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Here comes the turnip truck!

So, as I’ve mentioned, Mikayla is one of my many godchildren (I have 3) – what I have not mentioned is that I try always to treat my godchildren like gold when I see them for birthdays and holidays and in general throughout the year.

Mikayla recently celebrated her 16th birthday (October 4, 2011) and so I thought I should get her a really fun gift. After hemming and hawing I decided to buy Mikayla a beautiful silver ring.

But then things changed.

I got busy and I kept forgetting to order the ring and then FALL faded into winter which faded into SPRING.

Mikayla, being Catholic, was confirmed in the spring (April 14, 2012) and seeing that I hadn’t even ordered the ring by that point, I thought it would make a nicer confirmation gift. This put me back at square one in the birthday gift department. And I was running out of time! I mean her 17th birthday was fast approaching and I still hadn’t made good on the 16th birthday gift yet!

What to do?

That is when I had a eureka moment!

I will do what I almost always do and take her someplace cool.

Over the years Jim and I have taken Mikayla on many adventures including:

Plays in New York:

Wicked

Beauty and the Beast

An Egyptian exhibit called The Tomb:

A tour of Fenway Park:

A Bruins game:

A Cirque du Soleil show called Dralion:

This time I decided to take Mikayla to a Red Sox game!

Yippie!

 Jim and I decided to buy the extra cheap seats in the bleachers ($20 per ticket) so that Mikayla could bring a friend. Mikayla brought Anne.

Before I go on, I need to stop and insert a picture of Anne’s older sister Rita. Rita will have a cow if Anne is featured on the Turnip Truck before her, as she has been a faithful subscriber for eons and has yet to even get a mention. That said, this is Rita:

Note: this is not really the Rita I am talking about, but it is the picture that kept popping up when I tried to Google her. Sorry, Rita, but at least you got a mention. You can blame Scary Turnip (see the Explained page) and your sister for not forwarding me a picture of you as I asked them to do 100 times.

Back to the story of:

Mikayla’s Happy Birthday Adventure.

So, Mikayla brought Anne…

Jim and I bought the tickets for the Red Sox game the week before we intended to go so that we I could have a good idea of what the weather would be like. You can never be too careful when your view of the game is from the cheap seats.

Jim decided that Tuesday, July 31st would be the perfect night to go, but I was apprehensive because the weather app on my stupid iPhone had a picture of a cloud and lightning bolts.

Jim said it would be fine.

He was wrong.

Again.

The evening started off lovely enough.  On our way to the ballpark, we stopped and had a slice of pizza at The Upper Crust Pizzeria because Jim and Anne were hungry.

Note: Each of us had a slice of our own. We didn’t share one slice. That would be weird because we barely know Anne.

We then moved on to Fenway Park. When we got there it was just like a carnival outside.

There were souvenir shops.

There were boys hawking programs for exorbitant amounts of money.

There were bands.

There were clowns.

There were rides.

There was food.

Jim couldn’t decide what to eat first!

We finally made it to our seats and we were so happy because it was a warm night and it looked like the rain was going to hold off.

Alas, we should have known it was too good to be true for within a matter of minutes the rain came.

And, oh how it rained!!!

By the end of the 4th inning the bleachers were really clearing out!

We stayed.

We got soaked.

The Sox ended up calling a rain delay in the 6th inning and eventually they just called the game.

The Red Sox won.

We ran back to our car, which Jim parked about 50+ blocks away so he could park for free.

We stopped under every awning and tree we came to so that we could wring ourselves out.

Before we left the house I told the girls to bring a raincoat.

Anne didn’t listen. She brought a skimpy little sweatshirt instead.

Silly girl.

When we finally made it to the car, we tumbled into it laughing hysterically.

This night could have turned into a horrible situation fraught with teenage angst, but it didn’t. Except for the occasional apology from me (I felt horrible that Mikayla’s Happy Birthday Adventure was turning out to be anything but perfect.), there was not a moan or groan to be heard from anyone. The girls took it all in stride and just kept smiling through the unrelenting downpour. Nobody complained about frizzy hair or ruined make-up – not even Jim! We just kept laughing at the craziness of the evening.

I really need to give props to Mikayla (and her little friend too). Even though she is getting older she doesn’t mind hanging out with the older folks me. She never seems embarrassed to be seen with us me.

This is Mikayla and me at her Confirmation:

If Mikayla is embarrassed by our my presence, one would never know it; which makes her a good actor, which then makes me a brilliant director since I taught her everything she knows about the craft. Either way it’s pretty cool and I am grateful.

I hope when Jack is her age he still loves hanging out with me too.

I am thinking about bringing Mikayla to the zoo for her 17th birthday.

I hope she loves it.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MIKAYLA!

Until next time…

I’m turning off the turnip truck.

T