A Day at the Zoo With my Family

 Hey everyone. About a month ago my mom had the idea to go to the zoo with my grandma as a family outing. Since it's been years since I've been to the zoo, I jumped at the idea, taking a day off and ready to have some fun. It's been years since I REALLY went to the zoo, having been to the wild lights many time in recent years (like here, here, and here), but all the animals were asleep except for the reptiles. This will also be one of the last times I'm able to do stuff with my family before I'm married (because I'm getting married at the end of the year, I even had a bachelor party). Before the zoo I went out to breakfast with my mom to her and Dad's favorite breakfast place. Mom had an omelet and I had bacon and eggs. After breakfast we went to pick up my grandma, and that was a bit of a story. She and my parents have these friendship lights that both change color when one of them touch them, connected via the internet, and hers was having a problem. Mom thought it would take a while to fix it, but I fixed it in minutes (just the old IT trick of turning it off and turning it back on again). We loaded her up and went to the zoo.

When we pulled up to the front gate and unloaded my grandma and myself so she could walk slowly up to the front while Mom parked. Since stupid COVID is still stupid, the zoo is running with limited capacity and everyone has to wear masks. We got in through the front gate and got the rental wheelchair for my grandma. Since my mom was still recovering from her broken wrist it was my job to push her all day. It's OK, it's not like I wasn't going to be the one to push her anyways. It was no problem, I got my exercise that way. After getting all set with the wheel chair we ended up getting our picture taken for a souvenir picture. It was fun.

Our first stop was the first exhibit in the zoo, the butterfly house and bird aviary. Well, it would be the butterfly house, but because of stupid covid we were only able to go to the birds. It might have been for the best, considering my grandpa used to volunteer at the butterfly house and we lost him earlier this year. It was kind of interesting, since I knew the butterfly house and aviary so well as a child and the 2nd entrances that we never used because it was always the main entrance, a bit of a childhood dream of "going the other way" was being realized. The birds were fun, and it was nice and warm in the building. Unfortunately because of covid we weren't able to use the spinning plastic things that tell you what each of the birds are, but they had these little yard sign things to say instead. I don't know if the exhibit changed much in the 10 years since I was last at the zoo, but the environment sure didn't. I remembered all the different terrain and seating locations, but the little inclines were REALLY noticeable when pushing a wheel chair. At the end we stopped at the one place where we could still sit, and I took a picture with my grandma. I had to retake it because my jacket has the reflective stripes and the flash made everything black except for the bright reflective stripes.

After the aviary we went to the otter exhibit. Unfortunately the otters were inside their indoor house and we weren't able to see them. Oh well. We went to Amphibavile after the otters, it's where they have all the amphibians (frogs, toads, salamanders, etc.). Because of covid and the Midwest fall temperatures they closed off the brass frogs that squirt water. Oh well. It was fun looking for all the different amphibians, and seeing how they camouflage themselves in their habitats. Back when I was younger there was this educational video that would loop in a theater, and there were blocks that were meant for seats that you could move everywhere. In the 15+ years since I was there, and likely due to covid they had to close that off. Oh well, I basically memorized the video. My other favorite part of amphibavile was the giant terrarium walking path thing where you could see the frogs up close and personal, and I could see my favorite frog in all it's colors, the poison dart frog. I love how it has these bright colors, and unlike all the other animals that take these very Earthy tones to blend in with the environment, the poison dart frog is all "I'm bright blue, or red, or yellow, don't mess with me because even touching me will make you sick." Yeah, maybe it was a bit of a liability having them jump freely around guests, but I remember a zoo keeper telling me they change their diets so they don't secrete the poison. They also had a free roaming sloth in the walking area, which I guess also wasn't the smartest thing since sloths are kind of dangerous with their giant teeth and claws, and that they sometimes fall from the tree because they grab onto their own arm thinking it's a tree branch and let go. I was still able to see the poison dart frogs, even if it was behind glass. They replaced the walking path with an enclosure for the giant salamanders, which when I saw how big they are and where they were living before, I definitely understand why they had to move them. They were basically living in a tube; it'd be fine for your average sized amphibian with plenty of room to move around, but not for these big guys. I guess it's a worthy trade off for the giant salamanders to be happier.

