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Saturday Morning. Melinda’s Birthday.

Remember when we went to birthday parties as a kid, when were about to leave the mom’s always gave us goodie bags with candy and plastic jewelry and stickers (or matchbox cars and bubble gum)? Melinda got one of those to start her day. Toy bracelets, plastics rings, sticker jewelry tattoos, Swedish fish, and those chocolate gummy bears from the airport. (I should have believed her boyfriend when he told me she likes them, and should have gotten more- oops!)

It would be another busy day, so we couldn’t sit around eating the Swedish fish, instead we took the bag with us.

The Great Lake of Michigan is just large lake. With a park. And a beach only beach. People use it for the beach part only; and no one actually swims in it because of how clean it is- or isn’t.

We strolled along the lakeside for a little while. Passed by people laying in the grass, surrounded by bike riders and runners, Frisbee players and picnics. Melinda pointed out lake view property that she had been to for social gatherings, and we discussed real estate prices. For $300,000 you could buy a small house on Long Island, a nice sized condo overlooking Lake Michigan, or a 400 square foot studio in the heart of Queens. Or an enormous house in Binghamton, New York.

The park had a lagoon also. Here, we rented a paddleboat. A paddleboat sits two people facing the same way and the passengers peddle to move forward. And one person steers with a very pathetic knob. (That one person would be me).

As we signed away any liabilities, we got into the boat and paddled up the lagoon. Steering is a special job. A job that meant I took blame of the inflexibility of the boat, of the inflexibility of the Pathetic Knob. I started to feel very panicky when we couldn’t turn around against the slight current and we were about to float into the “Do not Pass” zone. We might have ended up in no-man’s land! No-man’s water. Ignoring the abuse from my co-paddler, I worked the handle to turn us, worked it as if we were about to reach the end of the world. (Were we going to get stuck in this water forever? How would I get home in time if I couldn’t turn us around??) To shut her up, I made Melinda take over, since it looked so easy to her. I felt relief when she didn’t take us any farther. That could have been embarrassing. I took the steer back, and eventually (with panic ignored), turned us around. And we paddled back to the front. I didn’t want to go anymore because I didn’t want to have to turn around again. Eventually Melinda let me leave the lagoon, with this nice man helped us out of the boat. What nice Wiscosin people, I thought.

*****

Miller Brewing Company was the next stop. beer named “Miller.” Just Miller period.

Since the Cubs were in town, and all the fans went to the same few touristy places we did, we were amongst a very large crowd.

On the tour of the factory, I learned how the beer tends to be college and old man juice. But its always Miller time if you want it to be. We saw a movie. And went on a tour. The facilities were mostly shut down since it was the weekend.

The best, and the most important part was the last stop. Here, I got completely plastered. Smashed. Wasted. Millered. The time when everything is funny. And the beer was delicious!

Melinda left me in the gift shop whilst she helped out a Chicago family, who’s car battery needed a jump.

Melinda found me 10 minutes later, wandering around in circles, laughing at the t-shirts and signs to myself. “Its Miller time! Hahahahah.” She convinced me to take pictures with the life size beer bottles, laughed at me, and then dragged me to the car.

****

After hanging out and sobering up, we made a birthday dinner and took a walk to the Marquette University Campus. It was dark and dreary and quiet, since it was a Saturday afternoon in summer. We walked around and saw buidlings and small grassy knolls and trees. Very exciting. The coolest place was in the law school building. They had a coffee shop there called “Legal Grounds.”

Since it is a city campus, the campus is mingled with the city. So the buildings are mainly on one stretch of road. And the campus bar is around the corner from Walgreens. And near a burger joint called George Webb’s (the place that gives out 5 burgers for a $1 if the Brewer’s win a game).

Then we went back home for guests to arrive.

