This past weekend I spent a memorable period of just over 24 hours in Columbus, doing a variety of activities…and getting about one-hour of sleep. The adventure began on Saturday, April 14, as noon approached and I headed out alone to Columbus via motorcar. Ashleigh had left the night before with her friend Michelle. Mom had gone up on Thursday night and was staying with Denise. Christi, Joy, and Creed were traveling together about the same time that I was. And Briana…well, she lived there.
I arrived at Denise’s house about 1:00 pm and we soon headed out to the Columbus Convention Center with Mom and Adam in tow. I got to spend the early portion of the trip holding Adam quite a bit and he was as cute as ever. We soon met up with Christi and Co. and awaited Ashleigh’s first dance routine. The Beavercreek Beaverettes were competing in their annual state competition and this was always their last performance of the year. At around 2:00, her team performed the pom routine.
The pom queen with Dad and Mom
Joy, Ash, Christi, and Creed
Quickly following her dance, Christi, Joy, Creed, and I headed about twenty minutes away to meet up with Billy and Jill to watch Briana in her tournament basketball game. Unfortunately, Briana’s team (the Jets) had not had a lot of practice together so they lost by about 40 points. It was still enjoyable to see Briana play. She was clearly one of the better members of the team with lots of hustle and agressiveness. I hadn’t seen Briana since her birthday, so I brought along her gift - a portable DVD player. Briana went back with us to the convention center.
Proud of Little B
Creed drums his juice in the car
This is where Christi, Briana, and Joy talked me into staying there overnight with them at the Drury Inn. Originally I had planned to go back to Denise’s place. I had also talked about possibly meeting up with my pal Eric or my cousin Chris at some point. But since I hadn’t seen Briana in a while and it doesn’t ever take much for Christi to entice me, I agreed to stay. I was even more agreeable after we stopped in the hotel lobby and claimed our complimentary drinks. I’ll never forget the certainly-ludicrous sight of Christi, Joy, and I inhaling a Bloody Mary with three straws. We then stopped at the food court for a burger.
Just minutes after the Bloody Mary
We got back to the exhibition gym to see Ashleigh’s third and final performance, the jazz routine. As always, Ashleigh did extremely well - but unfortunately, we had missed the best of the teams’ performances, the hip-hop routine, while we were at Briana’s game.
We then all decided to go for a swim, which didn’t work out so well either. The hot tub was blazingly hot and the swimming pool was ice-cold. It was the type of cold that there was no way to even get used to. We then retired to the room. Christi and I went on a quest to find some wine and/or beer…and finally succeeded at a small gift shop in the Convention Center that we considered a savior. Joy went and bought a pizza and we all met up at the room. While eating pizza and snacks and drinking our beverages, Joy, Christi, and I played Farkle. Creed slept. And Ashleigh, Briana, and a couple of Ashleigh’s friends ran around the hotel and hung out in our bathroom.
By the time it got to be about 1:00am, we decided it was about time to turn in - which begs the question: how do you sleep six people comfortably in a room with one king-size bed? The answer, of course, is: you don’t. For the next three hours, we tried to contend with Ashleigh and her friends giggling in the bathroom, the sound of glass against porcelain, some rather excited neighbors, and Joy getting sick from the pizza. After that madness subsided - and even the kids had decided to turn in (including one of Ashleigh’s friends, bringing the grand total in our room to seven), Creed decided that he had slept long enough. So he was up watching cartoons and talking to anyone who would listen for the next few hours. Briana also developed a stomach ache at this time and was up for most of the night. Ashleigh’s friend decided to take off amidst the chaos.
As I watched the sun come up, I drifted off for about one hour. Then it was time for Briana to get up as she had to be picked up by Billy and Jill to go to another basketball tournament.
The morning after
So now I was awake again and it was Sunday morning. I alone hurried down to the free breakfast in the lobby consisting of eggs, sausage, and biscuits and gravy. That hit the spot. I then watched everyone get ready and pack up their belongings in an effort to get out of the room by checkout time at 11:00 am. They would all have a few hours to wait until Ashleigh performed again at 2:40 pm.
In an effort to get back to my car, which was at Denise’s house, I called Jill to see if they could give me a ride when they dropped Briana off at the convention center following her game. Her game ran a bit late, so I was stranded until about noon. But this gave me just enough to time to get to Denise’s, get my car, and determine the directions to the Northstar Cafe in Clintonville where I would meet up with my old friend Kim Cummings. As luck would have it, Denise and Mom were out to Bob Evans when I got to her house so I had to get the directions from Kim, Jill, and Denise via phone.
The lunch with Kim and her husband was very nice as indicated in my posting, but I stayed there just a bit too long. I had hoped to get back to the Convention Center to see Ashleigh’s hip-hop routine, so I sped like a demon to try and make it on time. It almost worked out, but once I got into the city, I got all turned around and missed the performance. Disappointedly, I called Ashleigh to let her know that I had tried, and then headed home. Ashleigh understood.
I got home around 3:45 pm. I slept for about four hours.
This posting has been edited for content.
Well, in all the excitement of Saturday in Columbus you should have strolled down the hall of the Convention Center to watch my team make it to the final match of the Ohio Valley Regional Volleyball Championships. I’m sure you could have fit that in somewhere between the dancing and basketball. Oh well. We lost in the final anyway.
Chris Tangeman
April 17th, 2007
Well, Denise and I managed to watch all of Ashleigh’s routines, and a couple of Chris’s volleyball games, and made it to Ashleigh’s team pizza party. So it was a busy day for everyone. Of course, we made the smart move and went back to Denise’s house to play some more with Adam and get a good night’s sleep.
Mom/Barb
April 18th, 2007
What do you mean, “Edited for content”?
Bob
April 30th, 2007
ewww take that pic of me all red off the internet,
bri
August 20th, 2007