Vacation: End

The last day of vacation is always sort of melancholy. Formulate in your head what you want to share with others when they ask how your vacation was and hope that the inbox waiting for you at work isn't completely horrible. (I admit I already checked my work e-mail box and only had 163 e-mails which I've whittled down to a mere 100 that I need to answer tomorrow)

It's difficult for me to plan a vacation lately because I feel such a strong pull to use my free vacation time to head home to be with my family. However that in itself sometimes isn't the most relaxing time.

Oh my family was fine this time around with not overscheduling things however it's the beneath the surface stuff I'm talking about...the subtle signs that both your parents are aging at a rapid rate with declining health issues. I know that we don't have any clue what God has in store for our lives. I know that in my heart that He's got some sort of plan. I can't help but grasp on to every moment and hope that I might have a few more hours, days and years with my family.

Mom is heading to the doctor on the 15th after having failed every one of her tests the doctor took last week. We'll know more what that means. All she said was that she failed...isn't that comforting?

Dad is heading back to his cancer doctor in two weeks. That's a routine visit however sitting and listening to him breathe makes me concerned for his health even more than last time. He's gained so much weight and can barely climb stairs without being breathless for a good five minutes to follow. He's grey and sallow and doesn't do much of anything but continue to sit in his chair. There were a multitude of other things that just didn't bode well for my mental state with regard to my folks but I'll leave those off the blog.

I did get to see about an hours worth of a slide show of all of their photos from their trip to Switzerland. While the area was beautiful, the bus tour looked a bit boring to me. Also it looked way too cold for an enjoyable time. I still would love to visit Europe...but probably concentrate on Germany, Italy, maybe Spain, and Greece. Someday that might happen.

So it's off to work tomorrow. I have to admit that I'm sort of dreading it. Why do vacations have to end?

Too Much Alone Time

Okay, so I realize that I've broken my promise to stay off the blog until Sunday. It's not even that I have all that important things to say but the almost 14 hours I've driven over the last week have given me ample time on my own...not connected so to speak. Although I will have to say that if I ever have enough money for frivolous things like an XM radio subscription that is high on my list of things I might consider. The bevy of talk radio and music offerings made the drive through cheddarland much more pleasant.

XM Radio for some reason makes me think of my years at WSU and all of those FCC / Broadcasting rules classes we had and radio production in general. Maybe it was because I spent most of my time flipping between channel 8 - hits of the 80's and channel 156 - Oprah and Friends, where most of the personalities also had their producers talking about the actual behind the scenes production of the show in the course of whatever else they were talking about. (Although boy, there was a whole hour where Rodney and Holly Robinson Peete were talking about potty training - now there's stimulating radio!)

I was also thinking about the movie Pump Up the Volume - not sure if you remember this gem from the 80's staring Christian Slater - the son of the new principal who has a renegade late night broadcast and eventually gets taken down by the FCC.

What made me think about this is there are a few stations on XM that I just don't understand how they get away with swearing and some of the stuff they broadcast. I'm not up on my broadcast law however I would think they are still under some auspices of propriety?

I took the long way home, traveling through winona and up through the small byways of the mississippi river better known as highway 61. That's such a lovely drive although it does add about a whole 1 1/2 hours to the drive (or for me, since I stopped in Winona...almost a day.) Sadly I still had way too much stuff with me so I couldn't roll down the hardtop on the convertible.

I've parted ways with the convertible this evening at the airport. Makes me wonder if maybe I should ditch practicality (I've always driven a sedan) and opt for a 2-door sportier car. The g6 just didn't have enough trunk space for as much stuff as I enjoy carrying however maybe something with a sunroof...

Vacation 7.0 Chicago

Today I spent the day with my good friend from high school Kim and her daughter (and my goddaughter) Nadine. Nadine just turned 12 and wanted to go see the musical Wicked, so Kim and I arranged a surprise to take her to the show and out to dinner and it was a lovely day.

They live in Oak Park just blocks from the el station so we decided to take that downtown which was the best way of doing it. The el dropped us off at Daley Plaza which is only a block away from the theater. Kim was giving me a hard time because I tend to like to be early and we got down there at 1 p.m. so we had about an hour to kill.

Right next to the theater was Girard's popcorn - that popcorn that Oprah raves about so we each got a small bag. It was okay popcorn...the carmel corn was rather tasty but I don't think I need to be shipping it cross country. We had some left over so I placed it in a shopping bag but the people at the door wouldn't let us in the theater with it. We pretty much just shrugged our shoulders and tossed it.

Our seats were up in the balcony which wasn't a terrible place to sit. It's probably best to sit lower than we did to see the shadow work that they do however the tickets were quite a bit more expensive down there and I was fine with where we were at.

They are really sticklers for not taking any photographs in the theater and I got aggressively yelled at for taking a photo of my friends in their seats which I thought was a little excessive. There really weren't any signs up that said you couldn't take photos in the theater and the woman usher pretty much screamed at me that she would take away my camera if I didn't delete the photo I had just taken with my camera. Meanwhile around the theater others were taking photos and not getting yelled at and needless to say - I'm usually a rule follower and I thought her customer service skills needed a bit more work.