Before I came, Mel baked herself a 2-tiered cake that I helped frost later (cinnamon cake with cream cheese frosting). On the evening of her birthday she had a few friend’s over. As she tended to her guests, I put candles on this cake. I had a box of candles and an inspiration: Wouldn’t it be great to write “Happy Birthday” in candles? That translates to: Wouldn’t it be great if I tried to put all the candles on the cake even if they don’t fit? And so when you try to light all of them, you can burn your fingers and knock a few candles over and make a huge mess? I am a very smart girl.

After the decoration (of the now slightly lopsided cake) I brought the glowing pastry out and we sang happy birthday. And then we sang a round of happy birthday in three different languages (French, Hebrew and Spanish… where else?).

****

I had long ago been forewarned that we would be going to a bar named “Safe House.” Everytime Melinda would mention it when we were in Milwaukee, people would either say “First time?” and giggle. Or they would start to ask “Do you know the -” and Melinda would cut them off.

I felt nervous before we went there. A lot of comments about passwords, and hushed responses, “don’t say anything” and “initiation.” The entrance to this illustrious bar was in an alleyway. I was expecting a guy in a window at the top of a huge door overlooking customers. But we just waited online to get in the door. And I heard more talk about passwords.
So we paid out fee, and the girls whispered something in the lady at the counter’s ear and she let them in, after yelling “She doesn’t know the password!” and giggling as they ran inside.

So I didn’t know the password, eh? What happened to me then? Well I was given hula hoop and was told to use it. So I hula-ed. And this happens to be a talent of mine. I was grounded for two solid months, and aside from teaching myself to juggle with one hand, I taught myself to hula like a professional. So, this was fun. I rotated my hips until this gypsy-like-lady told me it was OK to “go in.”

Going in. Going in an automatic wooden door. Shut behind me. It was dark. I walked straight, kind of scared, because I was alone. And I followed the directions on the wall, and nothing happened for like a minute, and while I thought I would get stuck in there forever, the wall opened. And there stood my people. Waiting for me at the bar. And laughing.

They saw everything I did from the TV on the wall! On TVs throughout the bar. Spy vision.

Safe House is a spy themed bar; it was so cool. Aside from typical spy named drinks, the whole decor had puzzles and toys to play with. You could spy on people in the bathroom.

The password to get in is even written on the wall somewhere, but I won’t tell you, just in case you one day go.

The best part is the exit. I knew what would happen, and because of that, I couldn’t wait to leave. See, there is a regular door that you can just walk out of. But if you happen to have a quarter, you walk into this secret room to a payphone. Pick the phone up, put the quarter in. You stand in this very dim, cement hallway and listen, “This is your mission, should you chose to except, at the sound of the tone press “8765″. And you do. And this door opened up with a bang. And you walk down an even scarier dim hallway. And something behind us jumped. And I jumped. And ran to the door. And out into the same alleyway that we started in!

Melinda’s Birthday party was over, so we went home and went to sleep. Sunday I would wake up and take the plane home. And my Wisconsin Adventure would be over!

Big stadium, but smaller than what I am used to. The guy who’s name was on my shirt played outfield (either center or right). When the Brewer’s would go for their first bat of the game, or when someone hits a homerun, the mascot slides down this 1-stadium story long slide. In midair! And then fireworks go off. In daylight!

I spent a lot of time trying to forget baseball rules and facts that my brother etched into my head when I was a kid. It was never girly enough and I didn’t like watching baseball on TV. So watching this game, I had to ask a lot of questions, not remembering anything.

Around the 4th inning, Melinda took me for my first brat. When we got up, I naturally grabbed my t-shirt bag with my t-shirt in it, to take with me. I guess it was the Queens in me. Cannot leave things unattended, even though people in my group were still sitting there. When I asked Nate and Craig to watch it for me, they laughed. No they continued laughing that I picked up the bag to take in the first place. But anyway, that’s the way it is.

So inside the stadium, I picked up my first brat, first non-Zurich pork brat and put mustard, ketchup, and special sauce (??) on it. Then went over to the beer ladies and I very intelligently asked for “Miller Light Draft.” Something I can laugh at now. The confused girl got even more confused when I asked her, and I got impatient and embarrassed. So then I pointed, like a foreigner, at my Light Draft beer in a Miller Genuine Draft container. That is what you get when you see commercials only for Miller Light. And don’t care to pay attention. You think the whole company is called Miller Light.

