Baby, If You’ve Ever Wondered...Wondered Whatever Became of Me.

So much has happened since I last wrote a blog I find it hard to believe it has only been a week!

Andrea and I had an amazing time on our last day at Lucy Fest. We did a cemetery tour where we learned about the past denizens of Jamestown, we attended a live taping of three shows for National Public Radio and we partook in Olympic glory during the Lucylympics!

But the day started out with a latté, an LA Cinnamon Bread (two slices of cinnamon toast cooked liked French toast with a heavy covering of butter, maple glaze, and two bullets to shoot yourself in the head if the breakfast doesn’t kill you), and another encounter with Big Ass Poster Lady.

You may recall our past adventure with Big Ass Poster Lady when she disapproved of our rendition of “Friendship” as sung by Lucy and Ethel. Anyways, she comes up to Andrea and says something like “I feel I may have misrepresented myself to you yesterday and came across in the wrong manner blah, blah, blah and I want to apologise for that yadda yadda yadda I want to represent Lucy well and I just ever so love everybody yak yak yak can we now just be sister friends for the rest of our very lives now?”

I admit I am paraphrasing a bit here. I didn’t hear all of it because she wasn’t including me in her apology. In fact, I wasn’t even acknowledged during this oh-so-precious Big Ass Poster Lady moment. Andrea, bless her, was gracious and kind and gave her a hug and said not to worry about it.

Call me a cynic, but here is what I think happened. At the end of the workshop we told the lovely teenager in charge that we had some fun and she admitted that it probably could have been better. It was mentioned that her “helper” (BAPL) wasn’t all that helpful and we recounted our experience. I think the lovely teenager (who has a name, I swear, but cannot remember it) told Big Ass Poster Lady (who has a name, I swear, but I don’t give a crap) that the blonde lady was unimpressed. Worried that Andrea was going to talk to an organisor she made sure that little bonding moment happened. I think it was about as sincere as William Shatner’s version of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”.

Think I am being cynical? Wait. The story is not quite over.

After the Beautiful Apology Moment was over and Andrea and I sat at our table wondering if my breakfast was going to kill me, our new friend (BAPL) comes up to us and asks Andrea (I had, by this time, accepted my obvious invisibility) if she could bum a ride to Buffalo.

Andrea said no and we left.

I cannot tell you how much of a hoot it was to partake in the chocolate wrapping and grape stomping competitions. We had had a chance to speak with the president of the organisation that organises this event and we recognised him as the guy in charge of cranking the wheel that kept the conveyor belt going on the chocolate factory set. No job too small, no person too important in this group. I suspect he is now walking around Jamestown with one arm twice the size of the others.

We did not win the chocolate wrapping competition, despite the fact that I cheated at least twice, but that was okay. I am not known for my quiet disposition, and Andrea and I share similar attributes in this department, so it can be safe to say that we were...well...loud. I believe we became a bona fide hit with the crowd when I started throwing the chocolates overhand towards the end of the conveyor belt.

The team in charge of the chocolate factory, after hundreds of teams with either serious competition in mind or just giggling and posing for pictures, found us to be, in their words, refreshing. The president said “You’re coming back next year, right?”

Not next year...but I shall one day return. Someday.

After that we headed over to the grape stomping. There were three of us in competition. One uber-fan young lady who had her own costume and a serious approach to grape stomping. I felt bad for her because she was in competition with Andrea, the Great Dane, and Scott , The Great Gutsby.  Also, our feet were bigger than hers and she desperately needed a cookie or something or light would soon shine through her.

Well, she won. Andrea came in second and I looked freaking awesome. I believe I was the only one to stick out his tongue just like Lucy did and Andrea and I, without any prior practice, hiked up our skirts and did the dance in tandem. We were a sight to behold. Kind of like Riverdance but without the talent...or the shoes.

If you want to see our escapades you can check out the pictures and video on my facebook page and there are some photos on my twitter feed.

We eventually met up with Eric and Carlos and the girls and had a nice dinner together before heading off to bed.

Laugh all you will and call me a geek if you want to, but I truly believe that if she were alive today, Lucille Ball would have been proud of Andrea and I. Then she would have politely asked us to leave.

The next day Erica and I packed up the car, said goodbye to the family, and headed west. We had no real plan of where we would go but we ended up in Cleveland.

Yes. Cleveland.

Why you might ask? Because that is where Scott wanted to see the house from A Christmas Story.

Starring Peter Billingsly and Gavin Macleod as The Old Man, this is my favourite Christmas movie 

ever. Every year I have to watch the Alistair Sim version of “A Christmas Carol” and this movie. It is also what I show my English classes each year.

A guy found out the house was up for sale and bought it, refurbished it and made it out to look just like the way it was in the movie. Some scenes were shot on a soundstage and others in Hamilton and Toronto, but many scenes were shot on this house. Most of the exteriors were shot in Cleveland too. The woman who was our guide was just as enthusiastic as I was and the house was quite interactive. You could wander about and check out the lifebuoy soap in the bathroom next to the Little Orphan Annie decoder pin, the boys’ bedroom, and the infamous leg lamp in the front living room window.

If you have not seen the movie yet, you now know what you need to look for when you finally do see it this year.

Eric was very patient with me (as usual), but he did draw the line at putting on the bunny outfit despite my repeated pleas. I found this to be somewhat unreasonable as I could not obviously fit into the suit myself. I mean...it eventually became obvious.

After Cleveland we found ourselves in Cincinnati where we immediately made our way to the now abandoned Cincinnati Enquirer Building. This building became famous as the Flynn Building which housed the offices of WKRP in Cincinnati. It was one of the rare times when Eric was as interested in a tv sight as I was. We giggled as we remembered, masking tape as walls, an upbeat jingle for a funeral home (“Ferryman! Ferrymen! He’s the man with the plot! The man with the plan!”), and turkeys that couldn’t fly.

The old building is going to find a new life as a hotel that will serve the new casino being built. I wonder if Eric and I will ever stay there?

Eric and I moved on from WKRP and Ohio and entered into Kentucky. We were well on our way to New Orleans, but before that we had to deal with Mammoth Caves, a Big Fish, and another great movie.