Ardith and Ma Paint Cedar Rapids Red (part 1)

(long overdue...)

When Ardith was offered a job with Rockwell-Collins and moved to Cedar Rapids, her father and I were more than a little pleased. Oh sure, it meant validation of all that time and money she'd spent at college, the income would be great and there'd be one less mouth to feed at our house. But the primary reason for joy was the close proximity.

Which means, poor culturally-deprived Ma would have a great excuse to buzz on down for concerts and galas of a cosmopolitan nature. I'd get away from the corn fields, anyway. Yes, the kid was done with school, and as far as I was concerned, it was payback time.

The first of what I am sure will be MANY opportunities came just last month, on December 11.

Ardith invited me down for the Cedar Rapids Symphony's Christmas Concert. The only possible difficulty was the Sunday afternoon scheduling. Would that be a problem? I thought to myself about the logistics.....let's see, Loren would have to be in charge of all the kids at church after I left early.....I would miss the morning sermon.....hmm....this was looking better all the time! (I'm kidding, Pastor John :-)

I gave it a whole two seconds contemplation and replied, "I'll GO!" (pending husband's approval) It was not until later that I realized stopping for lunch at Arby's would be a necessity.

Obviously, it was one of those cosmic moments when the whole universe comes into alignment.

Those were the initiating forces that propelled me to Waterloo and into the very presence of.......a television celebrity. *gasp* For within the walls of Arby's, waiting in line like a common sort of dude, was none other than......Jeff Kennedy, my favorite weather guy from Channel 7!

Yes, it was true! Right there. At least, I thought it was him. Playing it very cool, I carried my take-out order and headed for the door...and then thought, "Wait a minute....when am I ever going to have this chance again?" I turned right around and headed back and said, "Excuse me, are you.....Jeff....weather guy for 7?"

He looked up with an incredulous expression, "Yes?"

"I just wanted to thank you for all your hard work. We appreciate so much, everything you do."

"Well, that's what they pay us for."

During this time his wife was looking on with a rather bemused smile. Probably she was all too familiar with gushy old ladies coming up to fawn all over her husband.

He was very nice, but I felt it was HIGH time to leave while I still possessed some remnant of dignity. I skedaddled, leaving their party of three greatly relieved, no doubt. Who knows, maybe they thought I was a psycho, or something.

(I may yet email him my sundog picture and ask if he remembers that weird lady in Arby's.....)

Still afloat in my Hollywood euphoria, I continued with my drive. The highway to Cedar Rapids afforded several photo opportunities along the way, but I exercised superhuman self-control and drove without stopping.

Soon after reaching her apartment, Ardith and I proceeded to the concert in her forest green Jetta.

I had never ridden in the famed Jetta and immediately took note of several glaring omissions as compared to vehicles of which I was accustomed. First of all, it didn't have stereo speakers duct-taped to the front dash. Apparently, some of the newer model cars come equipped with decent speakers installed. Go figure.

Also, the inside was pretty clean. No empty Diet Cherry Coke cans rolling about the floor, and no little foil wrappers from Dove's Dark Chocolates laying about, in various twisted, rolled, and incredibly complex geometric designs. (which, I'm pretty sure denotes genius) One more thing that was missing......big band music on the radio. In fact, there was no music at all so I figure I've got her beat on that score.

At my age, one takes pleasure in whatever inane victories one can.

(part 2....the concert)

Tweet