OBE

We celebrated our fourth anniversary this past week =), and had a fun trip planned to go celebrate in Philadelphia for the day (Saturday).

The Original Plan

• 0530 Leave Home
• 0815 Arrive Philadelphia
• 0830 Breakfast at Reading Terminal Market
• 1000 Drive to Independence Visitors Center; pick up Independence Hall Tickets
• 1015 Park at 125 South 2nd Street Garage
• 1030 Independence Seaport Museum
• 1330 Lunch at Panini's
• 1430 Liberty Bell
• 1530 Independence Hall Tour
• 1700 Dinner (TBD)
• 1830 Depart Philadelphia
• 2115 Arrive Home

But, we didn't get home from the temple as early as we thought, and we were finalizing last-minute plans and packing, and realized that it was late. Jill was tired, and had checked the weather report and saw thunderstorm warnings for Philadelphia and most of our drive. It may not have been a big issue, except the Seaport Museum closes some of the boat tours and stuff "in adverse weather", and heavy rain would have significantly slowed our journey. So, we decided to do some things around here that we haven't done yet.

The Revised Plan

• 0800 Sleep In
• 0830 Breakfast
• 0900 Leave for Target; pick up Jill's prescription
• 1000 Head to Wal-Mart*; pick up things Jill needed for a bridal shower she's giving a co-worker
• 1130 Leave Wal-Mart and head to a nickel arcade* for some gaming fun
• 1330 Eat our sack lunch
• 1400 Head to Udvar Hazy*; enjoy the museum
• 1730 Head to dinner (Famous Daves)
• 1900 Head home

* There was some discussion about what order these would actually go in, since they were all in the same general area that we were headed toward. I can't remember the "final" revised plan.

But that doesn't matter, because the revised plan ended up getting changed in the morning...and during the day.

Our Real** Day

• Slept in
• Did dishes and packed a lunch while Jill slept some more
• Looked up used book stores
• Left the house mid- to late-morning
• Went to Target & got Jill's prescription
• Went to Hole in the Wall Books & browsed the stacks for a while. Jill found a copy of Middlemarch (she's reading it for book club) and I got Spy Catcher (autobiography of a senior intelligence officer). Skimmed an interesting book about the search for Dracula, a "decoding" Stonehenge academic novel, and other random things.
• Ate lunch in the car as we drove out toward Sterling
• Shopped at Wal-Mart. Got party stuff and toilet paper, looked at the office supplies, and got Jill some Amish potato salad from the deli.
• Went to the arcade (couldn't find a nickel arcade, but there was this laser-tag / arcade place out by Dulles (IAD) that we thought we'd try. Tons of young kids having a laser-tag party; very few arcade games. Stopped at Subway so Jill could use the restroom and get a cookie.
• Drove to Udvar Hazy. The traffic leading up to the parking lot was backed up at least 30 cars or more in both lanes. The cars up front were in park (no brake lights), and some lucky people were bailing out early (who were close enough to the gap in the grass median to turn around and head back to the highway). We sat for some time, watched a total of zero cars enter the parking lot, saw what appeared to be museum attendants coming out of the gates and talking with the people in the cars up front, and more cars turning around. We decided we were done waiting (and finally enough cars had bailed that we were at the gap) and we turned around and headed back to home.Savings: $15/parking
• It was too early for dinner, so we decided to go do some other things. Like go to the party store, because Jill still needed some things. And another arcade was by the party store in Arlington/Falls Church, so we thought we'd give that one a try
• Shopped at the party store
• Drove by the arcade--completely full parking lot and lots more children running through the lot and into the building. Decided we didn't even want to look inside. Savings: $10-20
• Jill remembered there was a Babiess'R'Us nearby, so we stopped to see if they had any fetal heart monitors. Only one model, and more than what we were expecting. Left and drove across the street.
• Went to Staples to see if they had the binder I was looking for (in the office supplies) earlier. They didn't have the one I was thinking of, but they did have a cool one on sale.
• Went over to Bed Bath N Beyond. Jill needed a mini-muffin pan for something. Also looked again to see if they had the One Trip Grip that Jill has been wishing she had every time we go shopping. They didn't have any in the store, but they ordered one for us and sent it to us for free. Upgraded our "dishwasher" with a new "food catcher" for the kitchen sink and new dish brush.
• It was only about 1645, but we decided we were ready for dinner. Went to Ruby Tuesdays.
• Drove home. Jill got sick. We watched a show. Gave Jill her shot, wrote in our journal, read scriptures, and put her to bed. Got ready for my early-morning EQ meeting.

**At least as I recall it now.

Pretty much nothing happened as planned, except Target and Wal-Mart. I decided the theme from this post would be OBE--Overcome By Events (a term I picked up at work). Wikipedia defines OBE as "a term of military origin used when a situation changes so rapidly that previously proposed courses of action are no longer relevant."

In our case, things like the late night, tiredness, and long lines of traffic rendered out prior plans irrelevant. But it was still a great day. We love browsing through old books, riding in the car together, and just hanging out.

[somewhat related]
Found out one of the classes I registered for in the Fall has been cancelled because the professor is no longer available. I started looking at other classes to see if any interested me so that I could still have two courses in the Fall. When we talked about it, however, we decided that it might be a good thing that the class was cancelled. I can do my last class for the certificate next Spring (when my basic tuition assistance returns in the new calendar year) and then apply for the masters program and the scholarship at work to help pay for it, then start back again in the Fall. It just might work...