After the amphibians we took the wetlands path over the central pond. This was something that was kind of new to me since it used to be just a giant pond without the dock path. I remember it being under construction, and being there when I went back in highschool, but it wasn't something I really did before. My mom kept asking me why I kept taking such a weird steering path while walking the dock, and it was because I was avoiding running over goose poop. It's not like I really cared about the rental chair (it's a zoo, they're used to animal poop), but my legs kept running into the wheels and I didn't want to get goose poop on my pants. We tried to see the beavers after the amphibians, but they too were inside. Luckily they had a video feed of their inside house, so we were able to at least see them sleeping.

After the bust with the beavers we went to the reptile house. Since the reptiles don't really "go to sleep at night" like all the other animals, I would see them at the wild lights. It was fun seeing them with my mom though, since she likes reptiles unlike mskate, and my grandma is ok with them (not scared or dislike, but not really like either). We had a lot of fun looking at all the snakes and lizards. What was really fun was seeing a massasauga, the only snake we ever had to worry about when camping in boy scouts. Sure, it wouldn't be fun being bit by a garter snake or the others we could find when camping, but it would just require some basic first aid (like the times it happened). Massasauga on the other hand, well that's an ER visit and thankfully never happened. We were able to find most of the snakes, and enjoyed seeing the alligators, crocodiles, and turtles. Speaking of turtles and scouts, there was this time where some boys in my troop had the bright idea of catching a snapping turtle at summer camp. Those guys are nothing to mess with, they'll bite a finger clean off, but they somehow managed to bring it from one side of the lake all the way back to main camp. Fun times.

After the reptiles we saw the camels, but most importantly the fountain. Rackham Fountain is an icon of the zoo, and we got our picture with it. We also reminisced about the fun times when we were little going to the fountain. Right by the fountain there used to be "the dinosaur experience," which had a bunch of animatronic dinosaurs on a walking path. It was really cool, but they got rid of it around 2000 from what I remember. The joke was always "why don't they have real dinosaurs, what a rip." After the fountain we went to the red panda exhibit (who was off on maternity leave) and the tigers. The tigers were rescued from private zoos, and that's when I gave my mom a little crash course that "yes, there are crazy rich people that say 'I want to have a tiger' and they are basically in their backyards." I know this because I watched Tiger King.

Now for the really fun thing, the great apes; chimps and gorillas. We got to see a gorilla hanging out on the tree toy, and then climb down. It was really fun seeing them active. My grandma kept asking "how much do you think they weigh" about all the big animals, but this time I had an answer for her about gorillas, because I remember them weighting around 300-400 pounds. She was quite impressed with them. But what was REALLY fun was seeing the baby and child chimps with their foster mom. I asked the zoo keeper how the foster mom was decided and apparently the birth mom got hurt around child birth time so the humans had to care for the really infant chimp (nursing and such), but they always would show the baby to the adult chimps behind the fence so they could see if maybe the baby would be able to find a foster mom. The oldest and most respected female chimp really seemed to take an interest in the baby, and when it was time to introduce the baby to the family she scooped him right up and said "you are mine now." Their big worry about human nursed chimps is that they would associate more with the humans and wouldn't go into being a chimp, but this little guy took right to being a chimp and doesn't show any signs of wanting to be a human, and being brought in by the oldest and most respected female meant he was accepted by the rest of the chimp family.

