*Unless of course, you count that whole Rapture thing.
For those of you who haven’t heard (and I imagine that by this point there are not many of you) today, May 21, 2011, is supposed to be the day of the Rapture. I figured that this concept has reached a saturation point in our society when even Boston.com is talking about it at length. So the big day is supposed to be today according to one group of very determined fundamentalist Christians. Sunday is Rogation Day, and Kelly and I are planning to bring the dogs with us. We do not anticipate any theological or metaphysical issues with our plans. And speaking of pets, it turns out that there is a group who is fulfilling the dual purpose of taking care of animals and forcing the people who actually believe this stuff to put their money where their mouth is. They are called Eternal Earth-bound Pets and they have a website.
I am thinking that there has got to be someone, somewhere, who is a really wealthy fundamentalist Christian and who is concerned about the state of their earthly affairs after today. They are wondering what is going to happen to their beloved boat. I wish I had thought of it. I could have volunteered to take care of their boat while they are gone. How else am I ever going to get one of these anytime soon? Hopefully I will not have to compete with any of the 800,000 (so far) people who signed up on Facebook to participate in the post-Rapture looting.
Yesterday I was able to make arrangements to go pick up 150 silver chargers like these for an absolute steal in Cranston, Rhode Island. I had been thinking about getting them for the wedding, but the prices and shipping on the internet was making them prohibitively expensive. (The link above is the least expensive vendor available.) Anyway, on our way down to meet up with the seller we stopped by the R.I. Antiques Mall in Pawtucket and came away with a couple of books (shocking, I know) and a pair of super heavy, honest-to-God, bronze bookends that were marked down 50%.
After handling a monsoon and a wrong turn thanks to our GPS, we made it to Cranston and then headed back. That’s when Geoff decided that he wanted to head to the BassPro shop in Foxboro, MA. You see, this is his favorite store, maybe ever. He walks in the door and turns into a little kid. When he told me they had a big aquarium, I was sold. We didn’t have anywhere to be.
Then, Bon Jovi struck.
You see, the BassPro shop is quite literally in a shopping complex right across the street from the football stadium where the Patriots play. I have been to a Pats game, I know how insane traffic gets when a thousand million people are trying to get into Foxborough all via Rt. 1 at the same time. It’s a special kind of traffic jam. In the off season, the stadium gets used for rock/country/insane/stupid concerts and events just about every weekend.
Naturally, we had forgotten this. So, we got into traffic and stopped moving. I called a friend, one of my bridesmaids, and asked her to hop online and see what was going on. She looked it up and said, “Bon Jovi” and Geoff and I both groaned inwardly. When she said that Kid Rock was opening for him, there was some audible swearing. So we hopped out of line for our exit, zipped past the traffic, and decided to head home. Except that’s not how it worked out.
At the next exit we were both hungry and Geoff had to pee, naturally, so we wound up in the parking lot of American Joe’s Bar and Grill. I can’t tell you how amusing our dining experience was. The hostess was either psychic or sized us up immediately. I walked in and must have looked a little stricken. The place was PACKED to the rafters with families with young kids. She went to look for a table and came back and lead us to a back corner with 2 booths and said, “You can pick either one, I know there are a lot of kids here tonight and I figured you might want a break from the noise.” She was right on, we had a great waitress and the quietest seat in the house.
Anyway, we plotted during dinner and decided that once we were done we’d take another shot at getting to BassPro. (This was after I bet Geoff $20 that yes, they really would be open till at least 9:00pm on a weekend night. I won the bet.) We figured by that time the BonJovi peeps would be more or less in the stadium and we should be able to tell our GPS unit to take us there via back roads. We enjoyed our dinner and then headed out. And our plan worked. We made it in under a half an hour, got parking in the Retail Only parking lot, and after I spent time staring at the fishies and turtles, actually picked up the stuff Geoff needed. Also, I took some pictures.
See how happy he is?
And then, because I’m just like this, I got another picture with the fishies.
Geoff kisses the fishes
I do find it slightly ironic that a store dedicated to the catching, killing, and eating of game fish has a huge, beautiful, and incredibly well maintained aquarium of them. But, it still made me happy to see them swimming around and in such good condition. They are the luckiest game fish on earth.
The Books are Taking Over... 