Chi-town with Kay, a reprise

I'm now a few hours away from making the trek to the airport with my carry-on only (mission accomplished!) for my very short stint out of town, and you'd think in a situation like that it wouldn't be difficult to pack as few things as possible, but my winter coat weighs 15 pounds. Naturally I'm already missing all my friends and spending NYE with them, but sometimes you just have to leave your self-designated nest and take a chance on something else. That said, I'm a big baby, and knowing that the neighborhood cafe-next-door won't be next door for the next 3 days makes me feel terribly displaced. I guess this place just grows on ya. Like a beautiful financial parasite.

3 pm. JW and I are sitting in an empty terminal, drinking beers and eating smuggled sandwiches from a neighborhood market - a last hurrah to what I'm leaving behind for now. Basically what we'd be doing on any afternoon off work. So far so good.

11 pm Chicago time. we landed 15 minutes early thanks to the weather, which gave me 15 additional minutes to undergo a complete transformation from casual-Monday-to-airport-friendly clothes to something more NYE appropriate. let me tell you, i now know how a truck stop hooker feels. not doing that again.

1 am. we ALMOST made the midnight call - missed it by 10 minutes and spent it watching fireworks over the lake in the cab instead - then i proceeded to promptly jump out of the cab and stomp around in the snow like a little kid. Mission accomplished!