Stuck in Illinois with the "Ephram's got the barf blues" blues......

So the kids and I traveled down to IL for a week with the grandparents. I needed a break from both full time parenting as well as part time church work. I also wanted some new surroundings to just kinda kick start some creative thought and play some guitar. I made a vow to not think of any church music for the whole week. Not that I don't like church music, but, it is something that is a job to me. I don't sit around and listen to church music unless I am working on finding new songs to play at church. I don't attempt to consume it like I would say, the new Wilco album coming out at the end of the month. Also, while here, I scored some music recommendations from my buddies so I should be good to go for a few months with more albums.

Wal-Mart customer service sucks. ....

The Wal-Martization of Benton IL is complete. You can barely get anything unless you drive to the walmart. I don't know if it is just the Benton walmart or all walmarts but its like the dementors from Harry Potter. If you get to close, you start to get the feeling that you will never know happiness again. It is a soul sucking chasm for which there is no escape and I had to go there just about every day to get something. The greeters might have well have been saying "welcome to wal mart, guns are that way, please bring one back and kill me". They really need the guy from the Grandville Meijer store to spruce up the attitude. With this in mind, I determined to stop whining about the greeting and take a proactive approach. I would give the walmart greeter a warm greeting myself and hopefully brighten their spirits amidst the downtrodden throng of humanity that passes through there everyday. So with my spirits high, I headed out for some road snacks for the trip back to Michigan. I cruised through the door ready to spring my joy on the greeter. Problem, no greeter. Hmmm.....oh well, there has to be someone around in a blue smock that needs a lift. Finally I went to the speedy checkout with my stuff. I waited for the lady in front of me to finish then I sprung. "hi" said the checkout girl. "GOOD AFTERNOON!! HOW ARE YOU TODAY!!" I shouted. She was a little taken aback. "OK I guess" she replied. "FANTASTIC!!" I assume at this point she pushed a button somewhere that alerted the manager or Sam Walton himself that they had a live one. Any way I paid for my stuff then happily yelled "HAVE A GGGGRRRREAT DAY!!!!". She looked a little scared". as I was walking towards the door I spotted my initial target, the Wal Mart Greeter. "yes" I thought to myself. As she looked up from digging some sort of filth out of a cart I yelled with all of my joyous gusto "HAVE A FANTASTIC DAY!!!!!" She smiled. Sweet Victory. Take that soul sucker!
We had planned to leave the wonderful land of Lincoln on Monday morning but Sunday night, Ephram got a really high fever and said his head was hurting from "staying at the circus too long". (welcome to my world boy, I live at the circus) I decided to give him some of the new children s Tylenol I had picked up (wal mart again!) for Soijer earlier in the week. I gave him the suggested dose of strawberry flavored goo , which smelled a lot like strawberry schnapps by the way, and about 2 minutes later, he refunded it all over the carpet at my folks house. Later, I tried again and got the same result but in the toilet this time. Thanks Tylenol, your attempt to make medicine taste just like super sugar candy has burned me for the last time! We switched to the melty tab things the next day and they stayed down. So after an extra day in IL we made the trip back to Michigan without incident. On a side note, Ephram loves to stop in Gary Indiana. Every time we go to IL, I try to time it so we don't have to stop there but he must see the abandoned buildings and crack houses from I-80 and it triggers his urge to pee immediately.
I woke up in sweet cool Michigan this morning, ran a couple of miles and the kids and I set of to play at the park with the guys and kids from the dad's group. Fun was had by all. I am, however, going to most likely have to work the rest of the week to pull the kids back into the fold after being with grandparents all week. I guess that is the price paid for a little respite.