Steven saw Shannon trying to take a picture of someone else, so he did his best to regain the center of attention.
And now, late on Sunday afternoon, I’m about to finish this thing up and head out to a nice steak dinner with our friends Doug and Lynda. Tom is here to babysit the kiddies. A busy weekend? Yes. But finishing it up with a fancy-pants dinner? Ain’t no way I’m griping about that one.
Next weekend, however… all bets are off.
The insane Weekend Roundup of insane insanity!
Chaos? Pandemonium? Bedlam? There’s probably a bunch of other synonyms for a weekend in anarchic disarray, but it’s just another weekend with family. My folks and Shannon’s folks, all here to see their grandkids stand up on stage and perform in cutesy-wutesy Christmas programs.
Maya’s Christmas program was Friday night. Well, we called it a Christmas program, but it was really mostly about winter. Hence, lame. Still, it wasn’t without its highlights, such as in this vidcap of Maya imitating her old man.
I kid. The whole thing was wicked cute. And the big finale… Well, Maya certainly has a flair for the dramatic, but everyone else seems bored or befuddled.
Afterwards, cake! To celebrate Maya’s birthday a little early with the grandparent-types.
With musical accompaniment by Steven.
In the morning, breakfast at Roxanne’s Cafe with the whole bloody lot. On the left: Shannon, Maya, Shannon’s mom Mickey and Shannon’s dad Jack. On the right: My dad Roger, Steven, my mom Nelda. Taking the picture: me.
Later that night, it was Steven’s turn, as our church’s kids program (”Adventureland”) took over the weekend services to give a taste of what goes on back in the kiddy area, in the form of a Christmas thingy. I helped corral the four- and five-year-olds, keeping them from running up on the stage at inappropriate times. Steven played a shepherd… a bespectacled shepherd.
Of course, you gotta give the people what they want. You gotta close with a Nativity scene. Giant Mary looks down on tiny Joseph as two bored shepherds and a giant head silhouette look on.
What better way to celebrate the Christmasy programmy grandparenty goings-on than to visit that perennial favorite of the visiting parents from out-of-town… The Corner Cafe.
My folks and Steven strike a pose over the leavings of the downhome country-style meal.
Maya is ever the lady.
On Sunday, everyone was back where they belong. We and our kiddies back in our own beds, and the in-laws back in their respective hometowns.
Ah… living multiple hours away from the parents: now that’s a gift that keeps on giving.
It was 15 years ago today…
That’s right… On December 6, 1993, I asked Shannon to marry me. But what sequence of events led us to that night? Sit back, children, and I’ll tell you the story…
What brought Shannon and Price together? Mary Ann from Gilligan’s Island.
See, back in the fall of 1993 I was in my last semester of college. I had just started my student teaching at Catholic High School in Springfield, Mo. I was involved in a campus ministry called Chi Alpha. Every fall, at the beginning of the semester, all of the campus ministries at SMSU got together and put on a huge back-to-school party at the home of this rich doctor in Springfield. The theme that year was Gilligan’s Island, and they wanted representatives from each campus ministry to be on the planning committee. I was asked to be XA’s representative on the committee, and I was going to say no, as I never did stuff like that (not really my thing) and also because student teaching kept me way too busy. But for some reason, I said yes.
The first meeting was at a local restaurant, with dinner paid for by the rich doctor. We’d also get to meet Dawn Wells, who played Mary Ann on the show and who would be the special guest at the party. Gwen, a friend of mine from band, was also attending the meeting as a rep from Christian Campus House. Tagging along with Gwen was her RA, who was representing Catholic Campus Ministries. That RA was Shannon.
At the end of the meeting, Gwen said that she and her RA needed a ride back to campus, and I offered to give them a lift. That was when I met Shannon for the first time, and I was immediately smitten. Shannon and I went to my car to wait for Gwen, who was busy talking to someone or something, and the two of us talked for a while. Shannon was actually not feeling all that well, but she gamely played along. (She sat in the backseat, by the way). Gwen eventually finished whatever she was doing and took shotgun. Shannon was pretty quiet on the way back to campus, but in the conversation I was having with Gwen I kept throwing in gratuitous references to the fact that I was not dating anyone, that I was very single, that I was looking, etc. Turns out all that talk was for nothing, as Shannon had fallen asleep in the backseat and had heard none of it.
Shannon and I kept running into each other on campus, which was odd enough because I was rarely on campus, spending most of my time at the school where I was student teaching. I was definitely interested, thinking about her all the time, talking to friends about what to do, etc., but I never acted on it because I wasn’t sure if she felt the same way.
(Turns out, she was interested, and had asked Gwen more about me. Gwen, ever-helpful, told Shannon everything she knew about me: that my first name was Scott and that I was planning to move back to Arkansas after graduation. Neither of which was true. Shannon almost wrote the whole thing off before it ever began because of that “moving back to Arkansas” thing. Thanks for nothing, Gwen.)
But we kept seeing each other and having short conversations, and eventually I started to get the vibe that maybe she was interested. Maybe it was the long, intimate hugs? I’m pretty clueless on that stuff. In one of those conversations, she mentioned that her birthday was coming up on this certain weekend. I didn’t know the exact date, but I went out on a limb and bought her a birthday card. Shannon still has it somewhere. I don’t remember exactly what I wrote in it, something along the lines of “Hey, you said your birthday was soon, so happy birthday, also here’s my number if you ever want to call me.”
Wait a minute… I found it! And here’s a handy scan. And check the front of the card… timely as ever.
And the inside of the card…
I was going to a weekend-long XA retreat, and on my way out of town on Friday evening I dropped by her dorm, intending to just give the card to the front desk and have them put it in her mailbox. As it turns out, she happened to be at the front desk at that moment, and was surprised that I was there to see her. I gave her the card, wished her a happy birthday, got a nice hug, and headed out.
When I got back on Sunday afternoon, there was a message on my answering machine from her, thanking me and giving me her number. I called her, we chatted a while, and she mentioned that she had to go Wal-Mart to pick up some supplies for some residence-hall-related activity. I quickly offered to give her a ride there if she needed it, and she quickly agreed. So I guess you could say we went to Wal-Mart on our first date, but I don’t really count that. Who would? The next night I took her to Andy’s Frozen Custard for, you know… frozen custard. I say that was our first date.
From that point on, we were pretty much inseparable. Both of us pretty much knew that this one was for keeps. Within a couple of weeks, we were already talking pretty seriously about our future. We started seeing each other in late September, early October of 1993. I asked her to marry me just over two months later… on December 6 (that’s today!).
She said no, and I eventually married a different woman who was also named Shannon.
THE END