Riddle Me This . . .

Can one jinx a JINX?  Answer: kinda, but not totally.

Jinx TAKE ONE:

Flag Day, June 14, 2007, the day I married my beautiful bride (We did consider a May wedding for about 30 seconds, but then Megs started to sing that song from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers . . . They say when you Marry in June . . . and that was out the window.) It was a near perfect day, all until we were dropped off (quite literally 'dropped off’ by our limo driver.  Plug: DON’T use GLW Formal Affair.  Not cool, not cool.) at the Grand America Hotel for our wedding night.  We, Megs in her breathtaking wedding dress and I in my tux, were walked in and up to the counter to check in . . . and they couldn’t find our reservations.  The SAME reservations that were verified TWICE.  They looked at us, AT MIDNIGHT and CLEARLY having just been married, and said, “Sorry, maybe you could walk across the street to the Little America and stay in one of their rooms.”  I replied, “Maybe you could get a shuttle over there . . .”  They did . . . twenty minutes later.  Talk about a rain on our parade. Plug: The Grand America can kiss my butt.

Jinx TAKE TWO:

June 14, 2008: Our FIRST ANNIVERSARY.  We were in Nauvoo (we are kinda like junkies) having just celebrated with my grandma as she received her endowments in the temple.  My family left on the 13th and headed back to St. Louis to catch an early flight the next morning and Megs and I stayed that night to celebrate our anniversary.  The day was beautiful, but started to rain.  We were hearing reports of record flooding further north up the Mississippi and headed our way.  Water levels were rising at an alarming pace and bridges across the river were closing one after another.  After weighing out the pros and cons, we made the decision to leave that night (ended up being the right decision because the entire place flooded) and head to St. Louis before we were stuck.  We stayed that night . . . in the same room with my parents.  That’s right, with my parents.  Foiled again.

Jinx TAKE THREE:

June 13, 2009.  We were in Park City shopping at the outlets in preparation for our second anniversary.  On our way home, We got a call from Megs sister, Krista.  This would end up being some of the most heartbreaking news we had every received: Megs older brother, Jaman, had been battling a severe case of the Swine Flu and had just been taken, by ambulence, to the hospital and had most likely passed away.  We hurried home and packed our things and drove the longest one-hour drive of our lives to Centerville.  On that drive we got the news that he had passed away.  We spent that next week with family, packing up J’s things and preparing for the services.  I think we snuck away to Wendy’s or something like that for our celebration, but it didn’t matter that year. . . We miss you J.

Jinx TAKE FOUR:

June 2, 2010.  We were in hot pursuit of breaking the jinx, thus we celebrated a couple weeks early.  TAKE THAT JINX . . . kinda.  We had a gift certificate to the Armstrong Mansion and Megs made the reservations.  We had the night all planned out: Emmalee would have her FIRST SLEEPOVER at Meg’s parent’s house (deep breaths Megan, deep calming breaths), we would have dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, go to a movie (first time with only us two . . . ever), and then back to our room; however, first things first, we checked into our room.  After pulling up, taking our stuff in, giving our information, and checking in, Megs handed the lady our gift certificate.  She looked at it, put in the information and said, “Thank you and enjoy your stay.”  Seeing that we still had nearly $80 remaining, Meg asked for the remainder in a gift certificate.  The young girl looked at us blankly, got on the phone with a manager, got off and said, “Sorry, we don’t do that.” . . . Excuse me!?  You don’t “give change”.  “Um, I could upgrade your stay” . . . “No” we say.  “I am sorry then” she says.  “Here are your keys back.  Don’t book us in.  Where is your manager?” we say.  “She’s out for another couple hours.”  she says.  “We’ll be in touch” we say.

We left completely boiling on the inside, but laughing all the same.  Here we were, trying to outsmart the jinx and we got screwed.  To sum up the rest, we went to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, which was AWESOME.  If you have never been, GO and get the Orange Chicken and REDVELVET CHEESECAKE for dessert.

After dinner, all prepared to perform a little verbal judo on the manager, they agreed to give us back the “change” in a gift certificate and we stayed the night.  All in all, it ended up being a great night.

So, to sum it up.  You can’t totally jinx a jinx, but then again, maybe we don’t want to.  It gives us something good to talk about.  So here is to June 14, 2011.  BRING IT ON!