Saturday, December 23, 2006

welcome to chicago

It was 3am when we landed, and we still had a three and a half hour drive in front of us. Luckily, neither of us were responsible for the driving. Before the (second) trip began, our destination being Morton, IL, I got my first "Oasis" experience. Here in the Mid-West, is Illinois considered Mid-West?, they have these stops along the freeway that look like an overpass but instead of being a bridge for cars, it's a covered mini-mall-food-court complete with Starbuck's, McDonald's, and others restaurants, and oh yeah, a gas station. Unfortunately for us, the only thing open at, now 4am, was McDonald's and nothing looked too appealing even at that hour.

The drive continued with the occasional conversation which, like it always does, seems to always end with no distinguishable, yet mutually agreed upon signal.

Next stop was Judy's, a little diner with old metal signs surrounding the eating area and all for sale with what must be a holiday discount. I had eggs and hashbrowns and a hot chocolate. Our waitress was very nice.

When we reached our destination, our in-laws house, I went upstairs and went fast to sleep.

Since then I've played a round of disc golf on my first Mid-West 18 hole course, watched two movies, three episodes of Grey's Anatomy, played two games of Carcassonne (look it up, it's a great game), sat through three present openings, a church service, and washed the same dishes about three times.

In Summary: I love my brother and sister-in-law. They are great people to be around. I'm not sure if it feels like whatever Christmas is supposed to feel like, but it does feel like family. I miss my family and wish I could be with them, but this is a good alternative. I'm not sure if I'm ready to staff Urbana, but here we go. I think I've come up with a good New Year resolution, but I'll post that later.