Ok I am done working off my embarrassment. Good beer anyway, I liked it enough to order it on purpose.

We sat down and ate what reminded me of eating a penis, but at least the secret sauce on it was good. By this time, the game began to get boring and was only watching about 30% of the game. I spent the rest of it eating peanuts, conversing with the 3 people I was with, gossiping with Melinda about the half naked Miller cheerleaders milling around, watching the crazy fans, locating the mascot, and who knows what else.

I found out that Craig would be moving to British Columbia, Canada at the end of the summer and was teaching himself French from a book. I am not sure why, since they speak English there, but who am I to judge. So I took to teaching him the correct pronunciation of words that you can only get from hearing it. As if I was an expert (I should be since I studied the language for six years). But by that time I was a little buzzed from my Miller Light Draft that I called Canada “Canadia.” I’ve been calling it that as a joke for so long that I forgot the right way to say it. Oops!

The section we sat in was called the party section. No one would warn me what it was ahead of time, so I got a surprise (although I think it was because they did not know what to expect either). During some inning change, the Miller half naked girls ran into our section shooting streamers and balloons everywhere. Everyone in the party section cheered and yelled for the cameras. Then they shot out t-shirts, and other strange paraphernalia (like I got in the parking lot). One of the guys caught a t-shirt and gave me it. That was nice.

The game got really boring after that since the Brewer’s were losing. The four of us left and met Jillian at the Fridays within the stadium. That place was really cool; it had floor to ceiling windows, so you can watch the game. Almost better than having outside seats, because you are so close to the field.

We had some more beer, and the others had some more brat as well. Jillian’s mom asked me if I liked baseball. I told her honestly no, but I had a lot of fun. I don’t think she liked that answer. Baseball fans just don’t understand.

Eventually the game ended and we decided to leave. One of the Brewer player’s was autographing in Fridays and Craig really wanted his signature. So we all waited on this line. But he stopped signing when we got right up to the guy. How rude.

Left the stadium and walked the long walk back to the car. Separated from Jillian’s gang and I started to get harassed by different crazy drunken men. This very drunk sketchy man with a beard wanted to help me carry my bag. He followed us, but I gave him a very firm “No,” and I refused to look. And we walked faster to the car. Some of the other drunken words from the other brilliant post-tailgaters were “hey hot-loins,” and “what’d ya get from the fan zone?” We ran into the car. I was a little shaky. Then we drove home, through the drunken drivers on the road and the silence.

We arrived at Melinda’s apartment exhausted. Before bed, we watched the movie Rent. She went to bed half way through. I stayed up really late watching it. Then I went to bed and slept a really deep sleep.

The Milwaukee Brewer’s would be playing the Chicago Cubs. It was like the subway series for the Mid-West. The car-commute series. There was a big rivalry between fans, and so I expected huge crowds and major traffic before the stadium to park. Melinda was surprised to and tried to find out why there was no excessive line into the stadium parking lot, as if something was wrong. But no, just happened to be that way.

We parked our car way down in the back of a lot. We passed many tailgaters (an idea completely new to me) as we weaved through cars looking for her friend named Jillian. We finally located her and squeezed through some beer guzzler’s BBQ to get to her and her crowd.

So then, Melinda did the introductions. She introduced me to “Jillian, Jillian’s Mom, Jillian’s boyfriend and Jillian’s brother.” That was funny. Then they offered food and drink. Nate (Jillian’s boyfriend) grilled us some hotdogs . I had a beer and felt a little awkward as Melinda caught up with her friend. But then Craig (Jillian’s brother) wanted to discuss where I was from and decided that Queens (where I’m from) is much cooler then Long Island (where Melinda is from). Then all kinds of activity took place. We ate the hot dogs. These Miller Light people came over in Miller paraphernalia giving out Miller necklaces, key chains and shirts to people drinking their beer. I was not drinking Miller, but my party forced the girls to give me some goodies since I was visiting. That was really cool. Luckily, they gave me some real treasures. A blue beaded necklace with a rubber light-up circle detailing Miller and a key chain with a flip-flop were what they threw at me.