Now while it's always fun to see cute baby animals, baby apes are especially fun to watch, because their mannerisms are almost exactly like baby humans as is the parent mannerisms (at least these were). The baby chimp was holding onto the foster mom while she was going to a different side, while the child chimp was following close behind. The foster mom found a nice place to sit and was just like "OK, you two just play nicely while mama takes a break. The baby chimp got off and started curiously exploring his environment, while the child chimp was "come on, let's play," tackling him and climbing all over him, while the baby was pushing off and having fun as well. Then the child found a pile of hay and started picking it up and putting it on his head, and putting it on the baby. And then he decided to climb down the rope swing to do his own thing, and you could tell the baby wanted to follow but just wasn't strong and coordinated enough to play with the big kid. All the while mom is watching to make sure they don't do anything dumb, occasionally reaching an arm out to break it up. I swear, it was just like watching a parent with a toddler and a kindergartener. If you ever get the chance to watch baby chimps play together, it's great.

After the great apes we went to the flamingos and storks. My mom was making jokes about how the storks are a sign of what's to come (mskate and I are going to have a lot of babies). The peacocks were also hanging out at the flamingos. This was the first time we saw them, so I asked "oh, are they no longer free roaming?" My mom told me "oh no, they are definitely still free roaming, they just seem to be hanging out at this exhibit." They were, I saw plenty later (which I'll elaborate with a later story). We also saw lions (which also had a rescue story; it turns out a lot of animals have their rescue story posted), snow monkeys, and rhinoceroses. Chimps weren't the only apes with a child, we also saw a little snow monkey. He didn't have a child friend to play with, so he was playing with the adults. It was following who I guess it's mom, and trying to play on a branch and kind of falling off, while mom just kind of watched him make his own mistakes. He also started chasing after maybe dad until he got board and went back to mom. Again, just like human children. It's hilarious. The rhinos were where the elephants used to live, but they no longer have elephants (which is unfortunate since they were my favorite animal as a child).

Around this time is when we decided to have lunch. We went to the closed off quick service outside restaurant by the train stop and ate our meal there. Mom brought Jiff to go, crackers of the gram, salteen, and club variety, M&Ms, and a variety of goldfish crackers. Sure, not the "healthiest" of meals, but it was enough to keep us happy. My mom made peanut butter gram crackers for grandma, and then I made her eat some peanut butter "because you need to get some protein." She would always say that when I would make a "less than healthy" meal, so it's always fun to tell her the parenty things she would tell me as a child and teen. We reminisced about how much fun the train was, because it used to be free and since my brother was really into trains there would be times where we would just ride the train all day. Unfortunately it was closed because of covid, and stopped being free around the time he stopped being into trains, so it was just the memories.

After lunch we saw warthogs, zebras, and giraffes. My grandma was impressed by the length of their necks, pointing out how long it must take for food to reach their stomach. They had a giraffe encounter thing where guests can feed the gram crackers, but "because covid" is becoming a running thing, none of that. After the giraffes, we saw the red panda, and that was fun because the little guy was having lunch out of a cool whip container. It was great, we just happened to be walking by when it was feeding time. There was a family eating at the picnic tables by the red panda and a peacock was coming up to them. We looked at them and said "do you think we should tell them to be careful?" It's a reference to a story I'll tell later.

The next stop was the kangaroo exhibit. This is a really cool exhibit in that it's an open path and the kangaroos are free to walk around and over the path. You might think "but what about the safety of the animals," but from what I know kangaroos are incredibly strong and will be able to easily defend themselves against a human. Then there's "but what about the safety of the humans" and from what I know they aren't very curious animals that don't know their own strength (like a chimp or a tiger) and will generally leave humans alone. I'm not an expert, but from what I've seen on Animal Planet and based on the experience I had, "you don't bother them they won't bother you, and don't mess with them because they WILL lay you out." It was really cool, because some of them were rather close to us and I was able to get this great picture.

While there I told my family about the last time I was here and how one of the kangaroos had a joey in her pouch. I also did the "can you jump as far as a kangaroo" thing and made it about 6 feet.

