The One in which I Beg my Father for Plane Tickets at 10:00 at Night...
Fine Art Friday #28
FINE ART FRIDAY
Hey friend!
Welcome to Courtney in St. Louis, part II! If you missed it, the time I went to St. Louis and everything spectacularly imploded seemed like the right thing to do.
If you need a refresher, when we last left off, I suddenly found myself freshly penniless, phoneless, and stuck at the ballpark in St. Louis with only the clothes on my back to my name* and our friends had left us high and dry – and we had absolutely no idea where they went.
(*Less dramatic recap: You can re-read part 1 here, but the TL:DR is that I left my purse in our seats with our friends to go to the restroom, my then-boyfriend now-husband escorted me, and when we got back our friends were gone. And then, to add insult to injury, they took my purse which contained my phone and both our wallets. But lucky for us, my now-husband's phone had 10% battery and we were at the bottom of the sixth inning, so it was almost over right?)
After my own *where are the turtles* moment…
We walked I kid you not 3 times around the whole ballpark – and if you've ever been to a ballpark, you know that there was absolutely no hope of us seeing our friends unless we got lucky.
The odds were not in our favor.
By this time, we're in the 8th or 9th inning, so we think, Hmm… maybe they went back to the car and are waiting for us! That makes total sense. They wouldn't just take my purse unless they were leaving! Surely they would've waited for us, but since they didn't, we've got to go check the car!
An entire conversation ensued that I don't really remember anymore, but the ^^ above is the gist.
Pulling up our metaphorical bootstraps and what was left of my dignity, we walked the mile and a half (may have been more, may have been less, it felt like an eternity) to the car.
As we're approaching, we're both not so casually looking around, to each other, for the car, around again. We've got to see someone right?
Nope, nada, zilch.
I suggest that maybe they've gone inside because they're hungry! It is dinnertime, after all. So now-husband and I venture on searching for these elusive friends that had my purse, my phone and all of our combined money.
By this time, my now-husband realizes something is seriously wrong and decides to make a call to his dad – on about 5% battery now since ROAMING was still very much a thing in 2010.
DAD – they all left us. They took Courtney's purse with all our money in it, and I have 5% battery. What the HECK do we do?
(chatter I couldn't hear)
Okay okay – we'll stay here at Union Station where the car is parked. Can you try to call them?
(chatter chatter)
Cool pops. Thanks – can you call Courtney's parents and let them know? She doesn't have a phone.
(chatter)
Great, thanks dad.
^^Me wondering what the heck we were going to do while we WAITED FOR THEM!?
Well, we had pseudo-plan. It was very cut and dry, and not at all what I wanted.
Wait.
It was going really well examining how that plan was going to play out in my head. *exudes sarcasm*
Marbles were lost. And luckily now-husband was there to pick up the proverbial pieces because my exhausted and exasperated where are the turtles moment came back in full force.
Once I had finally calmed a bit, we walked around Union Station admiring the smells of the food court.
Then, it happened. Chase's phone officially died. Our literal one resource into the outside world was gone.
Let's remember this too – this is before Venmo, before PayPal, Facebook was still new, Instagram wasn't even a thing yet – and people are weird about it when you ask to use their phone. I’ve always had phone numbers memorized — growing up with only a landline, that’s how I called my friends, my grandmothers, my parents if they weren’t at home. BUT let me just say that after THIS^^ for YEARS I had memorized my credit card number. Because stuff happens.
And if you've been following along with this day, WHO DOES THIS SURPRISE?
Now – it's been nearly an hour and our friends were nowhere to be found.
The food court had closed, we were starving, and we finally found a bar and I mustered up every ounce of charm (and sadness) that I possibly could to ask the bartender, “Could we please, pretty please, use your phone, and sit at your bar and have some water. We have no money, our friends took my purse – God knows why – and left us, his phone died and we have absolutely no way to get in contact with anyone."
Miraculously, he says yes, and I make my first phone call to my dad. It went something like this:
Me: Daddy.
(I’m southern, so yes I was 19 and am now 34 and still say daddy.)
Me: Daddy. We need plane tickets now.
Dad: Honey, it's 10:00 at night.
Me: But we need it now. *relays entire sob story to my dad who had already heard if from my now-husband's father, but he listened like it was the first time*
Dad: I'll look up tickets, but here's the thing – you don't have an ID if you don't have your wallet. How will you and Chase get on the plane? You'll still have to wait for your friends to get back, and you'll have to call a cab to the airport (2010, remember?).
Fair points.
We hung up knowing he would get in touch with Chase's dad and make a game plan. Chase was to call in about 30 minutes.
SO here we are, 10:00 at night, watching a baseball game that was supposed to have ended hours ago, and it goes into a 26th inning. I think the announcer said the most innings in history.
I wish I was kidding.
Drowning my tears in the ice water graciously given to us by the bartender as we awaited our fate, we finally got word that Chase's dad had gotten in touch with someone from our group, and they were headed back to the car.
With literally now nothing to our name, we went to the car and waited.
And waited.
And waited.
And finally they showed up and acted like nothing had happened.
It wasn't an accident. Come to find out, nobody listened when I said I needed to go to the bathroom, so rather than wait a few extra minutes, even though I’d left my purse there with my phone and wallet, said “I’m going to the bathroom” and both of those things should signal they’re coming back to these exact spots, the entire crew just up and left.
Anyway – we realized something that day.
There is always something to be joyful about.
I wish this trip had ended on a better note, but the most fruitful part of the trip was when we got home and it was finally over.
We were so thankful that we were no longer stuck in St. Louis. And when we were stuck there? At least Chase and I had been together. Thank God that Chase was there and for his chill because I had no chill left in me.
As my dad always says, what happens in the morning in the East? The sun comes up.
And you know something crazy?
…it even happens on the days I don't believe it's going to.
We all have hard seasons, hard days, hard trips (cough cough^^). A painting is a reminder that the good is already/still/will always be there, it just may take a moment to see it.
I know, GROUNDBREAKING, right?! I feel like a greeting card saying that, but it’s true.
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in case you missed it..
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