Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Day Five: Sunday (part 2)

We got to the hotel to find the parents a bit in a huff because we were slightly late. Not that it cause a problem but they didn’t have a way to get a hold of us and were worried we didn’t realize the time had changed and it was an hour later. Did I mention Jason’s Grandma Pat lives around the corner from Lissa?
We pilled in the car (and when I say pilled, I mean PIELED) in to the car and headed over to Uncle Bill’s because Jennifer left her shoes over there the night before. Then we headed over to Jessica and Jim’s because she had left her skirt at their apt the day before. We also wanted to get to the conference center together because we had CONFERENCE TICKETS! Cue the screaming fans. The tickets don’t give seats numbers, just sections, and you aren’t supposed to save seats. Jessica and Jim weren’t ready. At all.
They do have several very pretty birds, two salt water tanks, two frogs, a python and a retarded rabbit. I seriously thought the rabbit was deformed, because it’s head is sideways, it actually just has vertigo problems and falls over a lot.
We left Jessica and Jim’s tickets on the fridge and headed over to the most disturbing place on earth. (Slight exaggeration, but only slightly.) We found a parking spot with out a problem- which I felt was a small miracle, and walked onto the conference grounds. It was awful. I didn’t like it at all. Sure there were the standard signs telling us that Mormons were all going to Hell- those didn’t really bother me. It was the hordes of members holding little signs that said things like “Need tickets” or my personally traumatizing moment, “Spiritually Starving – need tickets” accompanied by…a kid who looked like he was about 15 playing the violin. I kid you not.
It was like the outside of a concert. I never want to go to conference again. It was worse then the hordes of cranky families of 10 from Idaho who would come into the hotel and demand adjoining rooms facing the temple.
We got through the extremely rigorous security and got our seats, where Jason noticed I had descended into the land of “Cranky” and asked “why”.
Such a loaded question.
I think Matt can support me in our aversion to crowds- but while Jason has seen this time and time again I don’t think he really understands the effect it has on my stress level. I was also very upset at the ticket scalpers outside. And to add insult to injury, the building is designed to have the air flow from the ceiling to the floor creating a sence of pressure on the top of my head, making me feel like I was in an airplane taking off; it also had the side effect of making me nauseous.
Jason tried to talk “reason” to me, nearly making me cry, that was when James, started in on his opinion – which I nipped n the bud, by announcing in my best “Dad” voice that “it wasn’t open for discussion.” Jason decided to leave me alone and just played with my hair till I calmed down.
He is so smart.
The conference it’s self was wonderful – full of some great talks. The tabernacle choir sounded amazing in person.
But I still don’t get the migration to Utah for General conference. It didn’t seem that much different than when I went to church to watch conference. I personally am not a fan of watching it in home because a lot of people just roll out of bed and stay in their PJ’s and fall asleep on the couch. Jason really loved being able to attend in person, he felt it added something to the experience, being able to see the profit (from very far away) in person and just knowing you were in the same room with them.
As an amusing side note- it did appear that several quorum of the 70 fell asleep during conference.
We did get a picture of the whole family in the conference hall in front of the pipes.

2 comments:

Matthew said...

Yipes, that does sound like a disturbing scene. Exploiting a 15 year old to get tickets? If you're spiritually starving, read a copy of the BoM, pray or catch the conference for free on broadcast. Their sign should have read:

"Willing to exploit my children and manipulate you because I didn't plan well enough to get tickets myself"

I'm with you on the crowd thing. Although in recent years that has tuned down for me. I came to realize that if I am to rule the world, I am going to need to put in face time with the masses, so better get used to throngs now while I'm still a Jr. Evil Villain.

I'm glad he defaulted to the playing with hair technique. While I was reading the post, I was thinking that a better plan than talking "reason" would have been head scratches or something distracting. Whenever Mormons get together, there is always plenty of comedic material.

I think I have some pics hanging around of when MA and I went to the last session of conference held in the tabernacle. I wonder where those got too...

Anyway, I'm glad you had a fun time in the end. Did Jessica and Jim make it there in the end?

Terra said...

they did, with plenty of time AND they parked two cars down from our car.