After the kangaroos we went to the wolves, and it was fun reading about how wolves communicate, and that their body language and different vocal sounds are near identical to dogs. Like, exposing their belly is a sign of submission, and wimpers mean they're sad or scared, and I'm just like "yep, dogs still have a lot of wolf in them." After we got off the wolf path I realized we missed the grizzly bears and polar bears. I changed our direction to catch the exhibits we missed. The grizzly bears were also rescues, with their mom being killed when they were cubs and them getting saved from the harsh Alaskan winter that they wouldn't have survived without mom. My grandma didn't really know where we were going so I said "the Berenstine Bears," and again she asked how much it weighed.

Our next stop was the polar bears and arctic circle. Unfortunately the tunnel and buildings were closed (because of stupid covid), but we were still able to see the outside stuff. The biggest thing being the arctic foxes. They were REALLY cute; little white foxes that looked like babies but were actually full grown. The one was happy to just lie there and sleep, and the other kept pacing back and forth looking at the people coming by. It was funny, you could see that he kept following the same path back and forth to the different viewing windows; the grass was all matted down and he would just follow that path. Really cute. We also got to see a seal, but no polar bears. Since part of the exhibit was closed off, we got to take the "alternate entrance and exit," once again answering my boyhood curiosity.

The arctic circle exit was pretty close to the bald eagles and wolverines, so that was our next stop. The wolverine was pretty active, and we wondered if it was Sparty or Buckeye (because many years ago the zoo got 2 wolverines and named them after the UofM rival school mascots since UofM are the wolverines). We don't know but what was really cool about the eagles is we got to see one issue it's "territory defense call." A wild hawk (one not part of the zoo) was circling above the exhibit and you could see the alpha eagle keeping an eye on it. When it got a little too close for comfort it let out a "get out of here" call and then left the area. We also saw retired thoroughbred race horses in the same area, and they told the story of the horses before coming to the zoo. One saw 47 races and the other only saw 4 or so before suffering a career ending injury. The farm animals with the barn was in the same area, but because of covid it was closed.

The next stop was the prairie dogs. These are my mom's favorite, she always enjoys seeing the prairie dogs, and they are cute especially when they're popping their heads out of their holes. A really cool thing with this exhibit that I'm sure many other zoos have is a little tunnel with domes for kids to crawl up in and pretend to be prairie dogs and getting an up close view. I used to REALLY love doing that, and even did it as a teenager because I still barely fit (and it's still OK for teenagers to do things like that, just kind of weird but not "creepy adult"). Naturally because it's a confined area that kids practically lick, and not very easy to clean since adults can't fit in the tube, it was closed due to covid. I do remember it smelling funny when I was a kid, probably because it's never cleaned.

After the prairie dogs were the bison. We actually had a personal story about bison that we were reminiscing about. When my grandparents and great aunt went on a grand canyon vacation they did a bison tour, and my great aunt got out of the car to get a close up picture. Naturally she shouldn't do that, because bison are aggressive and WILL trample you. Everyone was yelling "LADY, GET BACK IN THE [probably profanity] CAR!" It was fun reminiscing about that since my grandma can't really do trips anymore.

The next few stops weren't too eventful. We saw ant eaters, vultures, pelicans, and storks. We pointed out how big the nose was on the ant eater, remarked at how big the talons were on the vulture, and made baby jokes about the storks. By this time we were back at Rackham fountain and took another picture. I parked Mom and Grandma at the fountain so I could get Dipin Dots (the ice cream of the future). We thought the Coney Island would have the Dipin Dots, but they were closed. I went back and got the family and we went to another food stand that did have Dipin Dots. I got a small bowl of chocolate, and sat us at one of the tables around the stand. This is when a peacock came right up to us and was eyeing my ice cream. It was like 1 foot away from us, I could reach out and touch it if I wanted to, and I knew what he was after (and since male peacocks are bright colors while females are brown-gray, I knew this was a male). This isn't the first time I've dealt with a peacock wanting my food. When I was about 4 years old, I was eating a peanut butter sandwich while watching the elephants. As I was eating it, a peacock came up and took it out of my hand. I was crying, worried they were going to kick us out because "I fed the animals" (which is against the rules, punishable by removal from the zoo), and mom had to reassure me "I didn't 'feed' the peacock, he STOLE my sandwich." About 23 years later, a peacock was trying the same thing, only this time since I was a grown adult I was able to hold my food above it's head while shooing it away. It then went to investigate my mom and grandma to see if they had any food it could steal (which they didn't). I got these cool pictures though.

