P-Shaped Octopi

The bottoms of my feet are sore; the skin on my inner thighs is chafed; my abdominal muscles ache; my elbows are bruised and cut; my tongue is raw from being burnt and exposed to too much salt; and I'm exhausted. All in all, a fantastic weekend.

On Friday Susan, the girls, and I packed up the van and drove to Minot, ND. We checked in to the Sleep Inn attached to the Dakota Square, the mall that represented "shopping" to me when I was growing up. My family would go to Minot occasionally for specialty doctor appointments (optometrist, dermatologist, etc.) and for school and holiday shopping, and we would always end up at the Dakota Square, which I loved for a few specific reasons:

1. It used to have a Hickory Farms store that offered free samples. When our family split into girls and boys and agreed to regroup later in the day at a certain time under the giant clock in the mall's center, my dad and I would head to Hickory Farms to taste the beer cheese soup. It was tasty in itself, but it had the added appeal of containing alcohol, the consumption of which was sanctioned by my dad who blatantly joined me in eating it. It wouldn't be until years later that I learned about alcohol's burning away during the cooking process.
2. It had (and still has) bookstores. If Dad wasn't along on a trip to Minot, Mom and my sisters could go off shopping together and know that, if I didn't show up at the clock at the appointed time, I could be found in the shelves of a bookstore, sampling books. I was rarely permitted to buy books, just as I was rarely permitted to buy anything that wasn't a necessity for school--a new pair of jeans, a tablet, etc. But I could window-shop all I wanted, and it was satisfying enough to peruse the books without actually purchasing anything.
3. It had (and still has) a food court. At meal time, we would head over to the food court with permission to select food from whichever vendor we desired. Cathy wanted pizza but Sandy wanted a hamburger but I wanted Chinese? Absolutely no problem in the Dakota Square food court! Mom gave us each a little money, sent us off to buy what we wanted, and waited for us to join her at a table to eat together, each with our favorite meal.

I also remember, on those occasions when I had to accompany my mom and sisters in their shopping rather than being able to go off on my own, being intensely bored, unexplainably fatigued, and unabashedly impatient. And it all came back to me on Saturday when I went with Susan and the girls shopping for Easter dresses. The shopping bags became very heavy, and the minutes they spent in the fitting rooms felt like hours. But this time, I kept my audible sighs and visible eye rolling in check and even appreciated the results: some very cute outfits for my precious little petunias.

A N Y W A Y, we had a suite in the Sleep Inn with a comfortable sitting area (couch, chairs, tables, refrigerator, microwave) separate from the comfortable bed + dresser + TV area separate from the sink/vanity area separate from the toilet/shower room (and what a huge shower--our entire family [fully clothed, mind you] stood in it at once just to test its capacity). We then kept an eye out for the arrival of our friends: the Almlies, the Jungs, and the Langeruds--three couples and their children, all families with whom we regularly socialized in East Grand Forks, MN. We had arranged to rendezvous this weekend in Minot as a central meeting place. This particular Sleep Inn features the Splashdown Dakota Super Slides water park with three huge, winding, very fast slides and four pool areas, one of which is a hot tub that can accommodate 45 people at once. Our plan was to enjoy the water park with the children each day and use the "living room" area of our suite for visiting with the adults each night.

And it was a great weekend. It was super to reunite with all our friends, and the water park was fun for the adults and kids alike. (It also was the cause of all the aches and pains I listed at the top of this post, except for the sore tongue. For that I have my snacking habits this weekend to blame.) I made hundreds of trips down each slide, not only with my own kids (particularly Hillary) but with the others, too, who liked the addition of an adult to the voyage downward because my weight seemed to increase the velocity. At night the kids were able to snack and watch movies in one room while the adults had beverages and food and played games in our room. (Jay and Erin even bought two-way radios in order to monitor the children without having to interrupt the adult festivities.)

As always with these friends, there was lots and lots of laughter, too. We visited over meals (breakfast Saturday and Sunday in the hotel, dinner Saturday in the mall's food court, pizza delivery for supper Saturday night, and dinner Sunday at Paradiso, a Mexican restaurant next to the mall) and while playing The Newlywed Game and "I have never . . . " Saturday night. The Newlywed Game's questions prompted some revealing answers from each couple (and is the source of this post's title, "P-shaped octupi," an amalgamation of answers from two separate questions, each one asking for a description of one's partner . . . and that's all I'm saying about that one). Perhaps even more interesting (and/or salacious?) details were revealed by playing "I have never . . ."--including the fact that the Jungs cannot grasp how to play "I have never . . ." We were all in fine form, however, naughty as ever and enjoying one another's company, as well as all the food that everyone brought to snack on for the weekend (ergo the over-salted tongue symptoms).

I now offer an assortment of observations about our weekend:

• Not everybody needs alcohol in order to act drunk.
• There is NO place the Mobergs can go without seeing/speaking to people whom we know. (I saw a doctoral cohort classmate who lives in Montana; Suzanna saw a former third-grade classmate who moved several months ago to Minot; and Susan saw her current boss and his wife, as well as a man who she thinks could have been my cousin Scott, who lives in California.)
• Until they install opaque panels in the totally enclosed, pitch-black-inside purple tube at the water park, I will continue to scream like a little girl every time I go shooting down it.
• Jay truly is my brother.
• The Almlies continue to be enterprising folks, willing to make any purchase in order to faciliate fun (e.g., the two-way radios).
• Like E.F. Hutton, when Jesse talks, people listen . . . because otherwise they will miss his rare but worthwhile witticisms.
• Pre-marital coitus is not the sole domain of non-Catholics.
• "Lunch" is an extremely funny word if spoken by a year-and-a-half old girl, who somehow can give it a multi-syllabic enunciation.
• On the outside I can joke about my third-grade daughter getting macked on by a fifth-grade boy, even if the thought of her slipping away into maturity and romances tears me up inside.
• Nicole is weird for not liking chocolate, but her strawberry-themed birthday ice cream cake was delicious.
• Rob should be seen on stage. (In a play, not a strip show.)
• Laurie and I together make a fun but naughty combination. (She told me today at dinner, "You know, before I met you, I was confident I was going to Heaven. Now I'm not so sure.")
• People DO read this blog, even if only to lurk and then, much later, tease about the level of detail provided RE: meals.
• Good friends can "pick right up" again as though they've never spent any time apart.