Current mood:

cheerful

The seven days of break.
I've been stewing over how to talk about all this for days now, and I suppose the time has come.  I'm going to try to just talk now.

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Monday

According to the notice now on my door, my room passed fire safety inspection at 10:20 Monday monring.  As far as I know, I was here for that, so I'm not sure how that could have happened.  I did leave Monday night to go north.  I left myself laundry to do, since I didn't have enough quarters to do all three loads, and I made sure I left myself some clean underwear here so I wouldn't be in an emergency as soon as I got back.

The train ride north was uneventful, and I read through all the CS 273 homework that I had to grade.  We had a delay in Homewood, and we got into the city about 10 minutes late, at 21:45, which doomed me to the 22:30 commuter train to N-ville.  But when I wandered over to Track 8, from which I was expecting the BNSF to leave, there was an Amtrak train sitting there.  Odd.  I'd never seen an Amtrak train on a track that far west.  So I asked a Metra conductor stading around in the station if the next BNSF was due on Track 8.  He told me to board the train on Track 10 right away.  I did so (presenting a ticket when boarding -- again, odd), and learned that the train on Track 10 was the BNSF 21:30 departure, delayed because the Amtrak on Track 8 was blocking it in.  That train eventually left, was again delayed by signals east of Fairview Avenue, and arrived at Naperville a few minutes past 23:00 -- 35 minutes behind schedule, but 30 minutes before I'd been expecting to arrive.

Tuesday

I'd taken some time the day before to study up on the candidates, but still the trip to the polls was a disappointment.  The primary system in Illinois is so frustrating; I wanted to vote in the contested Democratic race for Treasurer and in the contested Republican race for Lieutenant Governor, but that's not possible; I have to pick one ballot or the other for the entire slate.  And in my precinct in DuPage County, the Democratic ballot is almost a joke; there was not a single candidate listed on the back side.  So you have to pick and choose your battles; pick one race you decide is most important, vote in that race, and suffer through whatever else is or is not on the ballot.  The annoyance is at the end of the day when you see Candidate 6 celebrating, and you can't feel responsible either way as a voter, because your voice was not, could not, be heard in that race.  Candidate 23 celebrates as well, and you can know you voted for him, but it still feels disenfranchising.

Frustrating, too, is the knowledge that I dislike both candidates who survived the primary for Lieutenant Governor, but if I wish to vote in the Governor's race in November, the Illinois electoral system says I must also cast an unpalatable vote for Lieutenant Governor.  The candidates are not linked in any way in the Primary, but they are inseparable in the general election.  Perhaps I can cast a write-in vote in November for the gubernatorial candidate of my choice and someone else for Lieutenant Governor, but I still feel disenfranchised.  I would like to propose an amendment to the Illinois Constitution to fix this.

After my mother and I voted, I drove out to Lands' End Inlet in Lombard to look for pants.  I'd wanted some wool dress pants in a dark green, and I didn't want to spend a whole lot for them.  I was willing to go ... well, nevermind what I was willing to spend.  The point is what I did spend, and what I got for it.  What I got were two pairs of these, one in Black and one in Charcoal Grey Heather, both 34 waist/33 cuffed inseam.  They didn't have the Dark Fir Green in the appropriate size, so I left without.  I did get a Pinpoint Oxford in Stone Green, though, which sort of satisfied my Green craving.  And all that for under $50.

Then we went to the Glen Ellyn branch of my bank, but they were closed.  After a stop at Trader Joe's next door, and then at the Jewel across the street, we headed home and I cooked a steak, two pork chops, and some garlic fries.  I do so miss having a kitchen.

Wednesday

I'd planned to try to go to Lemont on Wednesday, but it didn't happen.  After Mom got home from work, we went out to Tiger Direct and got her a mouse for her new laptop, a wireless network card, and something else.  We wound up later at the library, where I verified that her AIM Mail account does actually work (answering the months-old question, "Do you have an e-mail address?").  Since Mom had to work only an afternoon half-day on Thursday, we agreed that she'd take me to Lemont in the monring.