I also don't remember where I snapped this, but I also got a "peacock waiting to go into the store." It likely saw it's reflection and wanted to interact with the other peacock.

Peacocks are interesting birds. I guess since it was getting cold they weren't sounding their calls. On a spring/summer day you can normally hear "oawh-wah, oawh-wah," but it was surprisingly quiet.

That was pretty much the end of the day. We walked by the playground that they REALLY downsized. It used to be huge, with a "young children" structure and "older children" structure, and all these creative monkey bar type things, all geared to "how animals move." Granted, everything seems much bigger when you're a child and it was probably the size of a standard park, but it at least had 2 jungle gyms with "zoo inspired features," this was now just a simple jungle gym with some animals painted on it. We returned the wheel chair and picked up the walker, packed up everyone, and went home. All and all it was a really fun day, we were there for about 6 hours. Even if covid put a big damper on some of the exhibits, the animals were generally pretty active. I know there have been times where we went and they were just sleeping and not doing much, but not this time. It was also a pretty great "end of an era" day trip since we used to go to the zoo all the time when I was little. This has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.

My Cousins Wedding Adventure

Hey everyone, it feels like it's been a while since I had a good old adventure with my family, probably because it's been a while since I had a good old adventure with my family. Well my cousin turtlegirl got married over the weekend and that means it's time for an adventure. The first of gen 3 to get married, and it's all the way down in Evansville. Those familiar with my adventures will know that we've been going down there for many years.

Everything started Friday morning. My dad and brother showed up at about 6:30AM and we transferred their stuff from their car to my car. It was a very fast process. I already had my stuff packed, and they didn't have a ton of stuff either. Since we were picking up mskate about halfway through the drive, I agreed to drive to her place and they would drive the other half. Aside from dad spilling his coffee within 1 mile of leaving my house, things were pretty uneventful that way, it was just like all the regular trips I make to see her except it went a little faster since I had company.

Now we pick-up mskate and things get fun. I brought my laptop and headphone splitter so we could watch movies on the way down, just like when my brother and I were kids watching VHS tapes on the car TV on road trips when we were little. Same splitter actually, which I spent probably 10 minutes looking for. Together we watched Christopher Robin and Wonder, and on my own I watched the first 2 episodes of Pokémon Orange Islands. Mskate isn't into Pokémon, and when she saw I brought it she was wondering why I brought it, but she didn't want to watch movies all the time so I took that as my opportunity to watch it, and I'm glad I did. We stopped for McDonalds for lunch, and I learned they're doing a Pokémon promotion. Mskate and I split a happy meal, and I got an additional McRib, because that's apparently in season. McDonalds doesn't advertise like they used to, which is annoying because then I don't know what the promotion is. This took us to Evansville.

We get to our hotel, and they don't have our room ready, so we're sitting in the lobby with all our stuff on the cart. My grandparents were already there, and other relatives started arriving as well. It was fun seeing everyone again as they show up. We were able to get my grandparents set-up, and then my grandpa was able to get in the pool. He used to love to swim, but isn't really able to anymore because of stiff joints and such. Well this pool had a handicap entry chair that loads people into the water. This was quite a scene, because this was apparently the first time the hotel ever used it and none of the staff knew what was needed. My aunt, brother, and I were all gathered around the chair trying to figure out how it worked, and we realized we needed some kind of pendant to control it. Well, we knew there was some kind of controls, but we couldn't figure them out. We went to the front desk and they brought out the controller, and I was able to figure out which port it plugged into. However, when I turned it on and set it to lower it wasn't moving very fast, so we figured the battery was dying. The hotel staff went to the back room to get the other battery pack, but that one was completely dead. My aunt thought that maybe it was missing the contacts or they were dirty, but after putting my hand on it I could feel it was trying but just didn't have a charge. The staff then went and got the other battery and we put it back on figuring it just moved slow for safety reasons. My grandpa was already in the water by now after my mom and brother helped him down the stairs. However, this was good for getting him out. Unfortunately the pool wasn't very friendly to him, having a very steep drop-off and a rather small shallow end. He was able to have some fun, but not nearly as much as he wanted to, and he was really looking forward to it.