The play was lovely. I was a bit concerned about the whole witch thing but really it was more a story about friendship and really made you think about evil and whether generally good people could just be considered evil because they've never been given any other choice by the world. There is a clever interplay between the wizard of oz movie and this story and I rather enjoyed the subtle love story (mostly because it centered around the character that wasn't beautiful and her being chosen to love...I story I rather identify with.)

All in all I was glad I've now seen the musical however I'm not sure I'd pay more than $50 to see it again. I probably will download a few of the songs off itunes.

Then we went to dinner at a restaurant called Winberry's in Oak Park. Kind of a bistro type place and we had dessert across the street at Oberweiss Dairy...yum.

Then the boys wanted to show me their Wii prowess so we watched them play a while and it was off to home.

Top 5: spending time with Kim and Nadine, Wicked, Carmel Corn, ice cream, beautiful chicago day

Here are some photos...

Vacation 6.0 Blast from the past and family

Woke up this a.m. and was invited to have lunch with dad's old boss "Uncle Jim" and his wife Pearl. They are 91 years old and still going strong. Uncle Jim mostly wanted to pick dad's brain about what he still knew about the old place they both used to work and dad really doesn't keep in touch with those people anymore. It was good to see them again as I probably was about 13 or 14 the last time I saw him.

Then we came home and rested a while before heading to my cousin dieter and karen's house for a BBQ with my cousins Brian and Tim and their families (who just arrived today from Oklahoma.) Both Tim and Brian have adorable little girls Raja who was born in April 07 and Kennedy who I think is going to be 3.

Here's some photos of the fun:

Vacation 5.0 Pizza

Today we didn't do much of anything. Mostly because it's raining and I had planned some downtime to paint mom's bench and swing but sadly it's raining. (It's supposed to rain tomorrow too so I don't think mom's swing is going to get painted.)

Mom and I went to breakfast at Walker Brother Pancake House. We then went to Carson's for clearance sales as we needed to get little Raja and Kennedy something small for the howdy / we-know-you-are-already-one-and we haven't met you BBQ we are going to tomorrow.

Carson's had awesome sales and we were able to get each a few outfits for little cash.

Tonight for dinner we are having another favorite:



Lou Malnati's Sausage & Mushroom Pizza.

There is something about the combination of the thick deep dish buttery crust and a thick layer of mozzerella and the combination of flavorful sausage and crushed tomatoes on the top that just makes this my favorite pizza. It's also pretty much ruined me for a lot of other pizzas that others rave as being "the best".

Of course not everyone likes the Chicago style deep dish. For me I think it's the bread. MMMMMMMMM...

Of course you pretty much can only eat one or maybe two pieces of this and you are done.

So TOP 5 today: Pizza, Sales at Carson's, Breakfast with mom, sleeping in until 9 a.m., Jerry is going to upgrade the memory on my computer.

Vacation 4.0 - Childhood Revisited

We've been going to Six Flags Great America since 1976/77. The past few years I haven't made it so I had it in my head to try and go sometime during the vacation. I really didn't want to go by myself however my brother works most weekdays and so the only day we really had available was today.

So after having a quick breakfast with pete, sara and emily we headed to Gurnee.

I'm a big fan of roller coasters. And while I'm not going to blog about every ride we went on - I'll just highlight a few...

SUPERMAN:

This is a ride I've been wanting to go on for about three years but the lines for the ride have been over 3 hours. Conveniently after riding the new Dark Knight Coaster (which was a roller coaster much like Mad Mouse or Mullholland Madness at California Adventure and kind of a let down) Jerry and I headed to this coaster which was next door because the wait time was only about an hour. It's intimidating waiting in line because the roller coaster continuously rides right above your head so you see what it does and you wonder what it will be like. This is a coaster where you are suspended like you are flying on your stomach and let me tell you it was a bit nerve-wracking to be hanging that way waiting for the coaster to begin. It's even more nerve wracking to be riding the coaster that way the entire trip. You do feel a bit like you are flying and at one point the g-forces send you slamming back into the seat when really you think you should be falling forward. It's such a different experience and I have to say that had the lines not been terrible I would have suggested we ride again just so I could get over the fear factor.

Batman: Jerry and I have loved this coaster since I made him ride the front car on our birthday several years ago. It's a suspension rollercoaster and has several twists and loops but it's a smooth ride. I could easily ride this roller coaster again and again...well maybe twice and then I'd need a rest because it does make me feel a little dizzy.

American Eagle: This coaster has been around for YEARS and the tracks sound like it. At some point I often wonder if the coaster will completely fall of the tracks but it still is a good traditional wooden roller coaster.

Demon: What used to be Turn of the Century in the late 70's / early 80's turned into the Demon (one of the first looping roller coasters we ever rode). I don't think they've updated the roller coaster since the 80's - the paint and cars were really peeling and none of the cool light effects in the tunnel were working. Also I got really knocked around in the corkscrew and I didn't like that very much.

And finally (although there were several other roller coasters we went on) Raging Bull. My cousins all raved about this coaster. You are trapped in with just a lap harness and it does have a pretty spectacular drop but I can't say it was my favorite coaster (mostly because it's hard to top Batman!) It was fun - it doesn't go upside down but has a whole lot of stomach dropping drops but not exactly worth the hour wait.

All in all we had a great time...although we used to be able to spend all day and all night riding rides and standing in line, I think we both agreed we are getting a bit older because by about 5 o'clock we both were tired and decided to just head for home.