Go Jump in the Lake and Chocolate Reality

Our three-day weekend was such a welcome treat! Brad gets very few holidays off, so we were excited to have him off work when the kids were out of school! Made it truly feel like a long weekend...in a good way! The weekend did not go as planned, for a variety of reasons, but we had some good times.

Brad is getting back into competitive swimming through the Masters Swimming program. He has his first open water race this coming weekend, so he's been jumping in the lake as often as possible the last couple weeks. Since Monday was so beautiful, the whole family came along this time for a little lake fun. The kids had fun chasing him in a paddle boat and a kayak. I stuck to the dock and played the role of paparazzi. I took several great shots at one point, then put my glasses on and realized the person I was photographing was an elderly gentleman doing the backstroke. At least I got some that are really Brad...

There he goes...

Here he comes...and there are the girls in the paddle boat trying to chase him...

Blurry picture because he came at me a bit faster than I was prepared for...

Brenna, Samantha, and a backwards Beth...

Tyler and Alex thinking they could catch him (they did in the kayak, but too far away for a picture!)...

On another "note" (so corny...), Alex played in a "Jazz Night" concert last night. Just a couple more concerts this year...hard to believe!

While Alex was there early warming up, I ran to the store for a couple items. While waiting in line in the "express lane", which never is, I noticed a lady in the lane next to me. She was next in line, but had obviously been there for some time. She had a stack of 10 large Ghiradelli dark chocolate bars, her entire purchase. I instantly liked her for that. She was taking several deep breaths, in through her nose, out through her tightly pursed lips. I offered to let her go ahead of me in my line, since she was clearly in a hurry. She thanked me profusely and stepped in front of me. I told her I really admired her grocery buying strategy, and asked if there was a story behind all that chocolate. And she told me.

Apparently she plays gongs. She arranges these various sized metal disks and plays for groups of people. The intention is to take them to another dimension. Now, I had noticed that she was dressed a bit eccentric for my taste, but that's nothing unusual around here. She had a large, colorful tattoo covering her bony yet amply displayed chest. It was some sort of large bird, but I didn't want to stare to get the details. Anyway, my eyes were easily distracted by the lion's mane of free-style hair surrounding her head. Get the picture? So, how does the chocolate play into this? She said, "the chocolate is how we bring them back." I, in my naive way said, "Oh, so they come back for another performance to get the chocolate snack?"

"Oh, no, dear. They come back from the other dimension to have the chocolate. If they didn't have chocolate at the end we would leave them floating around in the cosmos somewhere."

I kid you not. I had so many questions for her. Instead, I told her, "Wow. And all this time I've been eating chocolate to escape reality for a bit!"

I came off as extremely friendly to her, because I couldn't stop the big goofy smile on my face. I was one breath short of laughing straight out. And I didn't dare make eye-contact with Brenna, because I'm sure her face would have done me in. I totally would have taken her picture if I had my camera. The whole time, I was thinking that this was either a really great Seinfeld episode or a really great blog post.

When we finally walked away, Brenna said, "Well that was sure a nice lady." And she's right. Very nice lady. Just a bit misguided in regards to reality. So she took her $29 and some odd cents of chocolate and went scurrying off to her event. I took my Pepcid, vitamin E, and M&M cookie for Alex and just went to a simple jazz concert. I think I had the better deal.