Tailgating is fun. It’s a lot of atmosphere and BBQ-ing, which you can’t like if you’re a vegetarian and you don’t drink beer. But it’s not just that. There is music blasting and people conversing about nothing. It’s light and easy to be there. And then you get to see silly things like people doing pushups in groups for Miller Light t-shirts.

We packed up and got ready to walk over to the stadium together. Melinda started to discuss the after-game. Mentioned that we were going to the Marquette bar downtown. Jillian’s whole party groaned and tried to convince us to go to Fridays for brat and beer. “Yeah, that’s all we do here Rachel, eat Brat and beer.” I looked at my watch and retorted, “It’s 5:30 – time for my Bratwurst fix. It’s Brat thirty.” And internally I was thinking, “Friday’s????????” But anyway, that was left alone and we walked under the highway to the stadium.

I got the chills as we walked up to the stadium. It’s a big building. Its many years older than Shea or Yankee stadium and it just looks pretty. There is a large, long brick building in front of me, with the words “Miller Park” tattooed in a huge sign on front. I took pictures as I was walking up to it. So excited. And very intelligently, as you can’t really snap pictures while walking, but that is beside the point. There was a very determined person on hand.

After picking up tickets, everyone split up to go to their seats. And Mel and I went to the “Fan Spot” or whatever its called – a huge souvenir store with baseball t-shirts in mass quantities. And after looking around, I found the cutest shirt to buy (a girlie fitted baseball T-shirt) and wear for the game. And we chose the player Jenkins (name on back), because I knew nothing about the team, and they didn’t have Melinda’s favorite player (he was off for an injury). I chose Jillian’s favorite instead. In typical Rachel fashion, I could not remember his name during the game.

Changed my shirt in the bathroom and ran to our seats as the National Anthem was sung. Nate and Craig were in the seats behind us. Jillian and her mom had season seats a few sections below. They were major Brewer fans.

Then we opened up the bag of peanuts, cracked the shells and threw them on the floor; now we were ready to watch the game.

Leon’s is rumored to be what Happy Days was fashioned after. It is a frozen custard place on the side of road, with lots of traffic in and out. It is just a drive up place; you probably can get regular food there, but the ideal attraction is this custard. We walked straight up to the window and had 20 seconds to make a selection. They gave me one scoop of vanilla on a sugar cone, and I took a lick. It was like thick, heavy, cold vanilla butter. It had a very satisfying pull that ice cream doesn’t have, that just melts in your mouth. And then it melts in your mouth.

We ate the cones in the car and watched the activity in front of the store. Wisconsin’s cultural merge fascinates me. Leon’s was only 15 minutes outside the center of town, so it was mostly suburban. But close enough so the inner people hung out there too. From the car, I watched one group of girls with super short shorts flirt with tattooed/wife-beater wearing boys with missing teeth. And then there was another group of boys wearing super baggie jeans, long shirts and bandanas around their heads strutting to the custard counter.

We were on a tight schedule to see and do as much as possible in the next 2 hours before the game. So, I got a very succinct, brief tour of downtown Wisconsin. This time, I got to see the Marquette interchange construction project in daylight. There is a lot of renovation and redirection going on that could make you go down a one way street and then another day drive across 2 lanes of traffic to make a left hand turn.

The interchange led us to a very quaint downtown area with a lot of little stores and a tiny bridge over one of Lake Michigan’s tributaries (I think). We parked in a lot pretending like we were going to store that was just closing so we could get free parking. Then went to a spice shop. The shelves were lined with large bottles of spices: marinating spices, BBQ spices, Cajun spices, spicy spices, curries, garlics, sugars, maple sugars, cinnamons. I got to taste as many as I wanted. Melinda instructed me on pouring a tiny bit in hand and savor it. That would never fly in New York, so I felt a little dangerous. Just kidding. I tasted a lot of disgusting things. But then I had gingerized candy and that was just terrible. But, then I sampled these freeze-dried corn kernels and they were the best thing ever. So I bought a pack, in addition to one spice I bought as a gift.

