My Amazing Race

This post is dedicated to my mother and Lindsey- without whom I never would have made it to Jaime’s wedding in one piece. Oh- and Mike... just for being Mike.

So… Friday morning I get up at 5 am and drive to the airport for my 8 am flight to St. Louis. Jaime’s wedding was that night at 5pm but I wanted to get to St. Louis in time to go to Chuck E. Cheese with Lindsey and the kids. My mom was driving from Springfield that day so she could be at the airport with the Reuss’ to pick me up.

Well, I get to the airport and discover that my flight had been cancelled. They said that I would arrive in St. Louis at 5:45 that night unless I was able to get on the stand by flight that left at 10:45 am. I'm basically crying now because I don't want to miss the wedding and I had no idea what to do... At the last minute I decide to throw my dress and shoes for the wedding in my carry on bag.. I then take my time and get to the gate to put my name in for standby… and at that time they were boarding a flight for Kansas City.

(I reenacted this scene with Lindsey’s kids as the United employees which is much better than my description of it here.)

Me: Can I get on the stand by list.
United Dude: Sure. Got you on the list. Thanks.
Me: Wait, is this flight going to Kansas City now?
United Dude: It is.
Me: Can I get on it?
Unitded Dude: Yes… but I can’t get you to St. Louis.
Me: No problem.

I then proceed to call Lindsey and tell her I’m flying to KC. I’ll get a rental car there and just drive the four hours to her house and should make it there by 4pm. Total Amazing Race style. Lindsey, my mom and Lindsey’s kids went to Target to get me what I would need – pajamas, clothes for Saturday, etc.

So I drive to STL in my HHR (which is basically a boxier version of a PT Cruiser and obviously super cool)… I get there by 4…. Stupid weather or I would’ve made it earlier. But I made it. However, we didn’t have time to make it to the wedding- only the reception.

Now, Mike’s car only has air conditioning if you put it on full blast. So we are freezing… and then all of a sudden the air goes out. It’s raining like crazy outside and the car is totally fogging up. AND we are late for the reception.

All of a sudden I say, “My dress feels weird.” I look down and the zipper had totally split. Mind you, it wasn’t that the dress was too small.. but putting it on we’d had trouble with the zipper… and now it was off track and there was NO way to get it to stay on.

Lindsey says, “There’s a Macy’s just a few blocks away!” Oddly enough, that day Mike had won an “Ugliest Shirt” Contest at work and it was still in the backseat.
So Mike drives up on the curb, I throw the ugly shirt on and we run inside. Macy’s closed in 20 minutes.

My dress was black and white and my shoes were red so my options for the dress were limited. Lindsey gets all the employees to help and we run all over Macy’s and finally find a cute little black one that I actually really like… I run out and yell “GOT IT!” And Lindsey begins yelling to all the employees “WE’RE GOOD! WE’RE GOOD!”
We buy the dress (well, my mom does- I didn’t have any money with me) They take the tags off at the counter and we make it to the reception. As Lindsey said after, “For awhile that was a very dark moment.”

All in all it was probably one of my most memorable trips to St. Louis. I’m so so lucky to have such an amazing mom (who now loves White Castle) and best friend (who makes me stiff drinks the minute I get to her house).