Thursday, August 28, 2008

Just Followin' Our Noses

Last night my friend Christina and I took Saige and Chase and her daughter Gracie and a friend/babysitter to the Jonas Brothers concert, held in the lovely town of Camden, NJ. Granted, we were there only a couple days ago, but we someone drive us (you know, so we could get our party on). Any other time I've been there Marc's driven and I really don't pay attention. I am overly reliant on my navigation system to take me everywhere. Camden is not the nicest of towns. I'm sure the people are lovely but it's kind of got a really bad rap. Scary. So after it takes us two hours to actually get there (a 40 minute drive) we are in a ton of traffic. Crazy, insane, why isn't there a least one guy out there directing kind of traffic. I did remember one thing from when Marc and I were last there that he cut through a really bad part of the hood but we bypassed about a thousand cars. I decided that's what we were going to do. Christina, who is a self proclaimed rule follower, wasn't quite sure how this was going to go down. She was locking doors and closing windows and I think I almost gave her a heart attack when I pulled up to some boys and asked if we were headed in the right direction. They were so sweet and helpful and we skated our way right in the back way and missed about an hour of traffic that would have made the kids late. It was all good. Then we left to go meet our friend Rock for dinner in Olde City, Phila. The problem was I wasn't driving my own car because Marc had to send a bigger one home from work so I could fit everyone. It needed a disc for the nav and we just couldn't get the hell out of Camden. We were on about dead empty at this point because the kid that brought me the car said he filled it up, but he didn't. I have to thank him next time I see him. Anyway, in our little tour of what is supposedly the worst city in the nation we find a gas station. It didn't take Amex, in fact the whole credit card part was taped over, it also had a lot of seedy characters parading around and I have to admit I took off my necklace and put it in the glove compartment. Better safe then sorry. Good rule of thumb, but then what were we doing there in the first place? Oh yeah, lost. We are used to our third partner in crime Lisa being there to tell us where to go. Christina and I were basically dumb and dumber. It was like National Lampoons Vacation, "Big Ben, Parliment."
Obviously, because I sit here typing we did eventually find our way to a restaurant and our friend Rock who scored us those killer Jonas Brothers tickets (thank you again) and had a lovely dinner.
We got the kids, they had a great time and we only got a tiny bit lost trying to find the bridge on the way home. Christina insists it just isn't well marked. That totally sounds better then we're just stupid.

4 comments:

Lula! said...

You quoted one of our favorite lines of all time...we are big on the the Vacation series, and quote at least one of the 3 best (original, European, and Christmas) at least once a week. So I'm laughing at this.

And I'm jealous you saw the JBs again. I'll admit that I dig them. We saw them back in December and they rocked it out. "Burnin' Up" is played a lot around here. Woooooooo!

Anonymous said...

What a trip!
And in Camden of all places. When we go to the Aquarium, I always make the hubs drive and totally lock the doors.

Meredith said...

OMG - can't believe the European Vacation reference! I use that one ALL THE TIME...except my version is more like, "Look kids, Big Ben, Parliament". Obviously not an exact quote but whatever - i know what i mean. They of course look at me like i have two heads.

Is Marc in the car biz? If so...have more to discuss on that subject! If not, I'm wondering how he sends bigger cars home to you??

Aimee said...

I totally have driving anxiety and would have been crying. Glad you made it!