Tourist in My Own Town

In spite of certain comments from one Bill Putnam, it should be known that the following is entirely true and in no way "revisionist." Besides, who says truth is a simple dichotomy?

Yesterday was absolutely amazing- finally had Bill and Mary and the rest of the Putnam and Shelton gangs back and all was right with the world. I saved Bill by having a Children's Sermon ready for both services, and I got to stand in my normal place to play mandolin (squeezed in between Bill and Mary, of course), and then Stella made it through Sunday School without injuring himself (in case you're unaware, Stephen's new name is Stella, and it fits him well). Lunch at Applebee's and I'm through 2 chapters of Billy's book and I even squeezed in a little nap before the Frisbee game. Ah, Frisbee. It was a great game- the weather was too hot for any sensible person to be outside (should I mention that it never hits 90F in Germany?), but of course "sensible" can hardly be applied to any of us, so we had a nice big group out running around and sliding on mud and even trying to lay out (of course we failed). And Bill naming his own team the "old people" (I was part of this team), and us winning even though we gave David Heird to the other team halfway through (they did lose 2 key players to minor injuries, but still), and then decided to be nice and say the winner would be next 2 out of 3 when the score was 8-5 us. Other team got the next 2 (they had taken ultra-player David, you'll remember), so I guess we all get to say we won- my team got 8 goals, and they only had 7, after all. I went home and discovered that my host family had e-mailed me and sent lots and lots of pictures- if I get less lazy later, I'll post some. Their house is absolutely gorgeous, and I keep getting more excited. I showered because heat+running around in a field=gross gross sweaty dirty yuck. Then I was trying to eat really fast (I wasn't even hungry yet) and print pictures and then Bill shows up at 6:20 so we can go watch Jamie's concert. I got one page of pictures printed and ran out the door with half my dinner to jump in Lynn's car and we go to get the Sheltons. Andy found some bubbles in the back of the car, which we proceeded to blow and with which I very much distracted Bill. With Cindy, Mary, and Laura in tow, we headed off down the road- should I mention Bill trying to read a card (with a very long note in it) and drive at the same time? He was very possessive about the present Cindy brought him from Italy- no one else was allowed to touch it, even to keep it from falling onto the floor. I'm not sure how, but I got the job of navigator thrust upon me, and I read the directions exactly as printed. Had Bill bothered to pay attention to the distances I was reading to him, perhaps he would have avoided our most infamous mishap. Instead, we get on Forest Ave and Bill turns into the lot of the first church we see (of course no one looks at the sign). There aren't many people there, but it's a little early, and Mary said there was another parking lot on the other side. We wander in and start looking for the sanctuary- Mary and I found it relatively quickly, but (for some unknown reason) the door was locked and we were supposed to go out and around. I was willing, but, because Bill and Cindy were lollygagging and talking back in some hallway, Mary insisted that we return to them. After a while, we convince them to go with us toward the sanctuary, and Mary found some tiny side door to slip in. The sanctuary was completely empty and we became very confused. After a few more minutes of looking around, someone mentioned that we were at Thrid Presbyterian Church. Of course, we needed to be at Trinity United Methodist. We hurried out to the car, giggling and accusing each other of not reading the sign in the first place (I thought it was a pretty short half mile down the road, but I'm no judge of distance and Bill doesn't care about distance anyway, apparently). As we're heading to the right church, Stella calls Mary to ask where we were, and she tells him we'll explain later. Trinity is of course very crowded and we squeeze into a few of the last remaining seats- Stella was upset that I didn't sit by him, but Andy was going to cry if I didn't sit with him, and Bill had already taken the seat by Mary. The concert was great (Jamie had a solo and played her flute and she was so good, as always!) and Andy insisted on clapping out of rhythm and we were tickling each other throughout half of it and it was great fun. Bill was starving by the time it was over (did I mention that he didn't bother to eat dinner beforehand?) and planned to go to Tropical Smoothie, but it closes at 9. Being as it was 9:30 by the time we got there, we headed over to Dairy Queen instead (where I did sit by Stella, although he was IMing other boys on his phone and ignoring me and Mary, after insisting that we had to sit with him and not Bill). A little after 10, Bill decided that he needed sleep because he has to get up at some ungodly hour like 3, so we dropped the Sheltons off and then he dropped me off and I went to sleep before midnight for the first time in a while, because I was tired.

Gender: 54% female.