Thursday

From the Well-Laid Plans Dept., noon Thursday rolled around and I was still in Naperville.  My mother had gotten a last-minute call to work in the morning, too, and so that was the end of that.  So I finally got to Lemont that afternoon about 16:00.  I did my taxes (federal and state) after Dad got home, and thought about trying to get some other work done, but it was not to be.  A while later I was asked if I wanted to go out to Meijer, since one of my brothers was in need of pants.  I accepted; little did I know that that innocent-sounding trip to Meijer (where I got a belt and some nose pore strips) would land me at Midway Airport at 23:00 waiting for my sister from Arizona.  We picked them up, and her daughter complained about the cold.  Ha, you're not in Arizona anymore!  Welcome to Illinois.  Don't mind the snow.  (Actually, Vicki was hoping to see snow; we had about an inch accumulation on Thursday night.)

Friday

Awakening Friday to the sound of a female voice across the room saying, "Wow, look at the snow!"  Yeah, not on my list of favorite things when I have to go out in said snow.  Ah well.  I set an alarm for 06:00, having not made it to sleep until after 01:00.  I was hopelessly awake at 05:30.  Ah well.  Showered (using toiletries I have in Lemont -- yay!), dressed, and took my suitcase and dirty clothes (and said toiletries) out to Dad's truck, thereby guaranteeing them safe passage to Elk Grove Village that afternoon without me having to take them.  I'd borrowed my father's Ten-Ride (Zones A-E) that was technically four years expired, hoping that no conductor would suddenly decide to enfore the expiration date, and headed off to the Lemont station on foot.  I got there about 07:05 for the 07:20 train, then rode quietly into the city, coming in on Track 17 (what?  North Concourse?  Huh?) early at 08:07, over two hours before Jenni was due in.

I started wandering the Loop a bit, acquiring a new CTA System Map on the Brown Line side of the Quincy/Wells el station.  I wasn't sure what to do with myself.  I checked out the CVS, the Walgreens, and the Osco all along Jackson Boulevard looking for Sugarless Bubble Yum in Grape without luck (CVS had Strawberry and Original, though).  I spotted a Garrett's on Jackson and noted that I Must Have Some Of That before I leave the Loop.  Then I happened to see someone with a shopping bag from The Container Store.  "Ooh, Container Store," I said.  I decided I had time to run up there, and so made a beeline for the Red Line at State/Jackson.

I wound up at The Container Store in Lincoln Park, just off the North/Clybourn stop on the Red Line (I'd been there before, so I knew the way), just after 09:00, and was thankful they had just opened.  I chatted a bit with the staff there, saying that I figured I'd had time to run up there before my girlfriend's train from Grand Rapids was due in.  "Long distance relationships are hard."  Aww.  Thank you.  That made me feel better, that the salesperson at The Container Store actually seemed to know that.  I did buy myself two more letter trays (wondering how I'd get them home), and then walked out of the store and back toward the el.  Still, I had too much time.  Since I could see the Brown Line tracks, I thought maybe I'd try to catch a train up to Armitage and scout the LUSH store.  Then I thought about tthat again.  I was at North and Halsted, effectively.  I can walk to Armitage; it's only a half-mile north.  So I did, walking up Halsted Street, past Steppenwolf (pausing to admire the pictures of the members of the company on the front of their house; Gary Sinise and John Malkovich are among Steppenwolf's players), all the way to Armitage, and turned left.  The LUSH store, as it happens, is on the corner of Armitage and Fremont, reasonable rock-throwing distance from the Armitage stop on the Brown Line.  LUSH opened at 10:00, and it was still well before that, so I walked down to the Brown Line and headed back to the Loop and to Union Station, arriving at 10:00, still plenty early for the Pere Marquette.

Plenty early indeed.  10:30, then 10:40, then 10:50, then 11:05 read the arrival monitor.  A few of us standing around waiting on the same train, all wondering what is up.  Jenni called at 10:50 to tell me that they had commuter interference on the South Side; I relayed the information to others waiting for the Pere Marquette, since it was more information that Amtrak had.  The train came in about seven minutes later.  Yay!  Jenni had finally arrived.

