We have a tradition in my house. It is called the Memory Jar. Inside of the clear Bormioli jar are thin slips of white computer paper. Every time something happens in our family that we want to remember we write it down and throw it in the jar. Every New Year’s Eve, my husband and I sit down together after the kids have gone to bed and we take turns reading them out loud.
It was a perfect day in September, mid 70’s and the sun was shining as we were driving down the interstate. This was the very first time we were leaving our youngest over night, so I was a bit nervous but feeling good about it. My husband and I were going to the Ed Sheeran concert at Gillette Stadium in Boston and we decided to rent a hotel room at a place about 3 miles from the Stadium. We wanted it to be special and relaxing. I was also getting sick…but made a pact with myself that I would not complain about it the entire time and would keep a good attitude. Man, was that tested!
We first arrived at our hotel room, which was probably the dirtiest room I have ever stayed in. And I’ve been in a lot of hotel rooms! After looking through my suitcase I realized I forgot the bottles for my Medela pump, for those nursing mamas reading this….you get how devastating that was! Thankfully there were two plastic cups near the sink so somehow I managed. Then the sitter called shortly after we arrived that the baby got hurt. She was okay and through all of that I maintained a good attitude.
My husband and I got ready and headed across the street to grab dinner at the nearest restaurant. The floor was super slanted. Like if you put a marble on the floor, it would roll to one side. At this point our evening was already laughable. We requested an Uber and headed to Gillette.
We had never been there and were blown away by just how amazing it was! We began the search for our seats. Guys, our seats were so high up… it was pretty terrifying! I felt like I could fall at any moment! My husband went to grab us a few drinks for the concert, and all they had was canned gin & tonic for a cool $12 a pop. CANNED mixed drinks for $12. Crazy. Everything faded away once I heard Ed’s voice though. The concert was AMAZING, I thought I loved Ed before this concert…but he is truly incredible.
Once the concert ended…that is where the night got really good. We started walking out of the stadium and requested a ride share. After being connected with one, it canceled on us shortly after. Odd. We tried again…same thing happened. Okay…so we decided to start walking out away from the stadium, maybe we could find a ride share out there. Nope. The drivers kept canceling on us. I started to get worried. It was 11pm, I was wearing HEELS, and our hotel was 3.5 miles away. We kept walking and saw a different ride share’s hub! Great news! They had us download their app and request a ride. EVERY DRIVER CANCELLED ON US. The traffic was terrible and we were starting to realize that the drivers did not want to waste their only trip on a 3 mile fare.
Wonderful.
So you know what we did? WE WALKED BACK TO OUR HOTEL. We didn’t really have much of a choice really. After a mile in, the sidewalk ended and we were walking down the side of a highway. We would jump the guard rail everytime a car came flying by. Guys, I kept a good attitude the ENTIRE TIME. This could have been the worst day ever, but it turned out to be one of our greatest adventures. Mindset matters!
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