From the spice shop we went back to Melinda’s place for her to change to fan gear- and to put the cheese in the refrigerator. And then it was time for the Brewer game!

Since Melinda moved to Wisconsin and started having visitors, she told me about the Jelly Belly Jelly Bean factory that is near enough to visit. And since then, I had asked her to go and was very excited, even before planning a trip to Milwaukee. So I had been looking forward to this point in the trip since the start, and so when we walked up to the building and Melinda was like “Psssh, I did this already,” I laughed at her and thought, “I bet you could do this a million times,” in my kid-like state.

So the building is small, it has a big sign with its name, and a VW Bug outside decorated with Jelly Beans. And inside there was a line, and so we waited for the next tour. There were pictures on the wall all things to look at. And there was a creepy teenage boy that was eyeing my shirt (“Pirates Aaaare cool”), who kept smiling and winking at me. When the line moved forward, the tour guide gave us these really cool paper hats to wear, like we were going to be preparing food. And then we sat on this train that was situated within a huge storage facility setting.

Everyone had to buckle in and agree to keep his or her hands within the cars. And I was really excited. Wondered if we were going to go really fast through the preparation sections. This girl squeezed in next to me, garbed in JB food safe attire, with paperwork on leading tour guides. I felt proud I would participate her training.

But then I felt less proud. So, this tour that we were on was a tour of the distribution center, and NOT of a factory. I realized this when the train only circled around the boxes and shelves, while listening to a mousy girl with a high-pitched voice describe the process of production from actions viewed on large screen and small screen TVs. It was so boring; my eyelids were getting heavy. And I couldn’t complain to Melinda, because “I’ve done this so many times!!”

There were two interesting parts of this tour. One was the JB art, that they used the colors of the beans to create pictures. Pictures of their logos and of US Presidents. And the other interesting part was, at the end of the tour, they gave out free Jelly Bellies. And then you could shop in their store and have free samples.

I bought this huge page of hand-selected flavors of beans I might like. At the register, the bag came out to weighing 2.4 lbs. This was a lot of jelly beans. (Especially for someone who avoided eating them for about 10 years since she got sick from eating so many.)

Outside the store, Melinda forced me to pose like Jessica Simpson across the hood of the VW Bug while she took a picture. Luckily, I was short enough to look extraordinarily awkward while doing it, and the pictures duly came out this way.

Driving back to Milwaukee, we stopped the car mid-highway and took a picture of the “Bong Recreation Area.”

On the way to the center of town, we stopped at Leon’s.

Melinda was almost done with graduate school when I went to Wisconsin. She just had one last test to take and it was an oral exam. This exam was on the first morning that I was there. So after shipping out a nervous friend at 9:30am, I had time to take care of some things.

Since it would be Melinda’s birthday the next day, I brought crepe paper and balloons to decorate the apartment with. Never using crepe paper before, I quickly understood why I had never attempted to do this at some other time. It is the most annoying, disrespectful, and inflexible piece of paper I have ever met. Somehow, with a lot of tape, I maneuvered light purple and celadon strips of crepe all over her apartment. And then strung a “Happy Birthday” sign in her kitchen.  I tried to blow up balloons, but that just didn’t work. I gave up when I became light headed. I did not think my friend would appreciate a passed out guest when she came back.

As I was putting the finishing touches (ok, I was determined to crepe paper as much of the apartment as I could before Mel came back), Melinda called me from a block away. Not like she new to warn me to put the tape away, but to tell me excitedly that she passed!  Yay!

Melinda walked in apartment looking delighted and excited.  But it was 11:30- time to start sight seeing, so after excitement and details on the test were passed, we got ready to go out.