<-- insert kissy stuff here -->

We headed out the Jackson Street entrance by the river, and started heading toward Wells, with small-town Jenni looking a bit bewildered by the big city around her.  "When you read Latin from Roman times and you see the word "urbs", you can safely assume the meaning is Rome.  When you hear me say "the city", unless I happen to be in New Jersey or something, this is what I mean.  Urbs In Horto, the city in a garden.  Welcome to Chicago."  Hee.  She knew I would enjoy playing Urban Tour Guide, and of course she was right.  I pointed out the building at 233 South Wacker Drive, the tallest building in North America, noting that like every other building in Chicago, it has a real address that looks like any other address (and is as findable as any other real address).  We hiked up the stairs at Quincy/Wells, and as we rode the Brown Line around the Loop, I pointed out the Harold Washington Library, the Art Institute (pointing down Adams), the Carson Pirie Scott store, and other landmarks.  Eeventually our ride left the Loop, and headed up to Armitage, where we got off and went to the now-open LUSH store.

Oooh.  Nice.  Very impressive.  Jenni looked around and smelled things.  I smelled fewer things.  She picked up a shampoo called "I Love Juicy".  It says it's for oily hair.  Um, I have oily hair.  I mentioned this to Jenni several times.  I smelled the shampoo, and mentioned to Jenni several more times about my oily hair.  She promised to let me try it, and so I had her get a larger bottle.  She also got something that I'm not allowed to tell anyone about, but I told her to get it when she hemmed and hawed a bit.  I helped pay for that and the larger bottle of shampoo (and the conditioner she bought, "American Cream"), so while she only budgeted $50 for the trip, we spent about $73.  And we left happy.  She got two kinds of lip balm, Lite Lip and Whipstick, and I wound up trying those as well later, as she kept inadvertently applying them to my lips with her own.

Time was a factor when we got back to the Loop, but I was not letting her not set foot in Marshall Field's State Street store.  So off the el at Randolph/Wabash and in the door.  I got her to take an escalator as far as the second floor, then we took elevators up to 7.  Too much of a queue at the Walniut Room, but she did get to see it.  We had lunch in the café court there on 7, right in the State/Randolph corner of the store, so she had quite a nice view.  (She also took off her jacket and showed me the grey T-shirt she'd talked about earlier, so I had a rather nice view too, especially when she stood up.  But I digress.)  After lunch we went back down to the street, and headed back toward Union Station ... with a slight detour.

I'd read the list of locations when I'd passed the one at 2 West Jackson in the morning.  There's one on East Randolph.  So we went there.  Closed!  "Please visit our store on West Randolph, opening February."  So we walk to West Randolph.  Not Yet Open!  Aack!  So, well, there's one on West Madison, right?  We walked down Dearborn, past Daley Plaza (so she got to see the Picasso), then turned on Madison.  Finally we reached the front of the Sears store at 2 North State and she spotted it -- at 4 East Madison.  Oops.  This store, however, was open!  Bliss.  I got a 12 oz. bag of cheese for myself, and Jenni got herself a 6 oz. caramel.  Then, as time was running short and Jenni was tiring anyway, we grabbed a bus there at Madison/State for the return trip to Union Station.  Woo hoo!  The 157 Streeterville was right there, and it got us to Union Station in a flash, plus a few bobs and weaves.  It wasn't quite the McCormick Place Shuttle, but I think that's mostly because we weren't underground.  But these two drivers definitely went to the same school.