Once we were able to check-in I set-up my bitcoin miner and enjoyed free hotel electricity; the returns on mining doesn't compensate for the cost of electricity, but when I don't pay for the electricity it's all profit. Mskate and I went grocery shopping because we weren't going to like the wedding dinner, so I brought my crock pot to make us something on Saturday. She also wanted to get an Indiana Starbucks Cup, and I wanted to go thrifting, so we went to the goodwill that was right by Starbucks, and then went to Walmart to get food. I unfortunately wasn't able to find any rare or mystery VHS tapes, and I already had the videogames or they weren't worth the price tag, but she was able to find her Indiana Starbucks cup. At Walmart I let her chose between meatballs and pot roast. She chose meat balls, and I was able to find a ground beef and pork blend which was really good. I also picked-up BBQ sauce, and she also found some snack food she can't get elsewhere. I checked the electronics to see if there were any amiibo or PS2 games I wanted, but they didn't have either so it was only groceries. After that my brother, dad, and I went to the liquor store to get some drinks. I didn't really have anything I was looking for, having brought stuff from home, but then I saw moonshine pickles and I said "I can't get that at home, I need to see what that's like."

Now it's time for the rehearsal dinner. It was at a fire house banquet hall thing. Apparently this is where turtlegirl and hubby (I'll need to find a screenname for him) went on some dates, so it's important to them. However, it was way out of the way and kind of in nowhere, so it was kind of hard for us. Anyway, mskate, dad, bro, and I head over and we were the first there. Now long time readers may remember I had pink hair at my aunt's wedding (link if you don't remember). It was a college fundraiser for breast cancer, and my family wasn't super thrilled. I wanted to do something similar for turtlegirl (that was the first thing I thought of when I heard about the engagement), but as a professional adult I can't dye my hair crazy colors anymore. So I did the next best thing, pink wig.

I walk into the hall with this on my head and the grooms aunt, or whoever was setting up, called the grooms mom saying there was a suspicious man here, thinking maybe a vagrant wandered in. Once my family started showing up she could tell I belonged, and most of my family got the joke. My uncle who married my aunt when I really died my hair pink didn't get it, and neither did turtlegirl's father, but all my aunts and cousins got it. Mskate kept trying to get me to take it off, because she doesn't like it when I get eccentric, but turtlegirl had to see it. When she saw it she just shook her head with "of course Pokematic would do that." After she saw I took it off. Dinner was alright, catered fast food Italian food, nothing super special. Near the end of the party the grooms mom said "I got a call about a suspicious man that wondered in." That was my first time meeting his family, so yeah, here's "crazy cousin Pokematic." Nothing really happened after that.

Now for the big day.  I started up the meatballs and let them cook for 4 hours in our hotel room. Since the ceremony was at 2PM, we gave a tour to dad and mskate. First we picked up pepperBC from her grandma/my great aunt, and her mom gave us a tour of the house. Because great aunt got her hair done but it wasn't sticking, some of my other aunts had to find hairspray. The tour was fun, hearing all the crazy stories they had from "trips to the darkness" and "the murder that took place before great aunt bought it." The hairspray was called "big sexy hair," so we joked about how she now had "big sexy hair." After great aunt's house we went to this hill that is like the highest point in Evansville where you can see the whole city. It was cool. After that we went to see great uncle's house, the same house that grandma, great aunt, and great uncle grew up in. He has a very interesting house, like a street light in his driveway and a fire hydrant next to his garage. I lead the tour on that, because I really like his house. There was a split where the men played in the garage and women toured the house. It was just a quick little stop.

