Natural Wonder

Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Location: Itasca -  site of Laura's future house
Task #15 Drive to Where I Can See the Stars

Procrastination really is a terrible thing. So many nights there were plenty of stars, but down to the wire, we had no other choice but to make it work.

Around 10 o'clock we hopped in the car and headed to Laura's house in Itasca. Of course this was after much ribbing about being able to see stars right there in the city.
It was freezing that night.  But we stopped for coffee on the way, and had our bottle of Arbor Mist complete with Solo Cups ready for some star gazing.  When we pulled into the drive we decided to head to the pier for the best view.

Man was it cold. The snow was still lingering, frozen on the pier railings, enclosing a fallen tree. It was a beautiful scene. Of course it took some work to find the stars, but they were there.


"Look, straight up. There's one"


"Ooh, there's one, just to the left, and another right above it!"

The clouds tried to block us out, but we found those stars! We drank our Arbor Mist, shivering all the while, laughed at Jess' fear of the swooping crane, and took some silly pics (after I fumbled back to the car where I forgot my camera) .

After we finished the bottle in record time, we scurried back across the street to the house hopped back in the car and blasted the heat. Before we made it to the highway we were thawed out. Of course, we made some side trips first - which to respect Laura's wishes I won't name - but it didn't take long before we recovered from the excursion. Besides we had fun laughing, with just the silly adventure of it. I was glad Jess and Laura were such good sports about it!

Cut and Run...Oh Wait for the Dirty Rotten Thieves to Leave

Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Location: Resurrection Hospital Emergency Room Parking Lot
Task #7 Do an Anonymous Good Deed

I have to state for the record that I was opposed to the idea of blogging this task. Anonymous means anonymous; it implies the prerequisite that I be the only one who knew I was responsible for the deed in question. However, Nic reasoned that as long as the person on the receiving end of the good deed didn't know the source it still qualified as anonymous. I suppose for the purpose of this blog's entire concept I will have to accept that logic.

But let me start at the beginning. Tuesday night Nelly, Abbie, Nic, Jess, Julie and I all rushed to meet at my aunts after work. We wanted to leave the extra cars there since it was on the way to George's shop. After worrying all day that we'd be running behind and stuck in horrendous traffic, we made it to Clark and Devon in record time. Jess and I had to pay the meter, so we came in late on the bad news. Apparently good ole George had scheduled someone right before my appointment and the piece was taking a lot longer than he first anticipated. He wouldn't be able to do my tattoo.

Jess took the news worse than anyone. And not so quietly started saying things like, "Seriously? You guys are joking right? How the HELL does someone run a business like that! That is SO unprofessional!" This went on through me smacking her, repeating "Shut up, shut up, shut up!"

Apparently she thinks I have trouble sticking up for myself, but honestly I believe it was in my best interest not to piss off the guy that would be holding a needle to my back...eventually.

Don't get me wrong I was a little upset that we had gone all that way, that we rushed, that my friends had taken time out of their night to go with me.I was annoyed that he would schedule such a large tattoo so close to another appointment, but let's be serious he wasn't going to turn down a big job, especially for my relatively small one. I was also disappointed that I had to wait, that I had 2 more days to obsess over the details, to psych myself up all over again, but mostly I felt bad  for wasting eveyone's time. We didn't want to go to another shop because we knew we'd pay a lot more anywhere else. Plus a few of my friends had tattoos done by George, so I trusted he would do a good job.

So while still reeling from the unexpected blow at the tattoo shop, we drove home wracking our brains to figure out how to salvage the evening by at least accomplishing another task on my list. "Do an Anonymous Good Deed" was really our only option.

Unfortunately for Nelly, she had homework to do - that procrastinator (J/K) - and missed the fun that ensued. It was pretty much the moment she got out of the car that Abbie came up with an ingenious plan. I had $20 on me - a tip I was going to give George. And Abbie suggested that I stick the money under someones windshield wiper. I thought it was an excellent idea. It was anonymous, it was a deed for a stranger, and we'd definitely be able to accomplish it that night. Then Abbie added that the car should be in a Church parking lot! Double Good Deed! I was pumped. It sounded like a fun little scavenger hunt.

Jess thought $20 was a little much to leave on a strangers car, especially considering it could blow away. So we decided to stop at Dunkin Donuts to grab coffee and make change. Nic brought up a good point, maybe there wouldnt be many cars on a Tuesday night in a church parking lot, if not we should check out the hospital lot. Then after writing the note I was going to leave with the money, which said "Spend me in good health", I figured the hospital was a perfect idea, we should go there outright.

So we headed out, found a pair of scissors, thanks to my junk drawer of a car, and a vehicle sticker shield to serve as tape. We decided the emergency room lot was the best bet, since there would be cars there, and they wouldn't sit there overnight.  After driving down a couple lanes we finally found a car that fit the "crappy" description we were looking for - an old white Lumina with patches of paint missing.  I pulled the car around the aisle so it would be closer to the front of our pick, Jess telling me to hop out real quick before I even had the car in park.  I ran to the car quickly, afraid to check for unintended spectators, and stuck the money and note under the wiper blade, pressed the tape to the windshield and ran back to the car.

Then in a frantic rush I took Abbie's phone and tried to take a picture as evidence for the blog, only to realize that there was someone sitting in the car next to the target. I ran back to the car, not wanting to be seen, only taking a picture from too far away. Then I made Jess take one. She crept right up to the windshield and got our proof, spectator and all.

A few times in the process people came out of the ER. We waited to make sure they weren't going to the car we were "vandalizing", each time breathing a sigh of relief when they went off in a different direction. Then a couple of "hoodlums" came toward the car - the one running right next to where we left the money. The driver was still in the car. They took forever to get in and then sat there. We started to worry they noticed something on the windshield of the car next to them. We threw out ideas of what they were possibly thinking about what they saw, what the driver thought we were doing when we took the pictures. Maybe they suspected we were playing a prank on a friend, or vandalizing the car for real. Or worse! Maybe they noticed the money and were still sitting in the car waiting until we left so they could steal it! ( like $10 is oh so tempting). We also pondered what the owner of our targeted car would think when he/she came outside: "Am I being punked?", "Is someone watching?", "Shit, Did I get a ticket?", "Where's Ashton Kutcher?" I hoped that we got lucky enough to pick someone who needed gas money, and they came out to find just enough waiting for them.

Finally, after a few minutes of waiting the other car pulled out. We decided it would be best for us to go as well, in keeping with the anonymous theme we couldn't let the good deed recipient spot us. As we followed the loiterers out of the lot I called after them, "That's right, time to leave, you dirty rotten thieves!" Everyone started laughing as we wound back out the ER path out to Talcot,  but Abbie pointed out that they hadn't actually stolen anything. And we all laughed some more.

I guess we'll never know how it turned out, what ran through that car owner's head, if they even found the note and bill. But I had a lot of fun with just a simple good deed and found myself wanting to spend the rest of the night hunting for cars that looked like their owners could use some extra cash. Even not knowing, and without a thank you,  it felt good to help a stranger, just hoping we put a smile on someone's face.