We walked into the Great Hall at the Adams Street end, and Jenni looked overwhelmed by the room, even though it was set up for some private event at 17:45 and didn't have any benches in it as normal.  That got the biggest grin of the day so far from me, looking at her marvel over one of the prettiest rooms in the city.  Then we headed off toward the North Concourse, Track 7.  I'd said I wanted to be on the train about 14:20 for a 14:30 departure; we were about a minute behind that, but still plenty of time.  The train actually confused me a bit, because I'm used to the padded-on-both-sides reversible seats on the BNSF line, and these were the kind you actually flip over.  But since the train wasn't too full, we were able to take four seats, putting all our parcels and stuff on the two across from us and sitting in two by ourselves.  We were heading to Medinah, a station I'd never been to by train but had seen by car a lot, and also which was in E zone, so Dad's ticket was again handy (and accepted).  Snow was lightly falling as we reached Itasca, and started falling harder when we got off the train in Medinah and took refuge under the parking payment slot shelter and waited for my father, who was due there shortly after we were.

Eventually Dad showed up, and he pulled up in the truck.  I loaded our stuff (and myself) in the back seat while Dad came around and hugged Jenni, then loaded her in the front seat, and off we went to the hotel.  Toni was not there, so Dad checked everyone in:  Vicki and her daughters in Room 105 (a smoking room) downstairs, and everyone else in a Family Suite (a non-smoking room) upstairs.  In the suite, we found a front room, a back bedroom, and a side bedroom with two twin beds.  We got the side bedroom, and we moved in and took some time to relax before it was time to get ready for the wedding.

In what seems to be typical disorganization for my family, 19:00 rolled around and no one was ready to start at the wedding.  Jenni and I had gone around placing disposable cameras on the tables, and Jenni got introduced to a few people I already knew.  The only folks at the wedding I really knew were the bride, her son Jerad, my oldest sister Vicki and her daughters, Dad and Toni, Fallon, the twins, and Millie and her daughters Rachel and Danielle.  (Yes, that Danielle.)  We sat at table 1976, which was Dad and Toni, Vicki and an empty seat (Vicki's husband didn't make the trip from Arizona), Millie, Danielle, and Rachel, Bob and Doris Sopher (Vicki and Kim's father and his wife), and the two of us.  I think that's it.  I did have to try to explain who Millie was to Jenni, which I promptly gave up and instead just asked Millie who she was.  (She's Toni's best friend, yes, but I know I've known her (and the rest of the Benda family has known them) longer than my father has been married to Toni, so it was a bit confusing.

The wedding was officated by a retired Cook County Criminal Court Judge, who I thought did a good job, and I told him so.  Then Kim announced "cocktail hour had begun", so we all sat around for a while.  There was an open bar, which is nice even if you don't drink the ethanol; I had a couple sodas with lime, and Jenni drank diet cola.  Dinner followed, featuring "gilled [sic] onions" on a steak, among other fized-menu items.  After this there was ... dancing.

The rest of the evening, well, it would be funnier if you were there, at least at our table.  Kim and Chris started off with a dance by themselves.  Then the DJ asked for the groom's mother and the bride's father, which was fine; both people unambiguously exist and were present.  The third dance, well, that got confusing.  The DJ asked for the spouses of those on the floor to join them.  At our table, this was met with ambiguity.  Toni looked at Doris, and Doris looked at Toni.  The rest of us looked at Doris, and I said, "You're the spouse; you should go."  Feeling that that was not the DJ's intent, Toni got up also, deciding that she and Gary would go as well as Doris and Bob.  Dad saw this and said, "Well, I guess I have to go dance with you," or something to that effect.  (Jenni tells this story better than I do.)  This was met with, "Well, screw you!  I'll find someone else to dance with!" from Toni, and after a few more barbs, Dad countered with, "I took a pain pill specifically for this occasion!", handed me his cane, and went out on the floor after his wife.  After that lots of people danced.  There was a point during dinner when Jenni said that she assumed I'd dance with her at least once.  I answered honestly that I hadn't thought about it.  (Not that I didn't like the idea when I did think about it; I liked it very much.  It just hadn't occurred to me until she mentioned it.)  She seemed taken aback by that, but later it seemed to not matter any more, and (after I got rid of an annoying abdominal pain) we did get to dance twice.  Finally my fears that we wouldn't get to see the bride at all proved unfounded, as she came to our table and greeted Jenni, thanking her for coming and thanking both of us for the present we'd gotten her.  (She apologized for no thank-you notes yet; I said we would expect that to not happen until after the wedding!)  And so, having interviewed the happy bride, we decided to call it a night, and Jenni and I went back up to our room in the suite.