Our first stop was the mall.  It was a very quick drive to the mall. Now that it was daylight, I was imposed on the cuteness of downtown Milwaukee.  I decided it looked like a combination of Boston (for the small town, busy city roads and short skyline), Binghamton (for the old buildings) and Albany (for the small city stately feel).

The mall was big and modern, but it was also 30% empty.  And the stores that did fill it up were the most eclectic group ever allowed to cohabit a mall. It even had leather chairs giving massages for a few bucks in the middle of the pathways. I liked it. It had character.

The mall trip’s purpose was to find me a Brewer’s t-shirt to wear to the game that night.  No luck on it at the mall, but one cool thing I came across in a store named Brew City, was a t-shirt for “George Webb.”  This is a burger joint that will serve 5 hamburgers for $5 if the Brewer’s win a game.  Now that’s a lot of burgers to cook.  My attraction to it was the name. It was Dave’s grandfather’s name. I decided then to get a picture or some paraphernalia from the restaurant during the weekend.

Giving up on the t-shirt search, we headed to Kenosha (“What did you call me?”), which was almost a half hour drive away. The destination was Mars Cheese Castle.  I won’t tell you what it  is until we get there. But I will tell you what we saw on the way.  We passed one signed indicating “Bong Recreation Area Exit 340.” It was only a rest stop..  We also saw the Harley Davidson Headquarters, which is just a wide building with motorcycles out front.  I also saw some more funny town names. But the funniest place all together was the Mars Cheese castle.  Driving up to it, I took a picture of the outside. The huge sign above the store had flags above it, like it was a castle. But we also stopped across the street from at, the competition, and took a picture of a silly cheese van. A dummy sat in front with an American flag and American flag cheese (American cheese?). It was so silly, that I loved it.

We went inside Mars Cheese and it was like a cheese wonderland.  Not like a walmart, brightly lit wonderland land. It was like a large log cabin inside with a long counter of people cutting cheese and a large refrigerator holding lots of cheese and cheese signs and cheese pictures everywhere.

The best part of the place was the samples. You could taste anything you wanted.  I asked for chocolate cheese and smoked gouda.  Spicy cheese, Swiss cheese, cheddar, wholly cheese, crumbly cheese, stinky cheese, mild cheese, jumbo cheese, cocktail cheese…

I bought some souvenir cheeses and postcards that Melinda convinced me to buy. I have never been able to mail a single postcard in the last 5 years, mostly due to not having a stamp.  So I was carrying assorted cheeses, postcards and a mug I decided to buy, and decided to play with the cheese hats.  A manager followed me over with a basket to carry my items in.  He looked at me like a little kid who was going to mess up the store. But he made Melinda put on a cheese hat and take a picture with me. That made me forgive him.

I bought this weird space-ship candy at the checkout counter, that I regret now. It looked cool; it even looked like a Swiss candy in its yellow and blue European looking bag. When I opened it at home, it tasted like Styrofoam and powdered sugar.  I tried two and dumped it.

The next stop would be the Jelly Belly Jelly Bean factory in Pleasant Point, Wisconsin.

So here I am in Wisconsin as I walk down the ramp in the Milwaukee airport. Its dark and empty feeling because its 10pm. I smile with a half numb/half deaf face and think “I’m somewhere else!”

And Melinda stands in the waiting area, holding a sign. I feel dramatic in my half a head state and run to her and hug. Some yells of excited words between us cause some stares. Too much excitement for 10pm.

Animated we are speaking as we start walking to the doors and I say “WAIT, Stop! What is that sign you are holding?” She laughes and I grab for it. “Oh my gosh, I totally didn’t read it! Of course, I’ll be your maid of honor!” It’s a piece of oaktag with markered words and a picture of us (the best one we have of us) asking “Rachel, Will you be my made of honor?” as if she was proposing.

After rejoicing again and having people stare again we went to her car and we were off. Drove down the highways in darkness and first learned of this mystery project “the Marquette Exchange.” It sounded suspicious, especially when I learned you have to go the wrong way down one ways sometimes.

