a whole decade
Ten years ago, we were all finishing up our IMSA applications. Weird.
We all drag our hungover asses out of bed, and have fruit pizza and mimosas and more ribbon jello. (The mimosas are spilled on the jello at one point. Hilarity ensues.) We don’t have set plans for the day, and as such we lose out on seeing Ernie for lunch. Also, I have convinced myself that we can meet up with Brooke, but she is already in Madison. D’oh.
Eventually, Casie and Jim and I head out to Chicago (after having to come back several times to retrieve things we’d forgotten.) We wander for a bit, going to Starbuck’s and checking out a mall. Mickey calls while we’re in the mall - we’d wanted to get together, but it wasn’t meant to be. I’d called him a couple of days earlier from Champaign, but by this time it was too late to see him there. He was on his way to Chicago, but we had so many people to see that it just didn’t work out. I felt shitty about it, but I couldn’t really talk to him for long, since I kept losing reception and we were going up and down escalators. It sucked. (Sorry, Mickey. I’m an inadvertently bad friend.)
We go to fado, where we meet Ryan, his parents, and his friend Trace (who also taught in Japan with him.) This is mostly Casie’s chance to see him, since I’ve already spent an evening with him, so she sits by him and I hang out at the other end of the table with his parents, whom I love. Everyone seems to be in good spirits, and we have a fun time. Finally, we have to go so we can see Ernie, and everyone says their goodbyes. It’s always hard. Trace says that she was glad to meet me, since she’s heard “so much” about me from Ryan. They both assure me it was all good - I don’t know whether I believe them. Ryan’s folks say they can’t wait to see me next Christmas, and give me big hugs. We set off, once again, into the FRIGIDITY which is Chicago in winter.
We get really freaking lost. We are very late. Finally, we show up at Gunder and Joanna’s. We look at their wedding pictures. I get to meet Ernie’s super-hot new girlfriend, whom I fully approve of. I’m pretty ecstatic that he’s finally found someone who deserves him.
Casie drops Jim off at the Red Line, and she and I crash overnight with JLo, whom I haven’t seen since college. This girl kicks ASS, and I didn’t realize how much I’d missed her until we arrived. (Also, her boyfriend Peter is a serious cutiepie.) Casie and I snuggle on a futon mattress under their tree. I have a lot of really weird dreams, mostly centered around our evening at Chili’s and other possible outcomes of that situation. Ways it could have gone deathly, terribly wrong. My subconscious is apparently very relieved at how everything actually panned out.
I admit it, I’m a hoser. A total, unabashed hoser.
Wanna come visit? I can avenge my own hoserdom!
People do tend to be a bit odd when they return from abroad, do they not? Although some of them may certainly be said to have begun that way. One might suppose that human beings, on the whole at least, can be left rather unchanged by the passage of time.
The anonymous commenter strikes again! (How mysterious. No, really.)
Yes, traveling can change people. However, when you really know someone, you are less likely to be phased by those superficial changes. You are more likely to notice that who they really /are/ hasn’t changed. At least, that’s how I see it.
Hey I’m sorry too, sweet-ums! (Talk about the ultimate multiple crossing of paths…) I’m glad you were having a great time at least. Well that and engaging in much needed rehashing — we all know how important/liberating that can be. Take care!