Road Trip

So, Jeff and I went to Chicago a couple of weeks ago. We go to Chicago fairly regularly so this is not news. The newsworthy part is that we went alone. ALONE. Sans child. We decided that we were due for a little alone time and Jeff was going up there for business anyway so why not. This was the first time we would have been away from Max overnight since we got him and we were both a little nervous because he's been waking up at night again because he's apparently getting every tooth in his head at one time and it makes him crabby. And by crabby I mean really crabby, like "nothing will make him happy" crabby. Like "go insane in your brain from listening to the whining 24/7" crabby. It's really fun.

Our plan was this. Since Jeff was going up early for work, I was going to drop Max off at grandpa's on Friday morning and then head out. We were only going overnight but by the looks of all the crap I was dragging along with me, you would have thought I was going around the world and by the look on grandpa's face when I hauled all this crap into his living room, I think HE thought we were never coming back. Anyway, the drop went well. Max isn't much of a crier when we leave him and he had plenty of room there to run around so he was pretty happy to be there. After I briefed him on everything I could possible think of that could go wrong, which is A LOT OF STUFF, and after grandpa noticed that his diaper smelled kinda poopy, I left. I know when to make an exit. By this point I was running somewhat behind schedule so I hopped on the highway to make up some time. Unfortunately, I made up too much time because within about 10 minutes of leaving his house, I looked up to see flashing lights behind me. Now, this was rush hour morning traffic, I had a car in front of me, behind me and next to me and while yes, I was speeding, it wasn't THAT fast and I was only really keeping up with the traffic around me. Well, I guess he decided to nab me and while those other jerks sped off to wherever, I was heading to the shoulder. After a few minutes, I was the proud owner of a bright, shiny new ticket. 76 in a 65. THAT IS CRAP. He told me that if I would have been going 1 MPH slower, he probably would have let me go. Why did he tell me that? What point was there? So now I know to go only 10 MPH over the limit, not 11? Is that 1 MPH going to spiral me out of control? Whatever.

After that auspicious start, I was finally off to Illinois for 5 hours of looking at things that are flat. I made it up in good time and soon was pulling into the lovely Courtyard in Schaumburg. Nothing like the wilds of suburbia. Jeff and I met up and headed to IKEA, which was only about 2 minutes away. After a bit there, we went back to the hotel to relax, something we rarely have time to do these days. They had an indoor pool and spa, which was great since it was rainy and about 65 degrees out in AUGUST, so we headed there for some downtime until dinner. There wasn't anyone in the pool area so we thought it would be fun to go from the spa to the pool and back. Jeff said it was invigorating. I said it was EFFING COLD but did it anyway. During one of our dunks in the pool, we decided to swim laps because we had just eaten IKEA pizza and potato chips and wanted to work it off. Ha, just kidding. We don't work it off. Anyway, as I pushed off the side, I briefly opened my eyes to make sure we weren't going to collide and all of a sudden I felt this pull on my eyes. I came up and realized my contacts had been sucked out of my eyeballs. LITERALLY SUCKED OUT. I've been wearing contacts since I was in 4th grade and have been swimming in them almost as long. I've been in many oceans, pools and waterparks and have NEVER lost a contact. Ever. Somehow I managed to lose them both. At once. I could literally feel them rip off my eyeball. I asked Jeff if he could see them floating and after he stopped laughing, he said no. Since I couldn't see anymore, we called it a day and went back upstairs.

We had plans to go to dinner at Roy's, which is downtown, and I was really excited to be eating there. Roy's is a Hawaiian-fusion restaurant and we had eaten there when we were in Hawaii and it was very, very delicious. It's also very fancy so that was our big splurge for the weekend, but the short ribs made it all worthwhile. It was a beautiful night downtown and it was lovely to be out with Jeff and not have to worry about getting home on time or whether someone was going to throw mashed potatoes at my head while I tried to scarf something down. It was also nice to go back to the hotel and sleep in a giant bed with no beeping monitor next to my ear or a dog hogging up valuable space in our queen bed. Unfortunately for Jeff, I'm so used to sleeping close to him that he said he woke up because I had rolled so far on him that he was about to fall off the bed. He kept wondering why I was so excited to sleep in a big bed since I had no intention of actually using the extra space. Old habits die hard.

On Saturday we met up with my friend Gina in Oak Park for lunch. We had planned to go downtown for a bit and then head home, but we had more fun hanging out with her and by this point we actually missed the little bugger so we were on the road back home by 3pm, and in the front door around 8. Max was still up and when we opened the door, I expected him to run up squealing but instead, I flung the door open, he took one look at me, ran back to grandpa and buried his face in his legs. WTF?! Traitor. He finally realized it was us and seemed happy we were home. Grandpa was REALLY happy we were home. REALLY, REALLY HAPPY. Now, this is a man who rides miles on his bike everyday, hikes for fun on the weekends, skis all over the globe and generally does anything active. He was BEAT DOWN by this child and told Jeff it took his back about 4 days before it stopped hurting. He was like "wow, he's really active. You can't turn away for a second and he never stops moving and running around. How do you get anything done?" Welcome to my world, grandpa. Max is a live wire and he does. not. stop. ever. Heal up soon grandpa, because we're looking at the beach next. HA!