She reminds me that no one in Wisconsin is required to have driver’s insurance and bikers are not required to wear helmets either. But one has to assume that Milwaukee drivers are less crazy then New Yorkers. Oh, and Harley Davidson’s headquarters are nearby. So that explains some things.

From dark highway streets, we moved to a residential/queens-like urban suburban confusion. Mel declared that people always say they think her apartment is smaller than imagined. So when we walked into it, after parking, I can’t say I didn’t think and almost say the same thing.

We parked in an enormous lot surrounded by several different buildings and residences. One has to first walk out of the lot and walk around to the front of a small building. Open the lock to this enormous glass door. And there we were!

She gave me a mini-tour of the living/dining room, the “you-can-almost-turn-around” kitchen, bathroom and surprisingly large bedroom. But unusually when I am about to stay over someone’s house, I felt very comfortable.

Then Melinda and I frosted her birthday cake, a task which she intentionally saved for my arrival. I got the job of cleaning the frosting off of the spoon. Nothing like dipping the spoon back in to the jar for more to lick off. The night was spent talking. A few weeks prior, we made the decision to hold off on major conversations, so we’d have enough to say to each other. So the words were falling out as we tried to remember everything we wanted to tell the other. But in my exhausted and half deaf state I couldn’t stay awake anymore. So asleep I went.

It has become my goal in life to visit every single state in the US. All 50 states, Washington DC and maybe, maybe all provinces of Canada. Not sure yet. I could ‘Magellan’ all of the continent and do Mexico. But I don’t know about that yet.

And the stops have rules. I can neither count an air transport layover, nor the drive through. I’d prefer to spend a few hours in each place, and not just see the scenic tour as I am leaving.

Although it truthfully may suck in those places I can’t think of a reason to go to right now. But I won’t say them, so as not to offend anyone.

But anyway, the first “out of state” adventure I’ve had since my decision is Wisconsin. When I scheduled my visit there many people could not understand. “Why Wisconsin? Why there? What’s there?” But I went to visit my friend who went to school there (she moved back to NY shortly after I left because graduation already took place, so why stay there any longer?)

So I booked a flight to Milwaukee for a Thursday night after work. It would be my first time flying in 3 years, and my first time flying domestically in 9 years. Wow! It’s a big deal because I was afraid flying. But for my friend Mel’s birthday, I planed my fear and settled on flying, as compared to a 39-hour car ride. Midwest would be my airline, and I was ready to go.

On the evening of, I took a grownup cab all by myself, and paid with a grownup 20 and a coupon. Walked out of the car like I knew where I was going. And paused with a second of panic because I had no idea where I was going. Deep breathe and looked up and there was the Midwest counter. Walked right up and checked-in, like it couldn’t have been any easier.

LaGuardia airport has an enormous food court set against huge floor to ceiling windows giving a great view to the planes taxiing.  I strolled around for a while, pretending that I might buy something.  I bought Melinda chocolate covered gummy bears, which sounds disgusting, but apparently she really likes it.   (Truthfully, I was hesitant to buy more than a few because I really didn’t believe it would taste tasty). I sat by the windows and made some phone calls. “Networked” between my friends on my cell.  And then I went through the security with my shoes on my feet and sat on the “other side.” And read my book.

My flight was called and I was nervous!  So I boarded and walked to my seat- my cushy leather seat. I got comfortable and looked at the sunset outside. And I was ready. I felt very happy to be flying. And the plane ride was smooth and easy.  I can’t remember flying and being able to see land below. The borders of and waterways.

And in the air, the airline serves you 2 homemade warm cookies.  They didn’t taste so great, but the novelty was wonderful.

And before I got too comfortable, we started to land. And my ears began to pop. It hurt so badly.   And we landed like I would be picked up and laid onto my bed when I was a child.

And I walked out of the plane, once again acted like I knew where I was going, and there was Melinda waiting for me with a sign, and I had arrived!