We Go Hard

You know that Jay-Z song that's like "Brooklyn we go hard, we go hard..."? If you didn't already know it, you may have heard it used in the trailer for the new Jackie Robinson movie recently. Anyway, Chuckie and I like that song and we randomly sing it for no reason sometimes ever since we saw the Jackie Robinson movie. And last week, we sang it a lot, but with our own lyrics. When I sang it, I sang "Chuckie, we go hard, we go hard..." and when he sang, it was "Rachel, we go hard, we go hard..." Why, you might be asking yourself? Because last week in Kentucky, WE WENT HARD.  And by this I mean we ran, nonstop, all day and all night, every day. We packed our days and nights like we usually do when visiting home, but this time we did it on no sleep. It'll probably take me a few posts to sum up our trip, so I've decided to make this post just "Weekend 1."

Last Thursday, we took the redeye from Seattle to Cincinnati. Big mistake. First, we almost didn't even get on the plane because of an issue with an incompetent Delta employee who for some reason unbooked our flight for us and booked us a one way ticket from Cincy to Seattle when Chuckie called to change a flight time for our return flight earlier in the day. I won't even go into the details because it's long and stupid but basically some saint of an employee fixed it for us last minute and somehow got us back on the redeye flight right in time.

So Friday morning we arrived in Louisville on what is also known as Oaks Day. Schools are closed, many businesses close, and if they don't- their employees take a sick day or vacation day. It is basically like an extra holiday. If you're not familiar with the Kentucky Derby and horse racing- Oaks Day is basically the same thing but the fillies race in the Oaks race. Oaks Day is all about the ladies. So after we picked up our rental car in Cincy, we drove home and went straight to Chuckie's sisters' house to see the family before they headed off to the track. Immediately we were eating donuts, catching up with his sisters and brothers-in-law and drinking Bloody Marys. Let me remind you that at this point, I had slept 0 hours and Chuckie had slept MAYBE 1 hour. Then we were off to his dad's house where we would be staying for the week. After visiting with him for a bit, we both fell asleep for about an hour and a half. Then it was showers and off to my parents' house to visit and watch the Oaks race. My sister was heading to the Barnstable Brown Party to take pictures for her job, so we took pictures of her all dressed up before she left. She sent me the following pictures later that night from the party.

Yep. That's my sister with Terry O'Quinn and Emilio Estevez, or as I like to call them, John Locke and Gordon Bombay.

Then we went to El Nopal to meet up with more family after Oaks. Then we went to a bar in St. Matthews to meet up with friends. We went home around 3 am.

Saturday morning, also known as Derby Day, also known as the best day of the year to be in Louisville, KY, also known as Day Two With Hardly Any Sleep, we got up and headed out to pick up our Best Man Branden and head to the track, after a much needed Starbucks stop, of course. We met up with family and rode into the backside of the track. (I wrote about the backside in last years' Derby post on the blog so I'm not going to go into that again.) The backside was so much fun, as always, but OF COURSE, it rained all day. (I think I say "of course" too much.) But that didn't stop us from spending some QT with the fam, eating good food, betting on every race, losing every race, and checking out the Derby horses in their barns and on their walk over to the Paddock before the race. For all who have asked why we don't dress up and wear fancy clothes and hats to the backside, well, just take a look at these pictures and you'll see why. Rain and mud are much more manageable in jeans and rainboots.

 

 

 

 

 

After the main event was over, we left the track and Chuckie, Branden and I drove out to my Uncle Tony's house where my family and some of our friends were wrapping up the annual Hagan Derby Party.  It was fun, if only for a short time, mainly because we finally got to meet Baby Grayson! He was just as chubby and cute as I thought he'd be!

Here's where you think I might say then we went home. But no. We went out to a bar again. My BFF Lauren was in town with her family and fiance for Derby and they were leaving Sunday morning so this was the only chance we had to see them. And then we stayed out until 3 am. Again. But it was worth it.

 

Sunday morning, Chuckie and I had plans to see his older sister, Shawn, and her family off before they left town, then meet our friends at Wild Eggs (my FAVORITE) and then go to church. But when I woke up after 5 hours of sleep, I felt like I'd been hit by a truck and a little like I might barf. I told Chuckie I needed to go back to sleep and miss everything and then I cried. I'm not sure I've ever been so tired it made me cry. So I went back to sleep and Chuckie, AKA the robot who needs no sleep, went and did all of those things without me. I have no idea how he did it.

The rest of Sunday was pretty restful. We went to my BFF Liz's house for a cook-in (a cookout that was pushed inside because of rain), got to hang out with Baby Grayson some more, and then went to my parents' house to hang with them and my cousin and her family (who are from New Jersey and were also in town for Derby) before heading home to try to get to bed before 3 am.

And that was just the first 3 days.  Like I said, WE GO HARD.