As with everything I do, it started with a brilliant plan.
Or, at least I thought it was brilliant. Nena, of course, had another word to describe it: insane. But, after some serious discussion and a few quite shitty and underhanded guilt trips on my part, she began to see things my way.
We were going to reunion.
The plan involved Nena flying in and out of O'Hare rather than MSP and riding up to reunion in 'Turo- replicating the run I made countless times in four years. I fought so hard because Nena's name is the most important name missing on a list of luminaries that have made this run with me. People like JLo, Faisal, Al, EJ, MegTron 4000, Alphasarah, M, Minervacat, Underdog, Corey, Freesmak...Seriously, the fact that Nena's name isn't on a list of participants in the Kessel Run is criminal. OK, so it isn't quite criminal, but these sorts of memories and experiences matter to me a great deal more than I think people realize. In the end, Nena realized it enough to go along with my stupid plan.
The biggest issue with the plan was timing her flights into and out of O'Hare. Since she had to ask for two days off before she's officially eligible for vacation or sick days she (understandably) didn't want to extend it any more by taking a half (or whole) day on Wednesday or Monday to make the flying in and out of O'Hare thing easier. So, we were left with a flight that got in at 12:30a on Thursday morning and another that left at 5:20p on Sunday evening. It wasn't an airtight window, but it didn't leave a whole lot of room for error.
In bed by 2:30a and up by 8a, our bodies fueled by an amazing late night Steak and Shake run- have I mentioned that the SnS at Randall and 20 in Elgin is the cleanest freakin' SnS on the PLANET? No joke, it's amazing. You could EAT off the PLATES! Which, yknow, is really saying something for SnS. Anyway, we were up five and half hours after going to sleep because my dad was looming in my doorway. "Hey, can you give me a ride to the dealer?"
A few days earlier, his '04 Murano had started stalling out at stop lights so he decided to take it into the dealer. The problem was, that on the way to the dealer, right in the middle of rush hour, the car started stalling out much more frequently than it had been before. After wrestling it onto the median, it died out completely. A free tow to the dealer later, courtesy of Triple A- The Automotive Game- the car'd been diagnosed as having a dead tranny. No, not that kind, the other kind. Thankfully, the whole thing was still under warranty so the whole ordeal was going to come up to a grand total of free.
After dropping Papo off at the dealer Nena started talking about how sad it was that she wasn't going to get to see my mom thanks to the strictness of the schedule we had to keep in order to make everything work. Deciding that it was less important to meet Al at Sayles at 3p than it was to see my mom before we left we threw the schedule out the window and went to see my mom at work.
Nena'd never seen my mother's elementary school, though she's heard countless tales of the emotionally unstable prinicpal, the secretary who doesn't shower and the social worker that wouldn't be able to leave his office if my mother weren't there to help him find his way out. But, since Nena's visits to Chicago are normally on weekends she'd never actually seen the place. By the time we got to the school the front desk ladies had found some excuse to shut down the front office so we let ourselves into the school and waltzed right to my mother's office door.
My mom gave us the full tour, complete with the dirt on the teachers whose empty classrooms we passed. I didn't really pay much attention to her, as I hear these stories on a semi-daily basis. Instead I was thinking about how nice it was to see my mom at work. I mean, I know she has this job, and I know she's good at it. But, I forget how powerful she is when she's walking the hallways of her school. People that pass by stop and talk to us, giving my mother this look of respect and admiration that's amazing to see. I just know her as mom, a woman who sometimes has trouble turning on the computer. But here, she's someone else; someone I'm amazingly proud of.
The pride I felt for my mom was punctuated by my picking up on the Elementary School Smell that permeated the air. Whenever that happened I found my concentration broken and my eyes darting around to take in whatever was around. Normally, all I found of interest was the carpet, flooring that can best be described as fuzzy linoleum.
As we left my mom said that she was surprised we didn't go out to breakfast with my dad...which gave us an idea.
It was 11:15a when we pulled up to the Chinese place in my parents new neighborhood. Nena, Papo and I love Chinese food, and mom is allergic to MSG so this represented Papo's best chance to try the place out...only they opened at 11:30. To kill the time, we hit the Caribou down the strip mall and got our caffeine fix for the day. Papo waking us up ahead of schedule and the detour to see my mom had gotten us wickedly off schedule and deprived us of the caffeine we were going to need to make this day happen. After fixing the situation we set ourselves even more behind by having a great lunch with my father.
After lunch we hit the shower and loaded up the car. We were four and a half hours behind schedule at this point. It was 1:30p, which put our NFLD ETA at 7:30p. We called Al to break the news to her as 'Turo barreled down I-90.
The traffic on I-90 wasn't too bad, though I really hope Blagojevich wins reelection so that all the amazingly shitty construction related to his pipe dream of Open Road Tolling is worth it for someone. Seriously, has there ever been a less thinly veiled reelection plot in Illinois political history? It's almost as bad as Billy's GRIP down in New Mexico. Though, every GRIP project I've seen has been AMAZING. The Little I in the Q? Freakin' genius.
As we drove down the interstate, we started to notice that the A/C was getting less and less frigid, and by the time we hit Belvedere, 40 miles out from our point of origin, just near an hour into the trip, 'Turo's A/C died.
Rather than spend the entire weekend without A/C, we decided to turn around and swap out 'Turo for AJ. This was going to make us two hours later and see us miss the welcome dinner up in NFLD, but, well...it had to be done.
After getting home and switching into AJ, (Arturo Junior) we were on the road by 3:30p.
As we drove towards Minnesota Nena and I had a long and overdue talk on 'Turo's future.
I know I've said this before, but this time, it's for real- 'Turo and I are going our separate ways. This is one of the harder decisions I've ever made, truth be told. It doesn't even compare to deciding to marry Nena, that was one of the easier ones, right up there with deciding to go to IMSA or Carleton. And though I'm sure it seems ridiculous to most folks, I really feel that by selling 'Turo I'm turning my back on one of my best friends. But it's time. 'Turo is officially for sale.
'Turo was my first car. Yeah, there was Baby before him, but that was really a loaner from my parents. 'Turo was totally mine in every way. I really don't know who shaped the other more, and while I know it's silly to feel this attached to a car- the attachment I feel to him is just part of the magical realist world that I exist in. He's more than just a car to me, he's a living, breathing member of the family that can never be replaced.
If I had the space to keep him someplace and drive him on special occasions, I would. But I don't have that kind of room, nor do I have that kind of money. So, I really have no choice but to part ways with him. I'm just tired of waiting for the other shoe to drop. Yknow?
Kinda sad that the deal breaker between us was his A/C. Especially since his mechanic (whom I trust implicitly) gave him a totally clean bill of health at his checkup three weeks ago. OK, not totally clean. He did tell me that the A/C wasn't going to make it through the month of June.
Right, so 'Turo's for sale. His KBB value is $1600 so that's what I'm asking. I've already had two serious inquiries from friends looking to take care of my buddy for me, which is good. If one of y'all wants him, drop me a line and we can talk about it. I'd rather have him stay in the family before I Craigslist him. Because I'll only get $500 for a trade-in and he'll more than likely be sold for parts...which just isn't what he deserves, yknow?
OK, enough about that. More reunion tomorrow. Maybe we'll actually get there.