<-- insert more kissy stuff and other stuff that's none of your business here -->

Saturday

When we'd gone to bed, only the twins were in the room. When I got up an hour later to use the restroom, the same, but then Fallon and Toni arrived.  In the morning, I found the twins plus Jerad on the couch, and Dad and Toni in their room, with no Fallon.  As I said, we're not the most organized bunch.  Jenni and I each took a shower, and she left me the LUSH shampoo and conditioner for me to try.  Wow.  I don't think my hair has ever felt that clean; it was like I needed the conditioner to actually restore it a little.  Most impressive.  Then we got dressed and packed up, and all ten of us walked across the parking lot to a restaurant for breakfast.  (Vicki had said, "Everybody plus 1", because she'd counted the nine from the airport on Thursday night and added Jenni.  I'd agreed, but I counted Jenni with the "everybody" and thought we were adding Jerad.  Which we were not, as it turned out.)  Breakfast went fine, though even as far as possible from the smokers (Toni and Vicki), Jenni was bothered.  After breakfast we checked out, then Jenni and I went in Dad's truck up to Gurnee Mills, making a brief stop in Libertyville on the way (where Jenni took a picture).

At Gurnee Mills, we went to the L'Eggs Hanes Bali Playtex outlet, though we did not buy anything there.  I was disappointed that they only had one package of socks for women with big feet.  We did buy some things at Lane Bryant, and at Spencers, and at Payless Shoe Source, and at Black Market Minerals, and at Quencher Smoothies.  (Okay, so most of those are "Jenni bought stuff", but whatever.)  It was a satisfying trip, and yet it underscored how much I would really have liked more time, a constant theme all weekend for obvious reasons.  We left Gurnee about 17:00, Jenni called Jackie to arrange for us to meet in Lemont at 21:00, and then I called my mother.  My mother actually beat us back to Naperville by a matter of about six blocks, and then after much indecision (I hate that, even though I'm part of the problem in a big way), we went out to eat at Omega in Warrenville, where Jenni had actually been before.  Then we went back to the condo, said good-bye to my mother, collected a chocolate bar, and made our way back to Lemont with Dad's truck.

Jenni used my brother's computer to upload the pictures from her camera and burn them onto a CD, and she got to meet and talk with Grandma JJ, as well as meeting Peggy and Jackie.  Then we all got in Jackie's car, me taking very little because we were coming back the next day so I didn't ned my suitcase et al., and headed down to Mazon, Jackie and Jenni in the front and Peggy and Jason in the back.  I'd never been down there before.

The trip was uneventful, and soon we were at the house, where we met Janine.  They gave us Bryan and Steven's room, at the end of the upstairs; Jackie's room was at the opposite end of creation, and Janine and Peggy were both sleeping downstairs.  We sat around and kibbitzed for a while, but we'd had a long day, and we were both tired, so soon it was time to go to bed.

<-- insert more kissy stuff and other stuff that's none of your business here -->

Sunday

<-- insert more kissy stuff and other stuff that's none of your business here -->

When we finally appeared in the morning, Jenni went to shower while Peggy took me around the property.  I got to visit our stuff in the shed, and I also noticed a lot more things that had formerly been in my house in Naperville, like the blue living room couch.  (That one took me a few minutes of stariung at before I placed it.)  Then I showered and dressed, we headed back to Lemont, visited there for another hour or so, and Jackie drove us back to the city.  We got something to eat from a sandwich shop in the station, went down to the Amtrak area, Jenni met up with her seatmate for the trip north, ... and that was it.  She was gone, just like that.  I heard the final boarding call a few minutes later, and then saw the train list as "departed".  I cried enough then; I could have gone out to watch, since it left from a track number ≤ 16, but that would have made it worse.

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So, um, yeah.  That was my week.  Most of it, anyway.  If I think of anything else that needs to be said, I'll try to say it.