A Bald-Headed Fellas & A Fairy Princess

Monday, September 12, 2005

The weekend had passed quickly as usual, and in a fun manner. Six Flags had been first on the list for Saturday morning. And all but Carrie (who was at work) attended the theme park for five hours with Dad’s company – Technology Partners. There was even a lunch of fried chicken, potato salad, and baked beans. Ice cold sodas and lemonades accompanied the luncheon as well as frozen root beer floats.

While there, Collette’s stomach began to curdle, (just having exited the Screaming Eagle), as Mom and Dad discussed things with old friends from their first church, Immanuel Lutheran. It was the Angle-D’s – Jeff Angle-D (who also worked through Technology Partners) and his four children and his mother, Mrs. Angle-D, who lived in Minnesota with Mr. Angle-D (one of the friendliest guys around, and the sort of guy who, as Dad said, “would talk to a lamp post”, he was such a social guy). They also went to John Piper’s church which was rather exciting.

And back about eight years earlier, both Collette and Carrie had nearly been in Jeff’s wedding. Mom had dressed them both in flower-print dresses with lace hems (Easter dresses) and their hair was curled just perfectly. However, as they were entering the church to be seated, the flower girls had still not shown up by the time it was almost their turn to walk down the aisle. And so the wedding coordinator happened to see Collette and Carrie standing there in the atrium. Deciding they would be perfect substitutes, she plunked two flowered wreaths on their heads, handed them flower baskets, and they were almost taking their first steps down the aisle when the real flower girls showed up and the wreaths were pulled off and set on the rightful owner’s heads. Collette and Carrie were much relieved. It was a most interesting experience.

So Six Flags consisted of the usual – Mine Train to begin for everyone, then Mom, Joe, Rose, and Francis on the swings, everyone but Mom and Linnea on the Screaming Eagle, lunch, everyone but Mom and Linnea on the Log Flume, everyone on the Scooby-Do laser ride (where Mom brought in the highest score)… When asked what score Dad got on the ride, he replied:

“I didn’t shoot anything. I was there to relax.”

Then there was The Boss for everyone but Mom and Linnea. Dad advised Collette to clench her stomach muscles as pilots did to avoid feeling the pull of the g’s. It worked rather well as they careened through the wildest roller-coaster of the park. As the ride lurched to a close over the last ride, Dad said:

“Wow. That was the most g’s I’ve ever pulled on a ride.”

Oddly enough, Dad was handling the rides better than he had nine years earlier on Collette’s first trip to Six Flags with the Lord-Welches family. And now Collette had to close her eyes on nearly every roller-coaster.

“Let’s check out our picture,” Francis said, on the walk back down from The Boss.

“Well, you probably won’t see anything,” Dad said. “I took off my hat for the picture.”

“Yes, all you’ll see is everyone saying, ‘My eyes!’” Francis laughed.

A family joke…

But then there was Thunder River for everyone but Dad and Francis, for whom the ride wasn’t quite exciting enough. Joe and Rose were thoroughly drenched, being on the side of the waves. And to end the afternoon there was the Batman for OLeif, Rose, Collette, and Francis, which was also quite a thrill.

On the way home, everyone was treated to soda and slushy combinations at QuikTrip.

It was not much later upon arrival at the house, that OLeif, Collette, Joe, and Rose shipped out to the Saint Charles Coffee House for the evening, where Joseph was already working.

Shakespeare soon arrived shortly later with Evrain in the Orange’s mini-van. Molly came later. And Wally was already there with Joe, as he was spending the night.

Over the next three hours or so, the eccentric and creative Shakespeare presented his story plot, sketches, ideas, etc… to Molly, who was to be his fairy princess in his new comic strip. There sat the little bald man with the voice from the basement on the couch by OLeif, who was there for advice, as he most enthusiastically related all the information he could think of.

Evrain, Joe, and Wally would also hang around the couches from time to time, taking notes, adding comments, or plotting revenge on a former choir kid, (in the form of teepee).

And of course there were drinks, served by the blue-eyed Joseph who came over from time to time before it became crowded to talk with the boys or to rub his brother’s bald head. He also came over to Shakespeare and grabbed his wrists to look at them and related his recent serious dream of Shakespeare getting two tattoos of “something stupid” on his wrists in white ink, and how they looked “just a little gay”. He also spoke of how he might eventually get an “I love Mom” tattoo on his back. There were always new possibilities of new ways to change one’s body. Carrie had just received her sixth piercing, (in her left earlobe), as well.

And so as the music began to play for the evening, they gathered with drinks around the tables on the patio and talked of bunnies and green things and fairies. While they discussed the process of the comic strip, Rose told Collette of her new interest in collecting Egyptian jewelry:

“I think I’ll get some scarabs, and maybe my name in hieroglyphs in silver, some Egyptian heads… Hey, would you like to go frolic on the big mud hill?” She asked in a refined accent and nodded her head toward the great mound of dirt and weeds, down the stairs past the Cinderella lanterns, behind the coffee shop.

And so Rose ran up the incline and looked around for a few moments before running back down and up the stairs again. And Joe biked up and down the sidewalk until he and Wally took a trip over to Walgreens to buy a pack of gum for Evrain and Rose and check on the price of toilet paper. It was, needless to say, a rather eccentric and amusing evening.