4ths

It's Tuesday following a very relaxing and all at once exhausting trip to Chicago to visit Craig's family for the 4th of July Holiday. I only say exhausting with regard to the travel itself: United Airlines experienced "computer glitches" Thursday morning at O'Hare, and as luck would have it, we were departing LaGuardia via United to travel to O'Hare! Of course! But, we endured it and wound up safely in Chicago after just a handful of hours of delay (we were quite lucky considering the number of canceled flights into and out of O'Hare!) Thursday night, Craig's mom served us lasagna and salad and garlic bread, and it was nice to eat someone else's homecooked food (particularly since her lasagna was awesome!) Friday morning we woke up refreshed, ate breakfast (eggs, bacon, English muffins, coffee) and Craig's dad drove us to the Southshore train station so that Craig and I could travel into Chicago for the day/night. It was really nice, just Craig and I wandering the clean streets of downtown Chicago, eating Chicago-style pizza for lunch, indulging in 312 (the latest Goose Island brew) seeing the sights and shooting photographs. We saw a lot, stopped in a few bars, ate dinner at a place off the Southport stop and headed back to the train only after seeing some city fireworks. Saturday morning we awoke to the find Kara, Ben, Brady and Jake (who had arrived the evening before while we were in the city), and we suited up for the Whiting Parade, a Whiting July 4th tradition. It was spitty, but not too intolerable, and following that was the barbecue, also awesome! Erica, Dave, Hannah and Lauren had arrived in time for the parade, too, and I can't explain how much I just adore the children. I love being familiar to them, and I love having them hugging on me. Such sweet ones. Sunday morning, Kara made us this terrific "Dutch Baby"-esque recipe for breakfast, which was a light souffle bowl filled with strawberries, blueberries, bananas and topped with a light bit of honey, which she told us was straight from the bees from one of her co-workers (how cool would it be to have bees??? I know!) and we spent some of the afternoon with them before they packed up and headed back to Indianapolis. Sunday evening, Craig and his parents and I traveled to Dustin and Fiona's in Wrigleyville for another barbecue; for this, Dustin grilled "beer can chicken," which was unbelievably great, and we sat outside on Dustin and Fi's cute patio, sipping drinks and chatting. Then Monday we woke up to travel our separate ways: Craig was called to Indianapolis for a few days to work on what we hope will be our future New York work assignment, and I suffered an insufferable canceled United flight, stood in a million-person long line at a gate for hopeful re-assignment, lucked out and landed a 7.25 flight (first class!) back to LaGuardia (despite how much you irritated me this weekend, United, thanks for accommodating me!) And now I'm home, sans Craig, roasting chicken breasts, planning to catch up on DVR'ed shows and eating a ridiculously healthy dinner before turning in. Things are really good, except for the office, which is a ghost town right now, and boring!, but this too shall pass and soon enough we will learn of our fate which we so hope will find us remaining in New York City for a couple of years longer.*Meanwhile, Michael Jackson died, which was unsettling for pop rock in general, but the media has overplayed it to the point that Who Cares Anymore! Seriously, we need the media to quickly close this chapter and move along to something more earth-shattering, like Who is doing something about our coked out economy and when are things going to look up for those of us still here. Etc.*Hasty post, but have many things on the agenda before the chicken is done, like emptying the dishwasher and figuring out what's excessive in the fridge that can be discarded.*I got to talk to Craig for almost an hour earlier tonight, and his voice is so comforting, despite our brief separation. I miss my best friend but am glad he is there getting good things done for us. :)