Always Expect The Unexpected
Paul and I celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary a few weeks ago. Our tradition is to take turns (every other year) planing the anniversary festivities. This year was Paul's turn and I was so excited for what he had up his sleeve.
Our first stop was the gas station to fuel up before dropping Zoe off at Grandma's house. We pulled into our neighborhood Holiday station to pump up. As Paul was pumping gas we looked over a see man at the next tank holding a HUGE knife. Not like a butter knife, this was an assault weapon. Paul looked at me through the car window with wide eyes. The man walked over to the grass (which was right next to our car) and started cleaning the blade of the knife off in the lawn. Zoe looked at me and said, "Mom, is there blood on that knife? Did he kill somebody?" Okay, as a parent in this situation how do you respond when you are in shock yourself? The guy walked back to his car and told Paul, "Stop looking at me! You didn't see anything." Paul jumped in the car and we drove away. As we were driving we were going to write down his license plate and call the police.....no plates on the car.
Of course when we arrived at my parent's house Zoe had to tell the entire story to my mom and totally freak her out. After we got everyone settled down we tried to forget the gas station incident and enjoy our date.
Paul drove into Saint Paul and immediately I knew where we were going, Loto, my favorite place for halibut. For some reason, all the roads surrounding the restaurant were closed. I still really wanted to go there so we decided we would enjoy the weather and park a few miles away and walk to Loto. As we rounded the corner to Loto we heard a crowd of people and then saw a pack of about 100 bikes coming our way. Good Lord, what was going on? The annual Minnesota Bike Relay Race. Of course the finish line was right outside the patio of our date spot.
Ahhh the romance - screaming crowds and blow horns. I really wanted the halibut so we decided to keep our reservation and make the best of it. I sat down to order a delicious chocolate martini and Paul ordered a specialty beer. The waiter came back to say, "sorry sir, but we are out of your beer". Okay. Next we got ready to order our delicious fish, seriously it is the best halibut in town, I was so jazzed. "Sorry guys, we just ran out of the fish." WHAT? We drove all the way from Coon Town - walked two miles - through the bike crowd and no fish?! Sad. We ordered their burger, worst burger I have ever had (probably not a true statement, but I just really wanted that fish). We decided to get one of their beautiful desserts as a consultation prize. As we went to order the waiter laughed in sorrow and said, "our pastry chef quit yesterday and we have no dessert." Of course not. We decided we would walk down to the river and get dessert somewhere down by the water.
As we exited our Loto letdown we decided to watch part of the bike race (which was actually quite exciting). As we continued to walk down to the river, I continued to walk and watch the race at the same time. As we were rounding the corner I tripped on the sidewalk, fell off the sidewalk, hit my head on a parked car and landed entirely on my left knee and rolled into the downtown street of Saint Paul.
Ouch is right. As I opened my eyes, I saw about 100 people standing around me in horror. "Are you okay?" "Oh my god, is she hurt?" "This girl needs a medic!" I am sure a fair share were laughing as well, how could you not? Paul helped me up and I was bloody and covered in dirt. A medic from the bike race was trying to convince me to go to the medical tent. Now can you imagine if I would have gone into that tent? The medical staff was there for the bikers, not people passing through the crowd. I promised the staff member I was okay and he let me go. Apparently I yelled, "I'm fine, I'm a dancer and get hurt all the time." WHAT? What kind of answer was that? I blame it on my head injury ;)
As I limped back to the car I realized I ripped the knee out of my favorite dress pants and scrapped up my favorite brown shoes....devastated. I was also silently cursing the universe for how far we had to walk back to the car....all this for a piece of fish?! As we continued walking my dad called Paul's cell phone in a panic, "what is wrong with Rachel, is she okay, what is going on?" is all I could hear. Paul was starting on wonder if my parents had ESP, "how did you know Rachel is hurt?" he asked. When I fell my cell phone flew out of my purse and automatically called my parents, all they could hear was someone yelling, "she needs medical attention". My poor parents thought I had been hit by a car. Baugh!
We finally got back into the car and I was moaning in pain by this point. We had to cut our date short, obviously, so we decided to pick up a pie at Baker's Square to enjoy at home. As we pull into the 10 minute pie pick up parking spot I told Paul all I wanted was a slice of my favorite - fresh strawberry cream cheese pie. Paul came back laughing and looked at me and said, "they are all out of your pie."
When we finally got home Paul put me into bed, gave me some meds and two ice packs - one for my knee and one for the bump on my head. He kissed my nose, smiled, looked into my eyes and said, "happy fourth anniversary love, we'll always remember this one."
- Photo of the finish line at the race.