After that little stop, I placed a take out order for an Evansville delicacy, brain sandwich. I also ordered chicken livers for my grandparents, because they like chicken livers and the Hilltop Inn has some of the best according to my grandparents, and Hilltop is one of the few places you can still get them. We dropped everyone off except for msake and dad, because they wanted to see the place. When mskate stepped out of the car she said it smelled bad/funny, I said "it smells like fry oil." She didn't want to see me eat the brain, but I took some video back at the hotel if you want to watch a mini food review.

Now for the big ceremony. We got dressed and my grandparents in the car. It's always a bit of an ordeal getting them anywhere. It was Mskate, bro, and I in the car, and I was driving. I missed our turn, and that was kind of crazy. We got in and found our seats after saying hello to the family. It was a good ceremony, and my mom was a Eucharistic minister. That's important because she distributed the wine, and it's the Eucharistic minister's job to drink the leftovers in their cup, and there were a lot of leftovers. After the ceremony my mom said she was feeling tipsy and needed some carbs, and was glad she wasn't driving. We had about an hour before the reception, so mskate and I had our meatballs at the hotel and we just hung out for a little while.

Now for the reception. We had some fun trying to find the place, and find a parking spot. It would be another hour or so before the festivities started, but that just meant time to visit with the family and get mskate a new lock screen photo (because the last one was from the last wedding we went to). Now it was time for the wedding party to enter. The ushers were first, and they tried to do a group act that ended with one guy face planting. I ran into them in the dinner line (because I wanted some salad and rolls) and his friends were trying to fix his bleeding nose. However, they were all drunk/buzzed and were struggling. I offered to help since I was pretty sober (half a glass of wine, I wasn't feeling anything), but they didn't want it. Oh well, later in the night I saw he had a nice X of bandages on his nose, so someone helped him. I had green beans and corn, as did mskate.

Now that dinner is over it was time for dancing. The bride and groom had their dances with their respective dad and mom, and then there was the dollar dance. I remember great aunt wanted a dance with her new nephew. I didn't participate because I knew I'd have my dances with them later in the nigh. In addition to the dancing they rented a photo booth, which is something mskate and I enjoy doing when we find them. We did it twice by ourselves, and once with grandma. Grandma was fun, because we didn't really know what we were going to do, and the last picture involved mskate sitting on my leg while I kissed her cheek, which was a lot harder than anticipated because I didn't realize how much taller she would be when sitting on my leg, and while this is happening grandma is trying to get out of the way while mskate is trying to pull her back into frame, and we only had 5 seconds to figure out what we wanted.

Dancing for the most part was pretty standard. We did some line dancing, and the ones I knew were really fun (like cupid shuffle and cha cha slide). I was trying to do the line dancing for cotton eye Joe, but it was a little to fast for me and I kept tripping on myself because I kept trying to catch up. Then there was the macarena; when that happened, I started yelling with excitement and ran onto the dance floor. I love the macarena, it was the first dance I learned as a little kid back in the late 90s. The slow dances were pretty fun too, mainly because I had a partner. Even when mskate was sitting them out I still had fun joining in on the group hug slow dancers (because for reasons I'll get to shortly, there were many guests that got creative with some of the dances). The fast dances were also great; I'm not very good, but I have fun. About halfway through the night I was able to have a dance with turtlegirl when she was on the dance floor and didn't have a lot of people around. I was right, I didn't need the dollar dance. All the families were allowed to request 1 song, and my grandparents requested a slow dance. The DJ made a note it was a special request by "great aunt and uncle," and we got them up and out on the dance floor. Unfortunately because they move so slow the song was about a third of the way done, so I had the DJ restart it. It was really sweet to see them hold each other and dance after 60 years together without their walkers; surrounded by their kids, grandkids, and other family making sure they don't fall and no one runs into them. After their dance they took their walkers back, and grandpa stayed on the dance floor for one more, dancing to a fast song with people. It was all really sweet.

