Waving Flags and Revving Engines - Ah, The American Dream

Yesterday we experienced something that personified much of what we (rightly or wrongly) associate with the American Midwest. Big trucks. Fried food. Standing together singing "proud to be an American." Altars to consumerism. 80's hair and sweatshirts.

Mall of America? Nope. A Republican convention? Nuh-uh. Nascar? Close.

Monster Jam.

That's right, we paid money yesterday to spend the evening with thousands of others wearing earplugs and screaming cheers for monster trucks with names like "Grave Digger."

The kids had been begging for weeks whenever the commercials came on, so we thought we'd surprise them. Well, it was a bit of a bust. Surprisingly, The Boy started freaking out and begging to go home as soon as it started. We're not sure why; we think perhaps the noise and rumbling were too much despite his ear plugs. So we left at the first intermission.

No real harm done. We'd already passed our favourite part of the evening - getting into the parking garage only to be told "no credit cards. Cash or check only."

With ten cars behind us, we scrambled to find a chequebook. Then a pen Then a working pen. Then another pen after the cheque was returned because we had not filled in the recipient and "oh no, I can't fill it in - I could write it out to myself."

You know what? Go ahead. Pocket our eight dollars. Call it a tip for being oh so helpful.

In a more charitable vein, today I attended a church that has now passed the "try it for two Sundays" test. It's a small Mennonite church that has impressed us both mightily with its extremely welcoming people. So we'll try it with the kids next week.

The rest of today will be spent doing laundry, tidying, and otherwise getting ready for our first week where we've all got day jobs. I start bright and early at 9:00 am tomorrow - I'll try to post in the evening to let you all know how it goes.