Fingeprinting Done!

Whew! Is anybody else out there as tired as I am these days? Christmas was wonderfully hectic- R and I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with my mother, my sister, my brother in law, and my niece and nephew. Somehow we all managed to keep a Christmas spirit, even in the absence of snow (can you believe there was no snow on the ground on Christmas day here? and this is the U.P. land of the great snowstorms!).

The day after Christmas, R and I headed to Wisconsin to get our fingerprinting done at the Milwaukee Homeland Security Office. We left in the afternoon, with the idea that we would stay overnight in Appleton (well, actually that is what I thought the plan was, it turns out R had other plans), have a nice dinner, relax at a hotel, and get up in the morning and drive the rest of the way to Milwaukee for the appointment.

R had other ideas.

here is what happened. We were in the car, just outside of Escanaba, Michigan when my cell phone rang. My friend L, who lives in Appleton, was checking to see where we were and if we were going to stay with her that night. R told her that we were going to drive to Milwaukee and spend the night there.

oookay, then. First I heard of this plan. But I am flexible. We can make this work. So we will stop in Green Bay and have a nice dinner and then drive on to the outskirts of Milwaukee, find a hotel, have a nice, relaxing evening together and get up in the morning, head downtown, and get fingerprinted.

Only problem was, the turn off to Milwaukee is before any good restaurants. To make a long story short, we drove all the way to Milwaukee without stopping to eat. I was starved. And tired.

ookay, then. So we will stop outside of Milwuakee, find a hotel, and have a nice dinner.

Not exactly. R decided that we should drive into Milwaukee first and find the Homeland Security Building so that we know where we need to go in the morning.

nine oclock Milwaukee time (ten oclock our time) I find myself driving in circles in downtown Milwaukee. Now, anyone who knows me knows I am not navigationally gifted, and therefore not to be trusted when it comes to reading maps and finding places. But I like to think that even I would know to try a different route after passing the same bus station, train station, and "society for a peaceful america" building a zillion times. (oh look, there is the greyhound station! hey, its the greyhound station again! oh and there is Amtrak! and there it is again!)

We did finally find the Homeland Security building. Good thing, as I was about to die of starvation at that point. Then the question of finding a hotel came up. Which ensued a debate over staying downtown (my opinion being it was too expensive, R's being that it was allready nine something at night and surely we could get a good rate). So we drove around downtown Milwaukee a little more (oh look, its the Greyhound station! wasn't that guy standing outside there the last time we passed by?). Finally, R decided that maybe we should go outside of Milwaukee for a hotel.

After a little more driving around, we finally found a hotel with an Outback Steakhouse next door. Hooray! FOOD! SLEEP!! R went into the hotel and secured us a room for the night. We then headed immediately over to the Outback (I think my threat of immediate death due to starvation was the motivating factor there) to eat. It was now nine thirty p.m. Outback closes at ten p.m. Needless to say, the waitress was not too keen on having us walk in at nine thirty. We did, however, receive very fast service. (note to all: if you eat at any restaurant that has a bar at that time of night, you can bet you will be seated by a bunch of men who are on their nth round of Foster's and who, apparently, have accomplished nothing in life more important than their high school football years. These men will also have a passion for talking about those said football years and have an astonishing recollection of every game they ever played. Which they will talk about. loudly)

Food was good. Check came very fast. It was time to leave our football heroes and head to the hotel. Finally. I was soo tired. I couldnt' wait to get into the room and relax.

Sadly, it was not to happen that way. Turns out, our key card did not work in the door. So off we go, lugging our suitcase and my pillow (I hate hotel room pillows!) to try other doors. No luck. It is now after ten p.m. Milwaukee time (eleven p.m. our time), it's cold, I'm beyond tired, and R is getting crabby. R leaves me standing at the door close to the pool room and he heads over to another door off of to the pool area and bangs on it to get the attention of a late night swimmer. The swimmer lets him in. "whew, I think. Now he will come and let me in and we can get to this room before I collapse."

Imagine my disbelief as I watch my husband walk right by the door where I am standing, forlornly, no longer starving, but about to die of exhaustion! "Where the (insert appropriate naughty words here) is he going?"

Fortunately, he came back down the hall and let me in. Otherwise, I would be looking at life as an adoptive single widowed mother.

Ok, now we get to the nice peaceful, full night of sleep part right?

Nope. The room we are in has a horrendously loud fan system in an unknown, unfindable location, that goes off intermittently all night long. Oh, and R snores. Loudly. Extremely Loudly.

Suffice it to say, I barely slept at all.

Fortunately for my sanity and R's life, we managed to get downtown to our fingerprint apointment head of schedule (we needed to be there at nine a.m. and arrived a little after eight a.m.) and find a parking space directly accross from the building. Good thing, as there was a line of people waiting to get in.

The wait was short and the fingerprinting went smoothly. We were out of there by nine a.m.

The journey home was uneventful -Save for a minor, unexpected, and unplanned "detour" (translation: wrong turn) that delayed our homecoming by about an hour. I wasn't too bothered by it though, as we did manage to go to Appleton on the way home and were able to have lunch with my friend L and go to Toys R Us and Barnes and Noble (two stores I love that I never get to go to since the closest ones to where we live are, in fact, in Appleton Wisconsin).

I was so looking forward to a good night's sleep in my own house, my own bed, and my two pups. I had fantasies of crawling into bed, snuggling under the covers, and sleeping in late.

Didn't Happen. Not that night. Not the night after that. Not until last night, in fact, did I get more than a few hours of sleep. But we shall save that story for another post.