The scene: Pasadena, California. Specifically the Rose Bowl and a golf course.
The date: July 4, 2010.
The time: 10:00, 10:30, 11:00, 11:30, and change.
The quest: Finding the car.
The players: Chris. Me. A duck.
The complications: Chris. Me. A duck. A pair of sunglasses. Darkness. A kid with a vuvuzela, hooting forlornly in the distance.
The soundtrack: “Wanna Be Starting Something,” by Michael Jackson. “Too high to get over. Yeah yeah. To low to get under. Yeah yeah. Stuck in the middle. Yeah yeah. Where’s the damn car? Yeah yeah.” A kid with a vuvuzela, hooting forlornly in the distance.
The menu: Bacon-wrapped hot dogs. Admittedly, neither of us had one, but it was on the menu!
Distance covered: Something between 1 and 1 googolplex miles. Leaning toward the latter.
So, we went to a combination Drum & Bugle Corp show and fireworks. As we walked to the stadium, we passed a fence, a duck, and a drinking fountain. Saw the bands and the fireworks spectacular, and it really was pretty damned spectacular, then we left the stadium and walked to the car. It sounds rather boring until I mention that I have no sense of direction, Chris was accidentally wearing prescription sunglasses, we didn’t know where the car was, and “walking to it” involved more detours than a cross-country road trip during the height of construction season.
At one point, we walked all the way around the Rose Bowl itself. Not on purpose. How, you may ask, can one inadvertently walk all the way around the Rose Bowl? It’s easy! Let Julie navigate!
“Ooh, there’s a fence!” Indeed, there were many fences. “Ooh, there’s a fence over there!” Indeed. “I don’t see a drinking fountain.” This while I was standing right beside the drinking fountain.
Eventually a man on a golf cart took pity on us and pointed us in the direction of the drinking fountain. Fortunately, I recognized the drinking fountain the third time we passed it. Otherwise, we’d still be in Pasadena.
Next time, the duck stays with me. “Find the water, boy. Find the water!”
I think you can learn a lot about people in circumstances like losing a car in a golf course at the Rose Bowl. Chris was a little stressed, but still patient and taking it all in good spirits. Damn, that man is easy to love.
Stressed? Stressed??? What was there to have been stressed about? Just because lights may have been turned out and two people would have been left stranded on a dark golf course, without even a bacon-wrapped hot dog to soothe them in the wee hours of the night, praying to be awakened by early morning water sprinklers instead of the faint cry of “fore!” in the distance — why, that’s no reason at all to be stressed.
You should’a had the bacon wrapped hot dog. It would have helped. Think about it–everyone else had the hot dogs and did you see them looking for their cars? Nooo.
I love the kid with the forlorn vuvuzela.
Stay tuned for the next thrilling episode of “Places Where Julie Gets Lost” in which Julie attempts the impossible: getting lost on a putt-putt golf course, accompanied by a kazoo choir performing “Do You Know the Way . . . ?” (Grilled cheese sandwiches will be harmed during the making of this episode.)
Hedge,
You do know that now I will have to find and kill you, right? Damn you and your Bacharachean earworm! DAAAAMN YOUOUOUOU!
To right the wrong (and speaking of vuvuzelas):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8JGhoVybkM
we do learn more and bond more with each other when cars are lost and ducks refuse to stay put and we forget our headlamps in the trunk of our lost cars.
enjoyed this, julie. also related to the fear-confronting posts in this blog.
best,
sherry