Now for some shenanigans. My mom and I were basically the DD for "our immediate family." Since neither of us really drink a lot, that wasn't a big battle. However, the same can't be said for the rest of my family, and apparently the same for the rest of the wedding guests. The dance floor had a nice layer of dry beer on the floor, which felt really weird since this was in a school gym. When we did RockyTop (a dance where it's like "make a bridge, go under the bridge"), mskate got a little upset since someone spilled beer on her dress (she's not a drinker either so this was extra upsetting, but she didn't want to drive at night so she wouldn't DD even if I was a drinker). After my brother had a few and a slow dance came on he wanted to dance with me, which I said yes to because I wanted to have fun, but we basically spent the entire time trying to figure out who would lead. Some of the groomsmen and other male guests started up a chorus line with one of the songs, which I joined in on. There was a guy that was double fisting them on the dance floor that always seemed like he was lost. Later into the night I saw my brother slow dancing with one of the groomsman, and they were both pretty smashed. I also did a fair amount of bad and excited dancing, but I do just because I like dancing. Since I'm just weird I don't need alcohol to do the silly things, so I basically had "drunk fun while sober," which mskate made a joke about. I was wearing my Pokémon tie, because I have a Pokémon tie, and everyone was complementing it (except for mskate, she doesn't really like it). I told her "I'm getting a lot of complements on my tie," and she like, "yeah, from DRUNK PEOPLE!" (I do get a lot of complements on it regularly though).

Now comes the end of the night, the reception is coming to a close and we need to get the grandparents back to the hotel, along with the rest of the family. By now mom just kind of "doesn't want to deal with drunk people anymore," so when drunk guests were hanging out in the hall on the way to the car, she just pushed them out of the way. "Out of the way, my mom and dad need to leave." She also told me I was in charge of my brother, and he needed charge. He took his boots off because they made it hard to dance or something, and I had to tell him to get his shoes. As we were driving back I was channeling my safe ride home skills from community service back in college. I got really good at driving nice and easy for the drunk passengers so they don't get sick, and he said I did really well. He also kept wanting to go to Denny's, and I kept telling him "no, mom said to get you back to the hotel;" "but Denny's." I told him I have meatballs at the hotel if he wants them, "but Denny's." "If you want to stumble down the block to it I won't stop you, but I'm getting you to the hotel." Ultimately he didn't need Denny's. I was supposed to sleep in the bed that night, but he laid down in it not long after getting into the room, and I realized "that ain't moving," so I slept on the floor again.

Sunday wasn't super spectacular, just a drive home. Dad was the first one up and woke us up at around 7AM. We ate breakfast, packed up our stuff, said our goodbyes, and started our drive home. Mskate and I watched some movies again, finishing up Christopher Robin first and then watched Storks and Bandslam (which is a great film). For lunch we stopped at a McDonalds and shared 2 happy meals (I ate the burgers and 1 of the fries, mskate ate the apple slices and other fries), and we each got our own toy; Pokémon for me and Hello Kitty for her (because she likes Hello Kitty). That took us to her apartment. We unpacked her stuff and said our goodbyes. We then began the drive home. Because I took care of him after the wedding, bro drove about halfway, leaving me time to watch more Pokémon and take a nap. We stopped at a rest stop and switched drivers, so now I was driving. Dad and bro commented on how boring the drive is and how "there was nothing around." Yeah welcome to my drive every 2 or so weeks. We got to my place, swapped vehicles, and that was it, rather uneventful.

All in all it was a great trip. I really enjoyed seeing my family again, seeing mskate again, and with turtlegirl and her new husband the best. I'm glad my grandparents were able to make another trip, because it's getting harder and harder for them. Soon we may have a gen 4, and then trips may be a little more regular again. Time will tell, but until then, this has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.