Going Against the Grain

Today was all about doing things I don't usually think of doing. 
For the past 8 months, or whenever they announced the grand opening for Ikea, I have had the date penciled in my calendar.  As I turned the page to July, back on the first, I got all excited because there it was, in pencil, that Ikea was opening.  I wrote that, "Ikea Opening" in the July 27th box.
I actually held myself to it.  I set my alarm for 7am.  Jordan, the night before, told me she didn't want to go.  I was glad because I knew that she would be a total buzz kill for my big day.  No offense but if you knew Jordan you'd understand.  She just doesn't have a good time doing the unknown and it's more stressful for her and big crowds, forget it.   Hannah on the other hand was a little wishy washy and didn't know if she wanted to go or not so I had Jack wake her up and ask her and she was up and adam and looking forward to it.  She grabbed her violin and put it in the car.  Hannah is so organized that she figured we could stop at the violin place and have it tuned and get the reed thing fixed.  I told her that Ikea was the priority and if we had time we would.  She rolled her eyes. 
We got in the car and drove down the driveway at 8:30.  It was cold out so we cranked the heat. It's July for cripes sake. 
The drive to Denver was quick and once we got to our turn off for Ikea the signs were directing us where to go.  It was all smooth and quick until we got in the traffic line leading into the Ikea parking lot.  What a slow moving drag that was.  And then you have your sneaks acting like they are driving past you on another mission only to try to jockey in front of you and get 10 or so cars ahead of the line.  Sorry old man and wife who was yelling at you.  I just couldn't sit in that line for 20 min and you just drive up and think I'll let you in.  I was on a mission too.  Plus, I was sweating like a pig, because I refuse to turn on the AC because I seem to have some weird thing against it. But I had not problem cranking that heat in the morning.   Hannah and I were singing and laughing and I told her to get her violin out and stand on the curb and make some money.  She kindly told me her bow was torn and it was out of tune. 
Finally, we got to park.  We got out of the car and the car next to us was a mother/daughter/baby team and I shut my door and Hannah shut her door and I said, "OH MY GOSH, Hannah.  I forgot my wallet!!"  I thought that other mother was going to die.  I thought she was going to give me her wallet she felt so bad for us.  I was teasing, of course, and we all had a great laugh.  I told grandma that we had just drove 100 miles for this.  She couldn't believe it. 
We walked in and the news was there.  We boarded the escalator with our handy Ikea loot bags and turned around and smiled and waved for the camera but they were taking them down.  We hit the bathrooms, after standing in that line for 10 minutes and we were ready.  It was so crowded. 
We started walking and everyone was bumping into us and it was hard to maneuver around.  We got some great ideas and kept walking and it seemed everyone was going to the same place.  I figured it was the food court.  After we got into the 3rd theme room I saw that there were arrows on the floor and we were walking against those darn arrows.  Of course Ikea would have one way to walk.  They are the King/Queens of organization.   We were walking Ikea backwards and not doing it right.  I figured, heck, I'm not turning my butt around to get cattle herded through this store like they want it.  I'm going to see Ikea the way I want to.  I already am doing the exact opposite thing I am comfortable with and that is shopping at a Grand Opening for a huge store and driving 100 miles to boot.  I am going to go against the grain and walk that damn store the wrong way.  So there.  
Well, we survived and we figured out how to see everything we wanted to see and we spent $37 on some fine items.  The check out line was the worst and Hannah was ready to pass out.  She was cranky.  We walked to our car and the funny thing is, The mother/daughter/ baby team were just getting back to their car too.  We had a good laugh with them again.   
We drove out of Ikea and headed over to Home Depot and had ourselves a hot dog and a coke and sat outside on the picnic table and enjoyed the moment. 
It was a fun day but I won't go to another Grand Opening again.  Unless I get some free schwag.