You Get What You Pay For

Last Thursday night I went to the rodeo with my friends Sarah & Jen.

We planned on meeting at "park & ride" at 6:00 pm but I was still driving back from being in San Antonio with my family for Spring Break at 4:30 pm.  I kinda started to panic about time so I did that thing where you plan your outfit in your mind so that all you have to do when you get home is change & freshen up your makeup.  Once I got home, I had to unload my car.  It was loaded down with what I had originally taken to SA plus about four Target bags of unnecessary (but super cute) purchases. I knew I was on a time crunch & I have this unspoken rule that I will only make ONE trip no matter how many bags & things I have to juggle. My suitcase may have fallen over a few times & I may have lost circulation in my left arm, but I got it all in one trip! Side note: Sometimes when I get home from the store & my arms are loaded down with grocery bags, I just tell myself to think of it as a WOD (workout of the day) & I can't stop.  It actually works, you should try it!

Multi-tasking gets the best of me sometimes & I caught myself brushing my teeth while unpacking. I'm a little bit OCD so it was really, really, REALLY hard for me to drop my bags without unpacking anything.  Needless to say I made pretty good time but I had to throw my hair up into a messy bun.  Jen sent me this & I had to laugh!

 

Jen was trying to tell me she was the girl on the right & I was the girl on the left. Riiiiiight. If only we could all look like the girl on the left when it comes to messy buns! Made me laugh though that's for sure.

As I was driving to meet the girls, I was sent to about three different parking locations because Sarah & Jen decided that our first couple of options were not safe.  I was glad they were a little ahead of me so they could scope out the parking situation & make sure we parked somewhere safe & sound. I mean, that's what one could assume would be the outcome.  However, the parking location of choice was free.  Free. Aka enter at your own risk.  I pulled in & saw Jen waving happily to me to go park by her & Sarah, who was also smiling happily.  Did they see where we were? Where were we? Did we cross the border? Our dads would not be ok with this. I decided to do a quick, but super authoritative prayer before I got out of the car all the while nonchalantly smiling at the girls like everything was just so super. ;)

We made our way across the street (we were by a Jack in the Box if that also tells you something) to ride this thing called a Rail. It was like bus on a track.  And of course, we were one stop away from being the furthest from the rodeo.  Free parking though, right?!  The rail is an experience all on its own.  So much people watching, you can't help but stare.

Fast forward through the fried food goodness, the crowds, the rodeo, the awkward selfies I saw being taken that were too numerous to count & the concert, it was time to head back to the cars. I couldn't stop thinking about not wanting to go back to that parking lot.  If y'all could've seen how sketchy.  When we began our commute back to our cars, I literally almost asked about 3 policemen standing around if they would escort us to our cars. I even searched through my purse while we were on the rail for something that could look like a weapon & found some lip gloss that would potentially look pretty dangerous. (I was desperate.)

I made the girls discuss a quick plan of action for when we reached our stop: rush to our cars, get Jen's niece in first, then the stroller, then run to our respective vehicles & leave!

Oh, I forgot to mention that Jen's niece was with us!  Jen pushed a stroller the entire time.  Which, I'm not sure if anyone has ever had a stroller at the rodeo, but you get all kinds of special treatments with that thing.  It felt like Titanic with the "woman & children first" privilege.  I might take one with me next year just for that!

Anyway, back to the plan of action.  Sarah knew she was going straight for her car asap.  She suggested we all press our panic buttons & have our alarms go off when we arrived to our cars to scare anyone away.  I'm laughing about it now, but it seemed pretty logical at the time.  We didn't do it.

To speed this long rambling story up, since I know you are all on the edge of your seats, we got off the rail & immediately rushed to the cars across the street, past the Jack in the Crack and a few groups of people just chillin on the sidewalk.  I grabbed Jen's niece's backpack & put her in the car while Jen got the stroller in. Then we all made a mad dash for our cars pressing the lock buttons right away. But wouldn't ya know, I still had the dang back pack in my hand.  Haha! Figures. Who cares, we were in our cars safe & sound!

That night saved us each $20 in parking & made for one of the most memorable rodeo experiences to date.  I'm sure I'm being a little dramatic, but it was real y'all.  We legitimately parked in the ghetto.

I will gladly pay for everyone to park next time.  :)