Sense or Humor

This weekend, I traveled to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and Wisconsin to perform. It was quite the adventure getting up there. I purposely planned my trip so I could arrive at the hotel with a couple hours to spare before my show. Normally when I do out-of-town shows, I like to allow myself time to check out the town, go over my notes and, of course, take advantage of the hotel's free cable.

I had planned to cross the Mackinac Bridge from the lower peninsula to the upper at around 2 pm. Unfortunately, right before I was about to cross, several police officers made everyone exit the highway and told us that they were closing the bridge.

I tried to remain calm.

"How long will it be closed for?" I asked.

"Oh, at least four hours," was his response.

WHAT?!

I immediately began to have a slight heart attack as four hours meant I would cross at 6 pm, and I still had nearly four more hours of driving to reach my destination.

But, instead, I used the time to pull into a Burger King parking lot, steal their wifi and get some much needed work done (namely: checking various facebook status updates).

While in the parking lot, I heard stories being tossed around that the closure was due to a huge accident where a semi was actually hanging over the bridge.

Um, whoa.

I never found out exactly what happened, but they finally opened the bridge right before 6 pm. I then drove like a bat out of hell to the gig, and I quickly changed in a Taco Bell parking lot. Modesty be damned when the masses need to be entertained (and when I say masses, I mean 50 or so people)!

I arrived at the show (at Pasquali's in Neguanee, Michigan) with ten minutes to spare. Phew! I tried to calm my nerves and give my stomach a pep talk so she wouldn't continue to do flip-flops (thinking I was going to miss the show had me quite worked up).

The show was a lot of fun (I worked with headliner Mike Mercury, who is hilarious!), and we had a huge turn-out! After the show, I sold quite a few bumper stickers, and enjoyed some vegan pizza and beer with audience members (a big thank you to Clark, the owner, and his family for making me food and taking such good care of me).

Since I was in such a rush pre-show, I wasn't able to check into the hotel until after the show. Well, by that time, the hotel owners had gone home so I wasn't able to do so. Instead, I got to stay with Clark's parents, who were so very kind and hospitable to offer their home to me. I got to stay in the "grandkid room" (complete with stuffed animals and Dallas Cowboy sheets), which made me miss staying with my own grandmother.

On Saturday, I headed to Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin. I had some time to kill during the day, so I did some fun, touristy things like taking a nap in the Walmart parking lot and charging my iphone in the Kwik Trip gas station. The outlet was conveniently located near the ATM. You truly haven't lived until you've spent several hours smelling the liquor on the breath of random strangers who are withdrawing money to buy more alcohol.

The show was a lot of fun. The audience was nice, and they indulged my jokes about Sweetest Day (which I only bust out once per year). Unfortunately, Mike Mercury got sick and wasn't able to do the show. But, instead, I got the chance to work with my friend, Mike Marvell. So it was nice to catch up with him.

Looksy what I found when I arrived at the gig:



That's right, I graced the cover of the Lakeshore Entertainer. The cover is kind of like the hidden pictures game in Highlights magazine, only instead of trying to spot a teacup or a ring, you have to spot what's wrong. For starters, it says sense or humor. Um...me thinks they might need to fire their proofreader(if they even have one).

There are a couple other things that crack me up, namely that being a girl with a sense of humor (er, make that sense or humor) is so rare that it's cover story worthy.

But, hey, I'm still pretty excited that I got to share top billing with a polka act. Only in Wisconsin.