So at last it can be told! I spent the weekend in Iowa! I couldn’t say anything before, because it was a surprise for , concocted by . I had posted on ‘s Facebook invitation and said I couldn’t afford the flights, and contacted me privately and said “hey…can I help you come out here anyway?” So we kept it quiet for TWO WEEKS (god that was hard) and then I got to surprise Gretchen!
It went wonderful. I flew to Cedar Rapids via Minneapolis, and drove to Cedar Falls. I got a speeding ticket on the way – 92 in a 70 zone – because holy crap those roads are long, straight, and featureless. :A: pointed out that when roads are featureless like that, your brain goes into snooze mode because there is nothing to catch your attention the way there is on other roads. tried to take the ticket from me to pay herself, but I wouldn’t let her – as much as I like holding onto my money, I’m the one who was speeding, and ethically I gotta pay the ticket. But that just goes to show what a sweetie she is.
So anyway, I got to Cedar Falls, and waited around. I found the house right away, and then drove around. I found myself at a Panera and I stayed for a few hours; once they were ready to close I tried driving around some more to find another place to hang out. Unfortunately I didn’t come across anywhere – later I found out a Mexican fast food place in the same shopping center had been open until midnight, oh well – so I parked near G’s house and stayed there for a few hours. Then texted me and said they were really close, so I went over and sat on the porch with my back to the driveway. G was driving, and when she got out of the car she came peering around to see who was on her porch, and then she screamed and screamed. We hugged and laughed and she sputtered “what? how? what?” and all I could do was point at . It was freaking awesome. I will never ever forget that.
We chatted for a bit and then I absolutely had to crash. In the morning, we cleaned the house, and I ran out to Starbucks to grab myself some lunch…apparently nobody else was hungry?! While I was there, G texted me that her baby sister had shown up, as unexpected as I was! So for all of Saturday there were five dogs in the house and then one more during the party at night! It was crazy. But it was so much fun, I met some of G’s friends and classmates and we had a KICK. ASS. time. There was a little bit of deaf/hearing segregation, but what do you expect when two language groups are together? We all went back and forth, but I ended up chatting with the deaf guests a lot more than the hearing guests. ASL is just really more my language, I’m more comfortable in ASL, you know? (Okay, maybe you don’t. Take my word for it.)
On Sunday I slept SO LATE. G’s little sister made omelets (everybody contributed to the effort, but her sister used to be a short order cook so she did the actual cooking) and made a super awesome smoothie thing with the leftovers from the sangria. Oh man it was good. Later took me and her little sister (who is from Springfield, IL) on a tour of the University of Northern Iowa, where she goes to school. Shortly after that it was time to go…and everybody followed me out to the car! I felt a little self-conscious but at the same time it was really nice. I drove back to Cedar Rapids without speeding and flew to Detroit, where I was promptly stuck because my flight was delayed. It was a very nice airport, but I would rather have not been delayed! I got back to my car in Baltimore around 12:30am and got home by about 1:30am. I fell asleep by 2:00. What a weekend!