UltraNormal

I'm back! We had a good time at the wedding, a decent time on the drive there and back, and a great time seeing Jen's parents. Max was an angel almost the whole time. He started getting upset about twenty minutes from home, which is completely understandable since over the course of three days, he'd spent almost fifteen hours in a carseat (or as he would say, fiveteen). All in all, a good time.

Random Observations:

• Pennsylvania likes to add adventure to their highway experience. Not only is the Pennsylvania Turnpike hilly and curvy, they're also doing construction on most of it, which narrows it to two lanes with about six inches to either side. Sixty-five down a mountain, through S-curve after S-curve sandwiched between concrete walls and an eighteen-wheeler in forty mile-an-hour winds is not the way I'd suggest spending a Sunday afternoon. I felt like I was in a video game.
• I don't feel the need to go back to Ohio. I know it was a little town, and it's a crappy time of year to go pretty much anywhere north of Florida, but it didn't strike me as a place I need to go back to.
• Every wedding reception, big or small, needs an Elvis impersonator. The less he looks and/or sounds like Elvis, the better.
• Everyone's first wedding should be special.
• I really like my in-laws. I wish we lived closer so Max could go over and play with Grandpop, Grandma and Buddy more often.
• Max saying "daredevil" as he climbs on his Grandpa Brian is about the funniest thing I've ever seen.
• If you teach a two-year old the definition of a word, it becomes the definition of every word. Jen's mom taught Max the meaning of "Exit" ("It's the way out"). Then, Jen started quizzing him about the meaning of "Entrance" ("It's the way out!", says Max), Purple (ditto), Car (uh-huh, you guessed it), etc. Every time we stopped to eat or get gas, Max would point up to the Exit sign and say, "Exit, it's the way OUT".
• When I'm tired, I need a Toddler Translator. It takes a lot of concentration to figure out what he's saying sometimes.
• Max is just about the most adorable two-year old on the planet. He was extremely well-behaved, kept all his clothes on when he was supposed to, kept quiet and still during the ceremony and played well with the other kids, who weren't always well-behaved, completely dressed or quiet and still when they needed to be. He's my favorite.
• I now know the script of Toy Story 2 by heart, even though I've only watched the movie twice. I've listened to it about six times now.
• Every family roadtrip needs a dvd player (thank you, AOL... I get a world of use out of that Powerbook you gave me!)
• In this little town, we couldn't find one non-chain restaurant to eat at that wasn't a biker bar. Hopefully, it's not like that everywhere. When I go somewhere new, I like to try the local places to get a feel for the place. It could have been one town over from Sterling for all the local flavor we found in the town. The family was a different story. They're all Ohio State freaks, and the first night at the "Hey y'all come over" party, it was incredibly difficult to tell everyone apart. They all wore Ohio State t-shirts and sweatshirts and well, they're a family so they all kind of looked alike anyway. Local flavor galore in the family. Good people, and very welcoming to all us new folks.

There are stories I'm supposed to write about that I can't think of at the moment, because I'm actually working. I'll update later, once Jen reads this and reminds me.